National Identity and Violence: The Case of Colombia

Abstract

There is a considerable body of research covering diverse aspects of the persistent violence afflicting Colombia; however, the connections between the construction of a Colombian national identity and violence in the second half of the twentieth century has been less studied. Considering the political dimensions of national identity and some of the strategies pursued by the nation state to construct it, such as the use of myths and symbols, it will be argued that the historical weak legitimacy of the Colombian nation state has prevented the creation of a hegemonic national identity. This has led to a self-perpetuating system of violence that has precluded a resolution to the increasing violence and to the crisis of national identity. Outbreaks of political violence have been intermittent over the past two centuries of Colombian history, but since the outbreak of La Violencia (1948–1954), a period of undeclared civil war and communal violence, political violence has reached unprecedented levels.1 It has also given violence the features of a myth, as if it were part of the country’s natural landscape or an unavoidable natural disaster,2 a legacy that continues to inform contemporary Colombia. With reference to this period, this chapter sets out to investigate the paradoxical and unresolved relationship between high levels of political violence and the construction of a Colombian national identity.