Clandestinity and insurgent consolidation: The M-19’s rebel governance in urban Colombia

Abstract

Insurgent movements have commonly re-located to isolated rural areas with weak state presence where their security was guaranteed by a hostile environment to launch insurgencies. Yet, some groups have chosen to predominantly base their armed mobilisations in cities with much higher security risks where they are obliged to mobilise clandestinely. Clandestinity is often seen as an impediment to insurgent consolidation. This article explores the forms of rebel governance adopted by the M-19 in Colombia to construct networks of social ties needed to embed itself in urban environments. It highlights a case of urban rebel governance without territorial control, thus extending the scope of the rebel governance literature. It addresses the spatial variation of the M-19's insurgency by analysing its diverging experiences of its clandestine mobilisation in Bogotá and Cali, as well as a brief window where it conducted more public urban mobilisation. It is based on qualitative interviews conducted with former militants in Bogota in 2018 and an extensive qualitative, coding of M-19 primary archival sources.