Colombian Peace Process Research Articles

Potencialidades das perspectivas críticas dos Estudos Organizacionais para a compreensão do acordo e pós-acordo de paz na Colômbia

ABSTRACT The peacebuilding process in Colombia involves a host of socio-political phenomena that can be approached by the organizational field. This article analyzes the peace process in Colombia, its agreement, and the social management of its post-agreement using the critical theories of organizational studies, taking some of the taxonomies suggested by Alvesson and Deetz. The methodological approach was qualitative with an analytical and interpretative methodology based on categories of analysis on the links of the peace process with the naturalization of the social order, the universalization of managerial interests, instrumental rationality, and the production of consent. In this process, the theoretical-conceptual positions, the narratives of the peace process, and its organizational manifestations were related. The relational discussion shows that there are various implicit domination structures in peacebuilding, with decisions that follow the logic of managerial efficiency and ideologies typical of the organizational fabric. The article calls for a profound transformation of the organizational structure of peace, generating discourses, strategies, and collective actions that are more committed to equity and social justice within the framework of what has been legally agreed.

Local Participation at Stake: Between Emancipatory Goals and Co-Option Strategies. The Case of Territorially Focused Development Programs in Colombia

Objective/Context: We examine how participatory peacebuilding projects create emancipatory outcomes by investigating the implementation of Territorially Focused Development Programs (Programas de Desarrollo con Enfoque Territorial, PDETs), one of the centerpieces of the Colombian peace process. We define “emancipatory outcomes” as allocations of decision-making power (e.g., control over budgets, project priorities) and/or material benefits (e.g., new infrastructure, public goods) to marginalized groups in society. Methodology: The article is based on a combination of ethnographic peace research and semi-structured interviews with key government and civil actors involved in the design and implementation of the PDETs both at the national and local levels. We focus on the PDET of the department of Chocó, where both authors conducted ethnographic work during the design and implementation of the peace program between January 2018 and March 2020. Conclusions: We argue that the emancipatory outcomes of a participatory project are never fixed in advance: the degree to which such projects serve bottom-up, emancipatory goals rather than top-down state expansion are contingent on the outcomes of contestation and cooperation processes between actors within and outside the state. Originality: Critical scholarship tends to understand participatory peacebuilding programs as top-down programs to co-opt grassroots actors and expand the reach of the state rather than emancipatory projects that create real shifts in existing political settlements. Our contribution lies in the study of the dynamics of these peace processes to identify the potential spaces they open for emancipatory goals.

A case for agonistic peacebuilding in Colombia

The purpose of this article is to discuss the concept of agonistic peacebuilding in the light of the ongoing peace process in Colombia. We subscribe to an approach to agonistic peacebuilding that acknowledges conflict as an inevitable but also possibly productive dynamic. We think that the work by the Colombian research programme La paz es una obra de arte (Peace Is a Work of Art) is an inspiring case to analyse from this perspective. This programme, based at the University of Antioquia in Medellín, helps us understand in depth how agonistic peacebuilding strategies work through the arts, using clown interventions to foster life story narratives in order to transform former enemies into adversaries and engage all actors in the creation of peace.

Hidden Casualties: The Links between Armed Conflict and Intimate Partner Violence in Colombia

AbstractThe Colombian peace process was internationally celebrated for its unprecedented focus on women's experiences of war, but the everyday violence women that may face in their homes was not acknowledged. This article explores the links between exposure to local armed conflict violence and individual women's experiences of intimate partner violence. I combine pooled nationally representative data on individual women's experiences of intimate partner violence with information about the intensity of conflict during 2004–16. Results of fixed-effects linear probability models show that conflict was generally linked to a slightly elevated risk of women experiencing emotional, physical, and sexual violence perpetrated by their partner. Among women who had experienced intimate partner violence, conflict was related to an increased probability of being partnered at interview, which could reflect women staying in abusive relationships because conflict normalizes violence or increases women's reluctance to leave those relationships.

The Promise and Perils of Mainstreaming Intersectionality in the Colombian Peace Process

Abstract This article examines the extent to which mainstreaming intersectionality in the Colombian Truth Commission (CEV) serves the feminist aim of producing social transformations by exposing patriarchal, racialized and class-based structures of oppression. Analysing the mainstreaming of intersectionality as a site of struggle exposes the interlocking dynamics of inequality and ontological impositions that block Indigenous and Afro-descendant women’s full participation at the CEV. Ongoing dialogues with five Indigenous and/or Afro-descendant Colombian activists centrally inform this analysis. All the activists utilize the gender, woman, family and generation approach, which is anchored in the shared cosmological reference points of Indigenous and Afro-descendant women. The peril of mainstreaming intersectionality appears when it is used in a shallow manner that severs a structural intersectional analysis from a political intersectional analysis. The promise of intersectionality can only be realized through a holistic understanding and application of both its structural and political dimensions.

