Militarized peace: understanding post-conflict violence in the wake of the peace deal in Colombia

Abstract

After more than 50 years of war, in 2016, the Colombian government signed a historic peace accord with the country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Although the cessation of hostilities between the rebel group and the government is a monumental step, violence remains rife in the country. By drawing attention to the correlation between neoliberal economic development in the country and militarism, this paper sheds light on several structural issues that have been left potentially unresolved by the peace negotiations, each with the potential to ignite further violence. We introduce the concept of militaristic neoliberalism to argue that there is a fundamental link between Colombia's neoliberal development and a culture of militarism, which relies on gendered and racialized constructions of 'self' and 'other', that exacerbate structural inequalities and severely hampers prospects for achieving peace for many of Colombia's citizens post-conflict.

La historia del conflicto armado colombiano y del paramilitarismo narrada por estudiantes: silencios y tergiversaciones alrededor de una historia controversial

“…variable integral del conflicto -que sigue estando vigente en la actualidad-, se suman una serie de problemáticas económicas y sociales vinculadas a un tipo de desarrollo capitalista que, en medio del avance de economías legalesganadería, agroindustria, minería-e ilegales -narcotráfico-, alentó y sigue promoviendo disputas violentas por territorios estratégicos ubicados en su mayoría en zonas rurales (CNMH, 2018;GMH, 2013;MEGER;SACHSEDER, 2020); lucha que ha tenido como principales víctimas a campesinos, indígenas y afrodescendientes, quienes de forma sistemática han sido asesinados, despojados y desplazados por fuerzas estatales, paraestatales y guerrilleras. En este contexto, la defensa a ultranza a cargo del Estado y grupos criminales, de los privilegios de ciertos sectores de la sociedad que se han vistos beneficiados de este modelo, se ha traducido en la represión y aniquilación de distintas expresiones políticas y sociales proclives a impulsar desde la defensa de los Derechos Humanos y la búsqueda de una sociedad más justa, transformaciones en el "orden" vigente.…”

Cleared for investment? The intersections of transnational capital, gender, and race in the production of sexual violence and internal displacement in Colombia’s armed conflict

“…It is thus of utmost importance to produce critical knowledge that disputes classical understandings of war, political violence, and global capitalism. The next section provides a critical reading of the relationship between Colombia's history of colonialism and the war, the relevant actors, and the neoliberal economic restructuring that had to be enforced through reliance on militarism and enhanced security measures (Meger and Sachseder 2020).…”

“…While Mbembe (2001, 75) has focused on the political economy of the "African postcolony," the insight that there may be a direct link between "deregulation and the primacy of the markets … and the rise of violence and the creation of private military, [or] paramilitary" speaks to Colombia's armed conflict and specifically to the development of paramilitarism. The FARC are also connected to the struggle over resources but notlike the paramilitaries in the interest of a political-economic elite (for example, global corporate actors) (Hanson 2008;Meger and Sachseder 2020). The 1990s also coincided with an increase in violence against the marginalized in areas with geostrategic value given their wide biodiversity and proximity to natural resources.…”

“…Beyond that, paramilitary forces reflect the construction of a postcolonial state rooted in hyper-masculinity and militarism (Meger and Sachseder 2020;Rojas and Meltzer 2005), as recognized by Theidon (2009, 27), who traced a clear distinction between the appeals of different armed groups for men in terms of gender and class. While the Colombian armed forces promoted enlistment in the military as an opportunity for social mobility, and, as in many other countries, tied being a soldier to the concept of citizenship, former members of the FARC said that they joined the group because they "lived in a zone controlled by an armed group and entering the ranks was quasi-natural" (Theidon 2009, 27).…”

“…These entities respectively contract paramilitaries to outsource sexual violence as part of a strategy of displacement to clear land for the implementation of mega-projects (such as those by large companies), for the cultivation and trade of drugs, and for maintaining the state's own authority/power and position in the global market. Paramilitaries prove particularly suitable to do this labor because they are part of a process of rentier economic expansion based on the exploitation and appropriation of land (Richani 2012) and reproduce a particular political economy of hyper-masculinity that naturalizes violence against women (Meger and Sachseder 2020;Payne 2016;Theidon 2009). They are accused of more than 60 percent of the incidents of sexual violence (Holmes and de Pineres 2011;Meger and Sachseder 2016).…”