Between the Guerrillas and the State: The Cocalero Movement, Citizenship and Identity on the Colombian AmazonMaría ClemenciaRamírez (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011)

Cocaine: From Coca Fields to the Streets

“…These dynamics shape people's everyday lives not just locally, but also have wider implications for the state. They deepen the disconnect between central governments and citizens at the margins, and perpetuate the state's unequal treatment of parts of the citizenry (Ramírez 2011). Decentering the state and shifting our attention to the borderlanders' marginalized voices reveal experiences and practices that remain hidden other wise and reduces ideological biases in our analy sis (see Horkheimer 1969;Nugent and Asiwaju 1996;Krause and Williams 1997).…”

“…Until recently, the impact of the illicit drug economy on indigenous farming communities has rarely been examined by scholars. While some scholars have researched the drug economy in agricultural communities, some of which may have been indigenous, they have not focused on indigenous identity (for example, Sanabria 1993;Ferro 1999;Ramírez 2011). Earlier examples of ethnographic work that highlighted indigenous communities and illicit crop cultivation include Field's (1994Field's ( , 1996 work in Colombia; and in geography, Steinberg, Hobbs, and Mathewson (2004).…”

Explosiveness: Territories of war and technoscientific practices in Colombia

“…After the negotiations’ failure in 2002 and the institution of the Política de Seguridad Democrática (democratic security policy) during Álvaro Uribe Vélez's presidential tenure, territories in Caguán became the epicenter of counterinsurgency offensives. The policy centered around the annihilation of the leftist guerrillas and the dismantling of narcotics production, including eradication of coca leaf crops (Ramírez, 2011). To safeguard their campsites, protect coca plantations, ensure territorial control, and attack local infrastructure, FARC‐EP, alongside other rebel armed groups, increased their use of improvised explosive devices.…”

The Narrative Construction of State (il)Legitimacy in Colombia's Peace Laboratory1,2

“…Ex‐coca farmers repeatedly emphasized that they grew coca because it was the only crop they were able to sell, assigning blame to the state for its lack of investment in the region and strategically justifying their calls for state investment (Theidon 2013). In doing so, they drew on nationwide public narratives of state absence that have long been invoked by coca‐producing communities as the normative basis for claims on state resources (Ballvé 2020; Ramírez 2011; Serje 2005).…”