Frontier Effect

Teo Ballve

Description

In The Frontier Effect, Teo Ballve challenges the notion that in Uraba, Colombia, the cause of the region's violent history and unruly contemporary condition is the absence of the state. Although he takes this locally oft-repeated claim seriously, he demonstrates that Uraba is more than a case of Hobbesian political disorder.Through his insightful exploration of war, paramilitary organizations, grassroots support and resistance, and drug-related violence, Ballve argues that Uraba, rather than existing in statelessness, has actually been an intense and persistent site of state-building projects. Indeed, these projects have thrust together an unlikely gathering of guerilla groups, drug-trafficking paramilitaries, military strategists, technocratic planners, local politicians, and development experts each seeking to give concrete coherence to the inherently unwieldy abstraction of "the state" in a space in which it supposedly does not exist. By untangling this odd mix, Ballve reveals how Colombia's violent conflicts have produced surprisingly coherent and resilient, if not at all benevolent, regimes of rule.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Anthropology
• Colombia

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 mars 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501747564
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

THE FRONTIER EFFECT

A Volume in the Series Cornell Series on Land: New Perspectives on Territory, Development, and Environment Edited by Wendy Wolford, Nancy Lee Peluso, and Michael Goldman

A list of titles in this series is available at cornellpress.cornell.edu

THE FRONTIER EFFECT State Formation and Violence in Colombia

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS

Teo Ballvé

ITHACA AND LONDON

Copyright © 2020 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell. edu.

First published 2020 by Cornell University Press

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Names: Ballvé, Teo, author. Title: The frontier effect : state formation and violence in Colombia / Teo  Ballvé. Description: Ithaca, New York : Cornell University Press, 2020. | Series:  Cornell series on land: new perspectives in territory, development, and  environment | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019020926 (print) | LCCN 2019981419 (ebook) |  ISBN 9781501747533 (cloth) | ISBN 9781501747540 (paperback) |  ISBN 9781501747564 (pdf) | ISBN 9781501747557 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Political violence—Colombia—Urabá. | Paramilitary  forces—Colombia—Urabá. | Colombia—Politics and government—1974– Classification: LCC F2281.U7 B35 2020 (print) | LCC F2281.U7 (ebook) |  DDC 986.106/34—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019020926 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019981419

Contents

Acknowledgments Abbreviations

Introduction 1.  Producing the Frontier 2.  Turf Wars in Colombia’s Red Corner 3.  The Paramilitary War of Position 4.  Paramilitary Populism: In Defense of the Region 5.  The Masquerades of Grassroots Development 6.  The Postconflict Interregnum 7.  Urabá: A Sea of Opportunities?

Notes References Index

vii ix

1 16 35 59 83 101 126 149

171 191 203

Acknowledgments

As a bundle of debts both personal and professional, this book is a perfect exam ple of how any finished product inevitably conceals the vast web of social rela tionships that actually made it possible. For starters, I will be forever grateful for the privilege of having worked with such a brilliant and generous cast of mentors at the University of California, Berkeley that have guided this project since its infancy. Michael Watts is simply a phenomenon and will always remain an inspi ration. Gillian Hart had a profound impact on my understanding of praxis and scholarship. Donald Moore stimulated and refined my thinking through hours upon hours of conversation. Nancy Peluso—and who better?—introduced me to political ecology. At Berkeley I was also sustained by the friendship and comrad ery, intellectual and otherwise, of Erin Collins, John Elrick, Anthony Fontes, Zoe FriedmanCohen, Gustavo Oliveira, Shaina Potts, and Alberto Velázquez. I am thankful to have found an equally supportive community of colleagues within the Peace & Conflict Studies Program and the Department of Geography at Col gate University. My sincere thanks are owed to the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). The SSRC’s International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF) and the Drugs, Security, and Democracy Fellowship (DSD) provided me with the pre cious opportunity of full immersion into the research for this book from 2012 to 2013. Administered alongside the Universidad de Los Andes in cooperation with funds from the Open Society Foundations and Canada’s International Develop ment Research Centre, the DSD program is a paragon of what an intellectual community can and should be. A 2010 summer fellowship from the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley funded what turned out to be some of the most productive months of fieldwork. A minigrant in 2013 from the Berkeley Center for RightWing Studies gave a boost to the final stages of fieldwork. The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation afforded another immersive luxury: a year of generous financial support to sim ply write. A grant cofunded by Fulbright Colombia and the Colombian Institute for Education and Technical Studies Abroad (ICETEX) along with a Picker Fel lowship from Colgate University floated the final stages of writing. During my researchVerdad Abierta,the premier source of analysis, reporting, and documentation on Colombia’s armed conflict, was a tremendous source of support. I owe special thanks to César Molinares, María Teresa Ronderos, and