Friction in Transitional Justice Processes: The Colombian Judicial System and the ICC

Abstract With the aim of understanding how the International Criminal Court (ICC) affects peace processes, this article examines the Colombian peace and justice processes through the lens of friction. It investigates frictional encounters between the Colombian judicial system and the ICC, in order to reveal the tensions in this relationship. First, we disaggregate the concept of friction and propose three different types of frictional encounters – conceptual, normative and jurisdictional – in transitional justice processes. Second, we investigate different responses to these frictional encounters, such as compliance, adaptation, co-option and resistance. Finally, we find that responses to frictions generate hybrid judicial outcomes, such as a hybrid, intersubjective understanding of justice, a hybrid sanctioning regime as well as hybrid complementarity. The article concludes that the ICC influenced the Colombian peace process, while the Colombian judicial system complied with the requirements of the ICC thereby demonstrating agency, flexibility and innovation and ensuring its judicial sovereignty.

Conflict violence reduction and pregnancy outcomes: A regression discontinuity design in Colombia.

The relationship between exposure to conflict violence during pregnancy and the risks of miscarriage, stillbirth, and perinatal mortality has not been studied empirically using rigorous methods and appropriate data. We investigated the association between reduced exposure to conflict violence during pregnancy and the risks of adverse pregnancy outcomes in Colombia. We adopted a regression discontinuity (RD) design using the July 20, 2015 cease-fire declared during the Colombian peace process as an exogenous discontinuous change in exposure to conflict events during pregnancy, comparing women with conception dates before and after the cease-fire date. We constructed the cohorts of all pregnant women in Colombia for each day between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2017 using birth and death certificates. A total of 3,254,696 women were followed until the end of pregnancy. We measured conflict exposure as the total number of conflict events that occurred in the municipality where a pregnant woman lived during her pregnancy. We first assessed whether the cease-fire did induce a discontinuous fall in conflict exposure for women with conception dates after the cease-fire to then estimate the association of this reduced exposure with the risks of miscarriage, stillbirth, and perinatal mortality. We found that the July 20, 2015 cease-fire was associated with a reduction of the average number of conflict events (from 2.64 to 2.40) to which women were exposed during pregnancy in their municipalities of residence (mean differences -0.24; 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.35 to -0.13; p < 0.001). This association was greater in municipalities where Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) had a greater presence historically. The reduction in average exposure to conflict violence was, in turn, associated with a decrease of 9.53 stillbirths per 1,000 pregnancies (95% CI -16.13 to -2.93; p = 0.005) for municipalities with total number of FARC-related violent events above the 90th percentile of the distribution of FARC-related conflict events and a decrease of 7.57 stillbirths per 1,000 pregnancies (95% CI -13.14 to -2.00; p = 0.01) for municipalities with total number of FARC-related violent events above the 75th percentile of FARC-related events. For perinatal mortality, we found associated reductions of 10.69 (95% CI -18.32 to -3.05; p = 0.01) and 6.86 (95% CI -13.24 to -0.48; p = 0.04) deaths per 1,000 pregnancies for the 2 types of municipalities, respectively. We found no association with miscarriages. Formal tests support the validity of the key RD assumptions in our data, while a battery of sensitivity analyses and falsification tests confirm the robustness of our empirical results. The main limitations of the study are the retrospective nature of the information sources and the potential for conflict exposure misclassification. Our study offers evidence that reduced exposure to conflict violence during pregnancy is associated with important (previously unmeasured) benefits in terms of reducing the risk of stillbirth and perinatal deaths. The findings are consistent with such beneficial associations manifesting themselves mainly through reduced violence exposure during the early stages of pregnancy. Beyond the relevance of this evidence for other countries beset by chronic armed conflicts, our results suggest that the fledgling Colombian peace process may be already contributing to better population health.

