Colombia Conflict Analysis

Chapter 3: The Conflict in Colombia

In order to comprehend the dynamics of civil-military relations in Colombia, it is necessary to first understand the roots and developments of the ongoing conflict in the country.

Throughout its history, violence and politics have evolved dangerously close in Colombia. Nevertheless, Colombia, with its longstanding democratic tradition, is often considered a rare exception within Latin America. In fact, in order to understand civil-military relations in Colombia, one has consider the democratic process, the changes within the defense sector since the Cold War and the efforts made by the armed forces to normalize civil-military relations in a country that has been torn by violence and war (Fishel, 2000).

La Violencia began as a street riot, but expanded to bloody rural violence that swept across the nation (Fishel, 2000). In fact, the only common denominator that observers agreed upon regarding La Violencia was its eminent violence (Bailey, 1967). Killings, dismemberings, maimings and other atrocities were common during those years, a type of ferocity that was unparalleled in modern times (ibid). For many decades class struggle was avoided in the country, essentially replaced by the partisan clashes, but La Violencia weakened party ties, not only within the population but also within the elite and seemed to awaken class consciousness

The National Front consisted in a power-sharing agreement between Conservatives and Liberals that would last until 1974, when power-sharing would be succeeded by power-alternation in, for the most part, fair and free elections (Fishel, 2000; Cardenas, 2002). During the National Front, the military sought the participation of the State in order to eradicate a conflict with multiple roots that it could no longer deal with using sole repression, as repression had failed in the liberal-conservative confrontation of the earlier years (de Guevara & Buitrago, 1998). The civil-military action, the new methods used to manage rural conflicts, brought changes within the political class, as it witnessed a growing popularity of the armed forces within agrarian establishments (ibid). Since then, there have not been threats of a military coup (Fishel, 2000).

The National Front maintained a few decades of peace, but the political exclusion that was created by the alternating governments was one of the causal factors of the emergence of rebel groups (Cardenas, 2002). Colombia once again found itself divided between the political actors that formed the government coalition, and the groups that were affected by the rural strive of the country and that espoused the Cold War rhetoric, leaning towards Marxist ideologies