Plan Colombia Research Articles

Climate change and security narratives in Colombia

AbstractIn September of 2022, Gustavo Petro presented an alternative vision of the future of Colombia from that which Colombian administrations have pursued for the past two decades. In his speech to the United Nations, Petro called for an end to the irrational war on drugs and described the drug epidemic as a symptom of significant societal failures. Petro directed his criticism at Plan Colombia, a counternarcotics security strategy, speaking directly about vital elements such as the aerial eradication program. Although Plan Colombia has ended, the United States continues to provide significant financial support to the Colombian government to fund its counter narcotics mission. Is Petro serious about ending the counternarcotics mission in Colombia? Given the political climate, should the United States change its policy approach in Colombia? This article argues that despite an increased use of narratives about climate change and a declining relevance of security narratives, US funding for security has remained constant. Our findings suggest that the United States uses aid as a hard power tool to ensure that certain strategic interests are met irrespective of the political climate.

Democratic engineering: Plan Colombia, Constitutionalisation and hegemonic presidential powers in Latin America (1970-2022)

The expansion of presidential powers in many Latin American countries poses a serious threat todemocratic cohesion in the region. Chiefly, during the second half of the Twenty century, the administrativelegislation has overcome the boundaries of what is known as the Social State in Latin America. The latter has taken shape through constitutional and legislative reforms that have increased the “fire-power” of the presidential ruling. The “constitutionalisation”, as Loughlin calls it, which has taken place in Latin America at the begging of the Twenty-first century, shows up the instability of human rights of political and working-force minorities. Besides, the steady reduction of social security standards reflects the weakness of governments to take seriously economic equality as a priority. These social goals were some of the main conquests of democratic constitutionalism in Latin America in the late 1990s. Yet these constitutional changes represent the displacement of subcultures of the political scenario. Herein, Plan Colombia, as this essay will describe, becomes a neocolonial program that in the name of political homogenisation deploys warfare against basicliberties and social rights to enforce authoritarian presidentialism in the continent.

Plan Colombia: Towards New US State Building Policy

The article discusses the evolution of US policy toward the Colombian crisis. The policy and Plan Colombia are studied in the context of US nation building and state building policy. The article shows whether Plan Colombia referred to previous experiences of US nation or state building policy and how that policy evolved. The case study of Colombia allows for a general reflection on the evolution of US policy after the Cold War.

Comparing the U.S.–Colombia Partnership to the U.S.–U.K. Special Relationship

This article characterises the US–Colombia Partnership (USCP) by comparing it to the U.S.–U.K. Special Relationship (USUKSR). For this purpose, both dyads are graded within Lake’s typology of international hierarchies. Then Xu’s three minimum criteria for SRs – and a fourth criterion derived from Harnisch – are applied to the USCP, with references to the USUKSR. In the security dimension, the USCP could be graded as a weak (soft) protectorate under Plan Colombia, and it might be still today. The USUKSR is seen heading toward a weak protectorate due to Britain’s even closer post-Brexit alignment to the U.S. (by launching an Indo-Pacific tilt, clinching the AUKUS pact, and helping to broker a broader anti-China coalition, while remaining the staunchest NATO ally). In the economic dimension, the USUKSR until recently could be rated as market exchange, but now it has been approaching an economic zone (as Britain is courting America for more trade and investment, while shedding Huawei, shelving a bilateral FTA with China, and seeking CPTPP accession). The USCP classifies as an economic zone, since the U.S. is still Colombia’s largest export market and preferred investor, and Colombia has been very cautious with China (refraining from an FTA, and from joining the BRI). The USCP (by combining a weak protectorate with an economic zone) is rated as an informal empire, while the USUKSR may be close to it. The USCP is unlikely to become an SR, because U.S. substituted Colombian governance functions are focused on domestic security, and the U.S. public does not judge Colombia positively, and is far from regarding it as an ally. The paper ends with a note on the dominant partner.