Analysis of Normative Orders in International Mediation: Lessons learned from the Colombian Peace Process

The following paper summarizes the findings of a bachelor thesis that analysed the role of normative orders in international mediation by examining the norms applied during the Colombian peace process. The objective of the investigation is defined by the research question, which lessons-learnt can be derived from the Havana Process for the categorization of normative orders in international peace mediation? For answering that question the author analyses the norms and principles applied during the Colombian peace process and thereby, shows the potential to enhance existing scientific models and log-frames for the analysis of norms in peace mediation. The paper provides a new model for classifying normative frameworks by integrating the stage of negotiation as another classifying dimension. Therefore, the model is called “Process-Oriented Model for Categorizing Norms in International Mediation”. The research is built upon a qualitative research conducted in the Colombian cities Medellin and Bogota, where the author held interviews with scientific researchers, political decision-makers, and civil society organisations. The results of the research are complemented by a substantial review of existing academic literature about norms in international peace mediation and the Colombian peace process.

The causes and consequences of a judicialized peace process in Colombia

Abstract This article focuses on one striking feature of the Colombian peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army (FARC): a very high level of judicialization, as shown through the many decisions issued by the Colombian Constitutional Court that have examined core elements of the process. It argues that this high level of judicialization is explained not only by the generally activist role conception of the Court, but also by specific doctrines it developed, including a robust incorporation of international law and an unconstitutional constitutional amendment doctrine, which essentially made judicialization inevitable. Since these doctrinal devices are spreading, they may portend increasingly judicialized peace processes in other countries as well. Normatively, judicialization of ongoing peace processes raises clear risks, particularly of destabilization. But for the most part, the Colombian Constitutional Court has avoided these risks and instead has stabilized the process in important ways, by insulating it from both international pressure and domestic political shifts. The Court has also injected important values into the process, especially regarding the rights of victims of the internal armed conflict. Thus, the case study demonstrates that at least under certain conditions, judicialization may have a beneficial impact on the substance and durability of peace processes.

Between pacification and dialogue: Critical lessons from Colombia’s territorial peace

Colombia's peace process prioritised conflict-torn geographies ostensibly suffering from historical state absence. We examine the origins and afterlives of this 'territorial' peace using discourse analysis, archival research and field interviews. The state-initiated agenda exceeded the objective of structuring negotiations with FARC guerrillas, pointing to the transformative potential of social dialogue. The negotiating parties co-sponsored participatory rural development forums, which attracted numerous collectives. These diverse actors' visionary proposals to address neglected claims and conflicts influenced the government's and FARC's respective discourses, ultimately informing the 2016 peace agreement. Yet, state priorities for peace centred on international legitimation and post-conflict infrastructure development to accelerate foreign investment in export-oriented mining, oil extraction, and agri-business. The beleaguered FARC challenged government's narratives while struggling to rebuild organisational legitimacy and prevent fragmentation. Subsequent disappointments with fraught territorial development plans, a new government's securitization of peace programmes, and continuing violence mar the post-agreement period. Prior contributors to participatory forums have joined contentious actions against neglectful austerity, extractivist maldevelopment and targeted assassinations. Thus, we argue that Colombia's international lessons may reside less in governmental pacification programmes - the potential of state-sponsored participatory dialogues notwithstanding - than in resilient (post-)conflict communities open to exercising their peace imagination while remaining mobilised against new-and-old violences. Furthermore, the territorial peace saga illustrates productive overlaps between critical peace geographies and socio-territorial analysis - especially the territorial restructuring induced by neoliberal economic policies, the violent multiple territorialities of differentiated state presence in geographical peripheries and pluriversal struggles against ontological occupation addressed herein.

Mortality from anti-personnel mines before and during the Colombian peace process

Introduction: Although the peace process in Colombia resulted in a significant reduction in the number of anti-personnel mines across the country, there are no reliable data on the effects of this phenomenon on outcomes for patients who were victims of these devices.&#x0D; Objective: The objective of this study was to assess mortality from landmine injuries before and during the Colombian peace process. Furthermore possible associations between peace negotiations and mortality were explored.&#x0D; Methods: For this study, we used the "Colombian Victims of Antipersonnel Mines Injuries registry" (MAP/MUSE database) data from 2002 to 2018. This registry was launched in 2001 by the government of Colombia with the aim of prospectively and systematically collect information on all the cases of anti-personnel mine injuries in the country. The period between 2002-2012 was classified as the pre-negotiation period (war period), and 2014-2018 as the peace negotiations period, with 2013 classified as a washout year. Multivariate logistic regression was used to explore the association between peace negotiations and mortality among anti-personnel landmine injured individuals.&#x0D; Results: A total of 10306 landmine injury cases were registered. Of these, 1180 (11.4%) occurred in the peace-negotiation period. Mortality was significantly lower during the period of peace negotiations. After adjusting for sex, age group, race, active duty soldier status, rural area, and geographic departments case volumes, the peace negotiation period was found to be associated with lower risk-adjusted odds of mortality after suffering a landmine injury (OR= 0.6, 95% CI, 0.5-0.7; p&lt;0.001).&#x0D; Conclusion: Our findings suggest an association between the period of peace negotiation and a lower likelihood of mortality among victims of anti-personnel landmines.

