Institutions, Military Policy, and Human Rights in Colombia

Abstract

Resumen En Colombia el derecho disciplinario militar (DDM) cumple una función impor-tante en la promoción y protección de los Derechos Humanos, por lo cual es perti-nente verificar los antecedentes históricos, la situación actual del DDM y cómo este coadyuva a la mejora continua de los DD. HH. en las fuerzas militares, en especial, en el fortalecimiento de tales derechos al interior del Ejército Nacional. Palabras clave: derecho disciplinario militar (DDM), justicia penal militar (JPM), transversalización, poder preferente.

Contesting double displacement: internally displaced <i>campesinos</i> and the social production of urban territory in Medellín, Colombia

“…While the comunas have been essential for the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of displaced campesinos, offering a space of belonging, they are also stigmatized zones. Due to its informal nature, the absence of state authority is filled in by other non-state actors, like combos [criminal gangs] and paramilitaries, who recreate versions of state territoriality (Ballvé, 2012). Drawing invisible borders has resulted in another form of rescaling conflict territory since many urban paramilitaries were once armed actors in the countryside.…”

“…With over 7 million people displaced since 1985, at the end of 2018 Colombia currently has the largest number of internally displaced people in the world (UNHCR, 2019). The primary cause of displacement is the more than 50year civil conflict between left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, and the Colombian military, who are all vying for territorial control (Bejarano and Pizarro, 2005;Avilés, 2001). The majority of the battles were waged in the countryside, which put small-scale farmers, or campesinos, directly in the path of the conflict and, as a result, they were direct and indirect targets of displacement.…”

Bases, Bullets and Ballots: the Effect of U.S. Military Aid on Political Conflict in Colombia

“…In contrast, we use …ner-grained within-country variation covering over 900 municipalities, and isolate exogenous variation in aid disbursement, which facilitate cleaner identi…cation of the political consequences of military aid. 5 A larger body of work has examined the e¤ect of economic aid on civil con ‡ict, spurred in part by the theoretical notion that aid increases the value of capturing the state (Grossman 1992). Two recent empirical analyses in this area are Crost et al (forthcoming) and Nunn and Qian (forthcoming) which examine the impact of development aid and food aid, respectively.…”

“…ing explicit assassination of civilians and political leaders, have led other authors to argue that the Colombian government's ties to these groups undermines the legitimacy of the state (Watson 2000); and that …nancial support from the U.S. promotes political repression (Avilés 2001) and strengthens undemocratic elements within Colombian society (Delacour 2000). In addition, paramilitary involvement in the drug trade indicates that strengthening this group is at odds with the United State's counter-narcotics objective (Stokes 2001), while the very presence of a non-state armed group controlling territory weakens the Colombian state's monopoly on the legitimate use of violence.…”

Democracy in Progress in Contemporary Brazil: Corruption, Organized Crime, Violence and New Paths to the Rule of Law

“…Also Colombia is in a state of virtual civil war: the state does not have the monopoly of the use of force and does not control all national territory, while paramilitary and guerrilla groups are accused of being involved with the drug production and trade. (Avilés, 2001;Machado, 2001;Arrieta & all, 1991;Ramirez & all, 2005); In a first impression, this bears no similarity to Brazil. What is similar is that both countries present very high homicide rates.…”