The Failure of the U.S. High-Tech War on Drugs

Shortly after his 2009 inauguration, U.S. President Barack Obama renewed the U.S. commitment to Plan Mérida, a $1.7 billion assistance program to Mexico, with a heavy emphasis on militarized policing modeled after Plan Colombia. With drones guiding military-police raids, the United States supplied Mexican law enforcement agencies with electronic signals technology, ground sensors, voice recognition gear, night-vision goggles, cell-phone tracking devices, data analysis tools, computer hacking kits, and airborne cameras that could read license plates from miles away.1 This aid was in addition to surveillance aircraft satellites, ion scanners, ballistic identification systems, and over a dozen Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters that were deployed in a 2010 operation that supposedly killed drug kingpin Nazario Moreno Gonzalez (AKA “El Chayo”), though Nazario was reported to have been killed again in March 2014.2 The Obama administration’s policy in Mexico epitomized a belief in high-tech military solutions to social and political problems...

Is Plan Colombia a Model? An Analysis of Counternarcotics Strategies in Colombia

This article examines Plan Colombia, which began as a counternarcotics program in 2000. The U.S. has allocated more than $8 billion to the country via Plan Colombia from 2000 to 2012. The article examines some of the successes of Plan Colombia. Some experts and policymakers have touted Plan Colombia as a model for other countries facing problems with drug trafficking, organized crime, and insurgency. This work focuses on the lessons learned from Plan Colombia and provides a critical perspective of the concept of models.

Relações militares entre Estados Unidos e Colômbia: do Plano Colômbia ao Acordo de Paz (2000-2018)

Este artigo analisa as relações entre os Estados Unidos e a Colômbia na área militar entre 2000 e 2018. A hipótese de trabalho sustenta que existe uma continuidade fundamental e uma variação significativa ao longo do período. A continuidade é a profunda dependência colombiana em relação aos Estados Unidos em matéria de segurança. Na conjuntura definida pelo Plano Colômbia (2000-2009), tal dependência foi claramente quantitativa (tecnológica e financeira), enquanto na conjuntura definida pelo Acordo de Paz (2010-2018) a dependência foi mais qualitativa (doutrina e formação).

How Britain’s and Colombia’s Privileged Partnerships with the United States Influenced Their Respective Journeys through the European Community and UNASUR

This paper explores how Britain’s and Colombia’s privileged relations with the United States (U.S.) influenced their journey through the European Community (EC) and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). The Anglo–American Special Relationship (AASR) was compatible with British participation in the European Single Market, but not with adherence to creating the EC’s common currency, nor with leadership in building a European defence structure autonomous from NATO. Thus, since the start of the Iraq war, Britain played a rather obstructive role in what later was called European Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The US–Colombia Partnership (USCP), based on a longstanding military association reinforced under Plan Colombia, naturally discouraged any meaningful Colombian participation in UNASUR’s South American Security Council (CDS), a regional cooperative security project, promoted by Brazil. Cherished projects of the liberal CAP – such as triangular cooperation (to export Colombian security expertise to Central America with U.S. co-financing and oversight) and NATO partnership – also distracted Colombia’s interest from UNASUR, diminishing the latter’s relevance collaterally. A role for UNASUR – alongside the Organization of American States (OAS) – in South American security management was compatible with the liberal CAP, but not with the neoconservative CAP. Even a lopsided complementation – such as the one between NATO and the CSDP – proved unviable between the OAS and UNASUR.

Relaciones entre Colombia y sus vecinos frente a la ayuda internacional

Este artículo analiza los impactos del Plan Colombia en las relaciones de Colombia con los países vecinos. Con este objetivo, se hace una revisión documental con la metodología del marco analítico de Charles Tilly para analizar el punto de vista de los gobiernos de la región sobre sus relaciones con Colombia y determinar las consecuencias de la ayuda de Estados Unidos en las negociaciones del Tratado de Libre Comercio y en la soberanía colombiana. Los resultados del análisis muestran que la alianza militar fortaleció las relaciones entre Colombia y Estados Unidos, pero deterioró las relaciones con los países vecinos debido a que la presión del gobierno estadounidense generó el desplazamiento de los grupos al margen de la ley y acciones militares de Colombia fuera de sus fronteras.