‘Peace with a Woman’s Face’: Women, Social Media and the Colombian Peace Process

Abstract The idea that men and women approach conflict resolution differently forms the backbone of the international agenda on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) and is supported by a growing body of scholarship in international relations. However, the role of women who represent insurgent groups in peace talks remains understudied, given the relatively rare appearance of such women in peace processes. The present study examines how men and women from the negotiating team of the Revolutionary Armed Forced of Colombia (FARC) engaged in public-facing discourse on Twitter leading up to a referendum on the peace accords in 2016. Using a mixed-methods approach that includes computational analysis and a close reading of social media posts, I demonstrate that women in the FARC’s negotiating team were more successful social media users than their male counterparts and that they offered a distinct contribution to the discourse on peace, centring the relevance of gender and promoting issue linkages like the need to address LGBTI rights.

Who Wants Peace? Predicting Civilian Preferences in Conflict Negotiations

Efforts to end civil wars via negotiations often generate sharp divisions in public opinion. A large, quantitative literature has found evidence for numerous variables serving as potential drivers of public support of and opposition to conflict negotiations. Yet the formation of policy preferences is a complex process, and while many factors might make small contributions to an individual’s conflict termination preferences, we lack a sense of which factors matter most or how to adjudicate among competing explanations. In this article, we leverage a large amount of nationally representative survey data from Colombia (2004–2015) and use machine learning tools to systematically explore which variables are the strongest predictors of public support for negotiations with Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). We find that certain aspects of conflict exposure, individual values bearing on justice and punishment, and belief in the efficacy of the state are among the strongest predictors of negotiation preferences, while many conventionally important variables in the literature have little predictive power. The results have implications for scholars seeking to understand broad drivers of (dis)satisfaction with negotiations and shed light on the polarising Colombian peace process.

The politics of memory in post-accord Colombia: interventions from women social leaders and decolonial feminisms

ABSTRACT This article contributes to critical heritage debates through exploring the politics of memory in the Colombian peace process with the left-wing guerrilla group FARC-EP. Following the signature of the Peace Accord in 2016 with the FARC-EP, the current right-wing government’s (2018–2022) denialist politics have resulted in a lack of compliance of the Accord and a ‘battle for memory’. In a context of ongoing conflict and violence, I present the interventions of twelve women social leaders who were interviewed between November 2019 and January 2020. From a decolonial feminist standpoint, I narrate the contestations and nuances of the politics of memory in times of ongoing conflict and entangle these with social leaders’ heterogeneous demands for collective place-based memory, truth and justice. The interventions of social leaders involved in historical memory processes reveal an urgent need to address the instrumentalisation of memory and security concerns due to ongoing violence in post-Accord Colombia. Through centring women social leaders’ interventions and decolonial feminisms this paper seeks to contribute to ongoing national and international debates on the constructions of historical memory in times of ongoing violence and coloniality, which promote place-based, collective, democratic, plural and empathetic memory, heritage and peacemaking.

Unidades fraseológicas especializadas eventivas en el Subtitulado para Sordos (SpS) de un producto audiovisual colombiano

Este trabajo parte de las diferencias culturales entre emisor y receptor y su incidencia en el acto comunicativo de la traducción. El objetivo de este artículo es presentar los resultados del análisis de las Unidades Fraseológicas Especializadas (UFE) eventivas relacionadas con la temática del proceso de paz en Colombia en el SpS del documental “El fin de la guerra”. A partir de ahí, se exploró el documental para identificar y analizar las UFE eventivas partiendo del concepto de Bevilacqua (2004) para quien estas describen procesos y acciones propias de un área de conocimiento. Con las UFE definitivas, se realizó el análisis de su frecuencia de aparición en SpS, características y clasificaciones desde la teoría de Bevilacqua (2004), entre otros. Los resultados de la investigación permitieron concluir que las UFE eventivas describen etapas del proceso de paz en Colombia y la literalidad en SpS predominó.