vii

viiiACKNOWLEDGMENTS

especially Juan Diego Restrepo. In Medellín and Urabá my fieldwork received a helping hand from César Acosta and his staff at the Unidad de Restitución de Tierras in Apartadó, Mario Agudelo, “Cocinero,” Fiscalía de Justicia y Paz in Medellín (Despacho 48), Forjando Futuros, Carlos Paez of Tierra y Vida, and many others who asked to remain anonymous. Throughout the writing process many fellowcolombianólogosread portions of the text and provided crucial feedback that helped sharpen both my arguments and my prose: Julio Arias, Alex Fattal, Meghan Morris, Diana Ojeda, Eduardo Restrepo, Winifred Tate, Austin Zeiderman, and especially Kimberly Theidon. The text also benefited from the supportive critiques of two anonymous review ers. Over the years the participants of many conferences and workshops—too many to name—gave valuable feedback. The editors of the Cornell Series on Land, Wendy Wolford, Nancy Peluso, and Michael Goldman, gave me their enthusiastic support and sharp criticism. This book, particularly its historical chapters, builds on the dedicated work of several scholars of Urabá, and mere citation of their publications would not ade quately reflect my debt to them: Clara Inés Aramburo, Fernando Botero, Clara Inés García, Carlos Ortíz Sarmiento, James Parsons, Claudia Steiner, Andrés Suárez, William Ramírez Tobón, Maria Teresa Uribe, Mary Roldán, and Juan Ricardo Aparicio. Alejandro Santos, the publisher ofSemanamagazine, gener ously supplied some of the photos that appear in the book. My heartfelt thanks to all of these allies and institutions. Above all, I am most thankful for my family. Mom and Dad, you have been unconditional sources of love and support—always and in everything. Marcelo, Sole, and Cuti: despite our endlessly farflung locations, you constantly prove there is at least one thing that renders geography meaningless: the bonds of sib linghood. Over the course of this project my life was enriched by two incredible miracles: Pablo and Cecilia—now, seven and four years old. Your impatience with el libro gordo(the fat book, as they called it) was a welcome and lifeaffirming distraction. Finally, and most important, my deepest gratitude and appreciation go to Angela Carrizosa Aparicio. Your labor is contained in every single page of this book. The burdens you have shouldered since that crosscountry road trip so many years ago have been far greater than we ever anticipated. Your strength, irrepressible optimism, and undefeatable joy have made this book possible. For that, and for so many other reasons, I love you.

Abbreviations

ACCU

AFP AGC

AHA Asocomún

AUC

BEC CNMH

Corpourabá

ELN EPL EPM

FARC

Funpazcor

PASO PCC PDS PEUD MADU

UP USAID UNDP UNODC

Autodefensas Campesinas de Córdoba y Urabá (Campesino Self Defense Forces of Córdoba and Urabá—also known as the Casa Castaño) Alliance for Progress Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (Gaitanista SelfDefense Forces of Colombia—also known as Los Urabeños) Archivo Histórico de Antioquia (Antioquia Historical Archive) Asociación Comunitaria de Urabá y Córdoba (Communal Asso ciation of Urabá and Córdoba) Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (United SelfDefense Forces of Colombia) Bloque Elmer Cárdenas (Elmer Cárdenas Bloc) Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica (National Center for His torical Memory) Corporación para el Desarrollo Sostenible de Urabá (Corpora tion for the Sustainable Development of Urabá) Ejército de Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Army) Ejército Popular de Liberación (Popular Liberation Army) Empresas Públicas de Medellín (Public Utility Company of Medellín) Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) Fundación para la Paz de Córdoba (Foundation for Peace in Cór doba) Proyecto de Alternatividad Social (Project for a Social Alternative) Partido Comunista Colombiano (Colombian Communist Party) Promotor de Desarrollo Social (Promoter of Social Development) Plan Estratégico Urabá–Darién (Urabá–Darién Strategic Plan) Municipios Asociados de Urabá (Urabá Association of Munici palities) Unión Patriótica (Patriotic Union) U.S. Agency for International Development United Nations Development Program United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

ix