미국-콜롬비아 반(反) 마약 정책의 이중적 성격: ‘플랜 콜롬비아’에서 나타난 마약 테러리즘의 안보화를 중심으로

미국-콜롬비아 반(反) 마약 정책의 이중적 성격: ‘플랜 콜롬비아’에서 나타난 마약 테러리즘의 안보화를 중심으로

The coca enclosure: Autonomy against accumulation in Colombia

Abstract This article analyzes a relatively new phenomenon in northern Cauca: the massive expansion of coca cultivations. After decades of intense forced eradication campaigns promoted by the U.S. government, the so-called “War on Drugs” failed at achieving its stated aim. Instead, these militaristic policies pushed coca growers to find more remote places to cultivate coca in different parts of the county. In northern Cauca, coca cultivations are strongly associated with a wave of “colonization” (colonizacion) by coca growers displaced by Plan Colombia. In addition to the crops, these settlers also brought what some local inhabitants call the “anti-culture of coca,” which is associated with new forms of consumerism, violence, and an extractive relationship to the land. This ethnography explores coca’s power to transform social and economic relations, and it reveals how the structural inequalities in Colombian society are reproduced in regions where it is cultivated.

Nonviolent Grassroots Challenge to U.S.-led Plan Colombia

Nonviolent Grassroots Challenge to U.S.-led Plan Colombia John Lindsay-Poland. Plan Colombia: U.S. Ally Atrocities and Community Activity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2018. 312 pp. $26.95 (paperback). Luis van Isschot Luis van Isschot luis.vanisschot@utoronto.ca Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Diplomatic History, Volume 44, Issue 5, November 2020, Pages 917–920, https://doi.org/10.1093/dh/dhaa057 Published: 15 July 2020

Subordinate-State Agency and US Hegemony: Colombian Consent versus Bolivian Dissent

AbstractThe strategies of subordinate states in hegemonic or asymmetrical relations have been widely studied by international relations scholars. Such works generally focus on how a subordinate state can influence the hegemon's behavior so as to address and further the interests of the subordinate state. The relation between subordinate-state agency and the hegemonic system, the makeup of the hegemonic order, itself receives less attention. Through analysis of two cases of US hegemony in Latin America, this article examines how subordinate-state agency may strengthen or weaken the hegemonic system and, as such, makes a case for subordinate-state agency as an underpinning element of hegemony. It explores Colombian agency in the design phase of Plan Colombia as contributing to US hegemony, while Bolivian agency under the presidency of Evo Morales is examined as a challenge. In both instances, it was the United States, rather than the Latin American states, that took on a passive role, leaving the initiative with Colombia and Bolivia. Therefore, instead of reaffirmations of active one-way US hegemony versus passive subordinate states, the paper proposes to understand both cases as demonstrating the importance of subordinate-state agency in the configuration of the hegemonic system.

John Lindsay-Poland. Plan Colombia: U.S. Ally Atrocities and Community Activism.

John Lindsay-Poland. Plan Colombia: U.S. Ally Atrocities and Community Activism.

Ascenso y caída del Supermax: cómo el modelo de prisión estadounidense y la política penal ultrapunitiva llegaron a Colombia

En el contexto del programa antinarcótico estadounidense, Plan Colombia, durante la primera década del siglo XXI, agentes especiales de la Oficina Estadounidense de Prisiones (BOP, por sus siglas en inglés) se posicionaron en el corazón de la administración carcelaria colombiana. Su tarea fue liderar una reforma profunda del sector, basada en el régimen penal ultra punitivo y sus unidades de confinamiento supermax.1 Basado en un extensivo trabajo de campo con arquitectos de cárceles, presos y otros actores de los sistemas penales de Estados Unidos y Colombia, este trabajo analiza cómo la reforma fue preparada en el terreno, arrojando luces sobre los intereses y las expectativas parcialmente divergentes de ambos gobiernos en el contexto neocolonial del Plan Colombia. Mostramos cómo, por una parte, la reforma tuvo un éxito parcial en la militarización de la vida carcelaria y en la desurbanización del sistema de prisiones, aislando espacialmente a los presos de su entorno social y familiar. Por otra parte, mostramos que la reforma eventualmente falló, por razones políticas e institucionales, al no lograr su objetivo declarado de modernizar las prisiones colombianas.Desde una perspectiva más teórica y basados en literatura reciente sobre la movilidad de las políticas y las formas arquitectónicas,3 el trabajo argumenta que la introducción de las prisiones supermax en Colombia es un llamativo caso en el que una política móvil y un tipo arquitectónico ambulante coinciden y se complementan mutuamente. También sugiere que para mejorar nuestro entendimiento de cómo el espacio es producido en la arena global, se deben considerar más sistemáticamente las interconexiones entre los circuitos de la política y las movilidades de la arquitectura.