GEOHealth Hub Colombia: achievements and challenges of an environmental and occupational health collaboration initiative

The Global Environmental and Occupational (GEO) Health Hub Colombia is a collaboration initiative between academics and professionals from public and private institutions. The objective of this initiative is to promote high quality research, training, and discussion around fundamental topics of environmental and occupational health in the country, and to provide advice for the formulation of sound policies regarding high-priority environmental and occupational health threats.The GEOHealth Hub Colombia began in 2012 as a bi-national project between Colombia and the United States, funded under the GEOHealth program of the National Health Institute / Fogarty International Center. The project identified environmental and occupational health experts in the country, who contributed to identify research and training needs in this area. Since 2015 the GEOHealth Hub Colombia has been working to promote collaborative research between different regions of the country and internationally. One of the main achievements has been to scale up local problemas to the national level and develop multicity research projects, including activities of Colombian peace process related with socioenvironmental topics. Recently, the GEO Health Hub Colombia was awarded the first and only environmental health research program funded by the Colombian Government. The program will be conducted with the collaboration of 10 local universities, regional and national health and environmental authorities, and academic institutions from Brazil, Canada, and Mexico. The main challenge of the research collaboration is the lack of a common platform for exchanging data, ideas, discussions, and to provide information to the different audiences: academics, policy makers, and community.The GEOHealth Hub Colombia also has generated discussion spaces and position public documents related to environmental threats, such us the use of aerial spray of glyphosate to eliminate illicit crops in rural areas. In this regard, support of international societies is needed to face GEO threats in developing countries.

Pengabaian Suku Asli dalam Proses Perdamaian di Kolombia

Peace talks between the Goverment of Republic of Colombia with Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia—Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP) started from 2011 to 2016, and followed by disarmament and transition phase until 2017. The talks and process have resulted peace agreement between the conflicting sides in 2016, FARC-EP disarmament process, and transitioning the rebels into civilians’ life. Considered as a success by some observers, the peace process is not yet solving the problem about indigenous people affected by an half-century conflict between the goverment and FARC-EP. This paper will examine discourses from perspective of community security which is originated from the concept of human security that involves violent action, and other threats towards indigenous people in Colombia, the Awa, and Wounaan People between 2011 to 2017. The goal of discursive practices on violent action towards indigenous ''people during the peace process in Colombia is to explain the threat to community security in Colombia due to the problem occured in indigenous community

Reflexões feministas sobre escuta e democracia: experiências das mulheres na construção de paz na Colômbia

A assinatura do termo de compromisso para o término do conflito armado na Colômbia no ano de 2012, significou um importante avanço na tentativa de criar uma paz mais inclusiva e duradoura que reconhecesse o lugar das experiências individuais no processo de paz no país. O presente artigo busca compreender a participação dos movimentos de mulheres e feministas ao longo do processo de paz na Colômbia (2012-2016), a partir de discussões presentes na teoria democrática contemporânea. Por meio de uma abordagem feminista, realizamos uma etnografia de documentos produzidos sobre as conferências e fóruns de vítimas, que contaram com uma intensa participação de mulheres, tentando compreender as contribuições dos movimentos para a construção democrática na Colômbia. Como resultado, percebemos que a participação das mulheres em espaços de deliberação, contribuiu para a ampliação da compreensão do conflito e possibilitou a incorporação de demandas diferenciadas no documento final.

The credible commitment problem and multiple armed groups: FARC perceptions of insecurity during disarmament in the Colombian peace process

ABSTRACT Insecurities associated with the credible commitment problem during disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR) processes are usually examined within a dyadic relationship between the government and a rebel group, ignoring how these insecurities play themselves out in the context of multiple warring parties. In addition, most studies on these dynamics take an overview macro-perspective, leaving out micro-dynamics such as how insecurity is experienced by those undertaking the disarmament process. This paper examines FARC members’ perception of insecurity and threat during the disarmament process in Colombia in the context of multiple armed groups. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with FARC combatants in three different demobilisation camps during the process of disarmament, this paper sheds light on how credible commitment problems between the FARC and the Colombian government were influenced by the presence of additional armed actors and how associated insecurities are perceived by combatants who are disarming vis-à-vis various armed actors.

Transitivity Analysis of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos’ Nobel Peace Prize Lecture

The present document will offer an analysis of the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance lecture delivered by the former Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos, from the fundaments of the transitivity system provided by the Systemic Functional Grammar theory. To attain this goal, a quantitative and qualitative research method approach was applied. Findings indicated that among the six transitivity process types, the material processes (54% - 205 realizations) dominate the speech whereas the verbal, existential, and behavioral processes are relatively low all together representing an overall occurrence of 10% (41 realizations). This reveals that the speaker’s main goal is to emphasize the actions that led to consolidating the Colombian peace process, placing him as the core actor of this achievement. Furthermore, by employing a narrative thread that connects the past, the present, and the future time, he can demonstrate to the world his capability as a governor who deserves to be awarded the Nobel Prize.