economic resources and internal armed conflicts : lessons from the colombian case / marc chernick

The AUC quickly became the conflict's most violent actor, but the army and police failed to stop it. 47 In 1997, these paramilitary groups came together under an umbrella organization, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). 46 Convinced that vigilante activity was an effective counterinsurgency strategy, the Colombian armed forces directly supported and trained these newly established paramilitary groups. In the early 1980s, drug lords and large landowners began to establish strong private armies to protect their economic interests. 45Ī new actor also spurred the hike in violence-the paramilitaries. Between 19, the FARC grew from 10,000 combatants to almost 17,000.

The new financial resources allowed the FARC and other guerrillas to finance better equipment, territorial expansion, and an immense increase in its number of fighters.

44 Other insurgents would soon come to similar decisions. In 1978, after a badly handled economic liberalization wrecked the subsistence farming lifestyle of the guerrillas' constituency, the FARC decided to accept-and tax-peasants' illegal coca plantations across its controlled territory. The FARC's military capacities took off when Colombia emerged as a producer of illegal drugs, especially cocaine. 42 A second generation of insurgent groups emerged in the 1970s, most of which demobilized between 19. 41 That same year, Colombian rebels trained in Communist Cuba founded the ELN, the other guerrilla group active today. The FARC emerged in 1964 with roots in these peasant self-defense leagues. These dissidents took to the countryside. 40 However, radical liberals rejected the coalition's legitimacy and allied with the Communist Party, which had been excluded from power. After claiming over 200,000 lives, the conflict ended with a powersharing agreement between liberal and conservative party leaders in Bogotá. The conflict can be traced to a civil war waged from 1948 to 1958 known as La Violencia. 39 The dynamics, actors, and scale of the conflict have changed throughout the years. The Colombian conflict is especially complex due to its protracted duration, multiplicity of actors, serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law, and the effect of the drug trade in criminalizing the civil strife. Civil War In Colombia: Fifty Years of Violence A History of The Colombian ConflictĬolombia has suffered over five decades of an internal armed conflict that has claimed the lives, homes, and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of its citizens- particularly in the rural countryside.

Economic resources and internal armed conflicts : lessons from the colombian case / marc chernick