Plan Colombia: U.S. Ally Atrocities and Community Activism by John Lindsay-Poland

Plan Colombia: U.S. Ally Atrocities and Community Activism by John Lindsay-Poland

Plan Colombia: U.S. Ally Atrocities and Community Activism

Plan Colombia: U.S. Ally Atrocities and Community Activism

Domestic Contestation and Presidential Prerogative in Colombian Foreign Policy

The study of Colombian foreign policy emphasises external constraints and presidential prerogative in foreign policymaking. Drawing on insights from recent foreign policy analysis literature and evidence from several cases (Plan Colombia, US military bases, free trade talks with China, and ICJ arbitration of a maritime border with Nicaragua), this article challenges commonplace presidentialist assumptions. A novel model of ‘contested presidentialism’ better captures how Colombian domestic actors mobilise to raise political costs to block or modify presidential preferences. When the opposition fails to raise costs, presidentialist assumptions apply. Otherwise, presidents respond strategically by abandoning policies or substituting second‐best alternatives.

New Punitiveness on the Move: How the US Prison Model and Penal Policy Arrived in Colombia

AbstractWithin the neocolonial context of ‘Plan Colombia’ in the early 2000s, agents of the US Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) took up position in the heart of the Colombian penitentiary administration to lead a reform based on the United States’ ultra-punitive penal regime. This paper analyses how the reform was set up on the ground, shedding light on the partially divergent expectations of the two governments. Drawing on recent literature on the mobility of policies and built forms, the paper argues that the introduction of US-inspired prisons in Colombia is a striking case where a mobile policy and a travelling architectural type coincided and complemented each other.

From Continuity to Breakthrough: the Obama Administration’s Policy in Latin America

<p>Wybór Baracka Obamy wzbudziły wielkie oczekiwania w Ameryce Łacińskiej. Oczekiwano, że Obama odnowi stosunki międzyamerykańskie zaniedbane przez administrację George’a W. Busha. Jednak Stany Zjednoczone już nie postrzegają Ameryki Łacińskiej jako „najbardziej niebezpiecznego obszaru na świecie”. Kryzys gospodarczy i problemy międzynarodowe, z którymi administracja Obamy musiała się zmierzyć, przyczyniły się do tego, że Ameryki Łacińskiej nie stała się priorytetem w polityce Waszyngtonu. Jednym z pierwszych wyzwań dla nowej administracji było usunięcie przez wojsko prezydenta Hondurasu. Stany Zjednoczone przyjęły w tej sprawie pragmatyczne stanowisko i trzymały się od niej z daleka. gdyż nie było nadziei, że konstytucyjny prezydent odzyska swoje stanowisko niezależnie od sankcji lub presji politycznej Waszyngtonu. Administracja Obamy przyczyniła się znacząco do sukcesu procesu pokojowego w Kolumbii. Stabilizowanie sytuacji w tym państwie pozostawało jednym z priorytetów polityki bezpieczeństwa administracji Obamy. Polityka ta nie ograniczała się realizacji planu Colombia, lecz oznaczała też czynny udział w rozmowach pokojowych i wsparcie porozumienie. Administracja Obamy rozszerzyła także cele programu Mérida Initiative wykraczając poza tradycyjne, wojskowe metody walki z organizacjami przestępczymi. USA zamierzały wzmocnić rząd prawa w Meksyku. Największym osiągnięciem tej administracji jest normalizacja stosunków z Kubą, był to prawdziwie rewolucyjny krok. Stało się to możliwe ze względu na zmianę poglądów opinii publicznej w Stanach Zjednoczonych na temat normalizacji, presji ze strony państw Ameryki Łacińskiej oraz zmiany podejścia kubańskiego reżimu wobec USA.</p>