Violent Democratization

Leah Carroll

Description

In Violent Democratization, Leah Anne Carroll analyzes peasant and rural worker mobilization, as well as elite reaction, in Colombia's war zones over a period of twenty-five years and across three regions. Due to Colombia's long history of electoral democracy coinciding with weak state institutions, armed insurgencies, strong social movements, and violent responses from elites and the state, Carroll presents Colombia as a clear-cut national case of "violent democratization." Relying primarily on her interviews with leftist and social movement activists, elected officials, and some elites, as well as on electoral data and archival sources, Carroll reconstructs the political history of key county governments, providing a detailed account of the struggles for local power between elites, on the one hand, and rural agriculturalists and workers, on the other.

Carroll analyzes the ways in which the tactics of social movements and elites shifted as national political trends moved from greater political freedom, rapid decentralization, and peace overtures toward guerrilla groups characteristic of the 1980s and early 1990s, to the reversal of these trends and the major escalation of armed conflict and U.S. military aid thereafter. In all three regions, peasant, worker, and neighborhood movements, aided by leftist elected officials, initially gained significant victories. Their successes provoked a violent elite counteroffensive against activists, involving both military and elite-supported paramilitary forces. In response, however, a second wave of activism promoted human rights demands and sought international support to confront the violence of both the Right and the Left.

Within these commonalities, Carroll's three regional case studies (Uraba, the Middle and Lower Caguan Valley, and Arauca, producing bananas, coca, and oil, respectively) demonstrate how geographical location and the unique characteristics of the activist movements and regional elites (plantation owners, oil companies, cattle ranchers, and the military and paramilitary forces themselves) shaped each movement's tactics, unity, and success.

Sujets

• Political Ideologies
• Political Science
• Urabá
• General officer
• Peace
• Latin America
• General
• Democracy
• Colombia
• Arauca
• Paix
• 1990
• 1980

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268076924
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 11 Mo

Extrait

VIOLENT DEMOCRATIZATION

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VIOLENT DEMOCRATIZATION Social Movements, Elites, and Politics in Colombia’s Rural War Zones, 1984 – 2008 = L E A H A N N E C A R R O L L

University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana

Copyright © 2011 by University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved

Publishedin the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carroll, Leah Anne. Violent democratization : social movements, elites, and politics in Colombia’s rural war zones, 1984/2008 / by Leah Anne Carroll. p. cm. — (From the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-268-02303-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-268-02303-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Democratization — Colombia. 2. Violence — Colombia. 3. Political violence — Colombia. 4. Social movements — Colombia. 5. Elite (Social sciences)— Political activity — Colombia. 6. Colombia — Rural conditions. 7. Colombia — Politics and government —1974 – I. Title. JL2881.C37 2011 986.106'35 — dc22 2010033409

0 he paper used in tHis publicatiOn meets tHe minimum requirements Of tHe Ameîcan NatiOnal StanàDFôr IoatiOn Sciences-Peanence Ô Paper fOr Pînted Libây Materials, ANSI 39.481984

This book is dedicated to the political activists in rural Colombia’s war zones, subsequently killed by political violence, who generously contributed interviews on which present chapters 2, 4, and 6 and chapter 4 of the dissertation from which this book is derived were largely based.

Urabá Edilma Moreno (UP) Manuel Benítez Pitalúa (UP) Arsenio Córdoba (UP) Pedro Germán (Esperanza, Paz y Libertad) Oliverio Molina (UP) Oswaldo Olivo (UP) Ramón Castillo (UP)

San Alberto Roberto Ardila (UP) Manuel “Mañé” Cabrera (UP) Edgar Canchila (UP) Francisco “Pacho” Cardona (UP) Jairo Cruz (AD M-19)

Arauca Luís “Lucho” Mayusa Prada (Polo Democrático)

Caquetá Aníbal Nuñez Charry (Liberal)

c o n t e n t s

List of Illustrations ix

List of Abbreviations xi

Acknowledgments xiii

o n e Introduction 1

t w o Urabá in the Reform Period: Social Movement Gains with High Violence 53

t h r e e The Counterreform Period in Urabá: Decimation of the Left, Right-Wing Unionism, and Transnational Human Rights Alliances 106

f o u r The Caguán in the Reform Period: Negotiated Peace and Social Movement Gains, Followed by Defeat of the Left 121

f i v e The Counterreform Period in the Caguán: FARC Belligerence, Renewed Military Attacks, and a Revived Settlers’ Movement 158

s i x Arauca in the Reform Period: Pacted Peace and Social Movement Gains 177

viii

Contents

s e v e n Arauca in the Counterreform Period: Human Rights Movements versus Selective Recentralization 228

e i g h t Conclusion 274

Notes 326

Bibliography 385

Index 427

1.1. 1.2.

1.3.

1.4.

1.5.

2.1.

2.2.

2.3. 3.1. 4.1.

4.2.

5.1. 6.1. 6.2.

6.3.

i l l u s t r a t i o n s

FIGURES

Regions Affected by Guerrilla Actions, Late 1980s 12 Map of Colombia, with Case Study Counties and Leftist Counties, 1988 –1990 24 Phases of Colonization in Colombia, Nineteenth Century to 1990s 26 Determinants of Regional Variation in Balance of Power, Reform Period 44 Determinants of Variations in Regional Outcome, Counterreform Period 47 Urabá in Regional, National, and World Context, 1980s and 1990s 52 Repression and Left Electoral Success in Apartadó, 1984 –1992 78 Armed Groups in Urabá as of 1991 80 Political Violence in Apartadó, 1993 – 2007 108 Map of Caquetá Showing Phases of Colonization through 1990 120 Repression and Left Electoral Success in Cartagena del Chairá 135 Political Violence in Cartagena del Chairá, 1993 – 2008 161 Map of Arauca, 2005 176 Repression and Left Electoral Success in Arauca County, 1984 –1992 188 Repression and Left Electoral Success in Arauquita, 1984 –1992 189

ix