Rooted in Violence: Civil War, International Trade and the Expansion of Palm Oil in Colombia

Maher, David

doi:10.1080/13563467.2014.923825

Cited by 46 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Advancing to Arauca en masse in August 2001, the paramilitaries’ expansion into the department preceded that of the public armed forces, a common trend in Colombia's conflict (Leech :23; WOLA :3; Verdad Abierta ; Maher ). Although operating across Arauca, the AUC established its strongest presence in Tame (Dudley ; Sierra ), as well as Cravo Norte, Fortul, and Puerto Rondón (Sierra ; WOLA :3; Amnesty International :33).…”

Section: The Department Of Araucamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Fatal Attraction of Civil War Economies: Foreign Direct Investment and Political Violence, A Case Study of Colombia

Maher

2015

Int Stud Rev

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Civil war acutely inhibits economic growth, according to a prominent set of civil war literature.However, recent scholarship observes that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), considered a central vehicle of growth, is entering countries with internal armed conflicts unabated.Furthermore, some civil war economies exhibit substantial increases in FDI during conflict.According to this scholarship, FDI enters conflict zones in spite of violence. This article contrastingly adopts a critical framework acknowledging the often violent characteristics of globalised capitalism. By analysing Colombia's oil industry (the country's largest sector of FDI), this article suggests that civil war violence can create conditions that facilitate FDI inflows. More specifically, this article posits that violence perpetrated by armed groups sympathetic to the interests of the oil sector -namely, the public armed forces and right-wing paramilitaries -have facilitated FDI in Colombia's oil sector. In particular, processes of forced displacement and violence against civilian groups have served to protect economically important infrastructure and have acquired land for oil exploration. Moreover, civilian groups deemed inimical to oil interests have been violently targeted. By using disaggregate-level data on the conflict in Arauca, an important oil producing region of Colombia, this case study indicates that intensifying levels of civil war violence in areas of economic interest are followed by increases in oil production, exploration and investment. 1 I would like to thank Doug Stokes, Ruth Blakeley, Christopher Cramer, Hugh Miall, Claudia Cruz Alvarez and the anonymous reviewers for their feedback and suggestions.

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Section: The Department Of Araucamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Fatal Attraction of Civil War Economies: Foreign Direct Investment and Political Violence, A Case Study of Colombia

Maher

2015

Int Stud Rev

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“…110-111). In other regions, the AUC have wrested control of lands through which pipelines for British Petroleum, Total, and Triton pass (Richani, 2013), and have been integral to the growth of the palm oil industry (Maher, 2015). The collusion of interests between paramilitaries, multinationals, and the state have led Richani to conclude that 'the concerns of multinational corporations intersect with the local war-system actors in their areas of operations' (Richani, 2013, p. 112) and implicate those corporations in massacres perpetrated against local populations considered 'guerrilla sympathizers'.…”

Section: Outsourcing State Violence To Paramilitariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The collusion of interests between paramilitaries, multinationals, and the state have led Richani to conclude that 'the concerns of multinational corporations intersect with the local war-system actors in their areas of operations' (Richani, 2013, p. 112) and implicate those corporations in massacres perpetrated against local populations considered 'guerrilla sympathizers'. Thus, the era of neoliberal development was the golden age of paramilitarismo, facilitated by the accelerated growth of narco-trafficking and the construction of FDI mega-projects in locations close to natural resources (Oslender, 2007;Maher, 2015;Maher & Thomson, 2011).…”

Section: Outsourcing State Violence To Paramilitariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The armed conflict uses the strategy of displacement to empty these lands that they need in order to develop their macro-and mega-projects. (Oslender, 2007, p. 759) David Maher finds empirical evidence of the relationship, for example, between the violence perpetrated by armed forces and paramilitaries and the expansion of the palm oil industry, which is dominated by MNCs in Colombia (Maher, 2015). Examining paramilitary and state-led violence in Meta, Maher concludes that this violence has been useful for clearing and securing areas for the expansion of the palm oil sector, and enforcing social conditions conducive to neoliberalism, including reducing labour costs and facilitating precariousness of labour conditions.…”

Section: Paramilitaries' Violence As Primitive Accumulation In Colombmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Meger

Sachseder

2020

Globalizations

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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.

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“…Research from countries such as Sierra Leone, Colombia and Ghana has shown that large areas of land and forest traditionally used by indigenous peoples have been expropriated (Yengoh & Armah, 2015;Maher, 2014;Schoneveld et al, 2011). This phenomenon is also particularly frequent in South-East Asian countries with weak land tenure regimes (Hall, 2011;Prachvuthy, 2011).…”

Section: Negative Impact Of Palm Oil Agribusiness On Indigenous Peoplementioning

confidence: 99%

Indigenous Peoples’ Struggle for Secure Land Tenure in the Philippines: Case Study of Higaonon Tribe in Opol, Mindanao

Drbohlav¹,

Hejkrlík²

2017

ASS

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Indigenous peoples worldwide struggle for control over land and natural resources against encroachment of state interests, external development and commercial pressures such as agribusiness, dams, logging and mining. Their battle to protect land and natural resources is at the same time the struggle to preserve indigenous culture and traditions often inextricably linked to the land itself. The Philippine Indigenous Peoples Rights Act recognizes the indigenous peoples' rights to their ancestral lands and domains and offers a way of improving their land tenure security. The article employs case study design to illustrate the implementation gap between the rights of indigenous peoples in law and practice and the role different stakeholders play in securing indigenous peoples' land tenure and dealing with palm oil agribusiness and mining industries' interests in ancestral domains on the case of Higaonon tribe in Misamis Oriental province, Mindanao. The methodology for data collection was focus group discussions and key informant interviews with representatives of tribal leaders and members, non-government organizations and government bodies. Our results indicate that conflicting laws and mandates of various government bodies and lack of coordination between them, as well as lack of resources and political will to implement the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act are important factors behind slow issuance of ancestral domain titles. At the same time, we show that significant factor in the land tenure insecurity of indigenous peoples is disunity within the tribe and conflicting interests of its members and clans used by companies to further enhance their business interests.

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Rooted in Violence: Civil War, International Trade and the Expansion of Palm Oil in Colombia

Abstract: Internal armed conflict severely inhibits

Cited by 46 publications

References 44 publications

The Fatal Attraction of Civil War Economies: Foreign Direct Investment and Political Violence, A Case Study of Colombia

The Fatal Attraction of Civil War Economies: Foreign Direct Investment and Political Violence, A Case Study of Colombia

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

Indigenous Peoples’ Struggle for Secure Land Tenure in the Philippines: Case Study of Higaonon Tribe in Opol, Mindanao

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