Paramilitaries

Ordinary Geographies: Care, Violence, and Agrarian Extractivism in ‘Post-Conflict’ Colombia

Citation:

Berman‐Arévalo, Eloísa, and Diana Ojeda. 2020. “Ordinary Geographies: Care, Violence, and Agrarian Extractivism in ‘Post-Conflict’ Colombia.” Antipode 52 (6): 1583–1602.

Authors: Eloísa Berman‐Arévalo, Diana Ojeda

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
In Colombia’s agrarian spaces, war and extractivism are deeply entangled. Almost four years after the peace accords signed between the national government and the FARC guerrilla, post-conflict geographies are best characterised by the ongoing dispossession of local populations related to the entrenchment of extractivism. Drawing from ethnographic work carried out in the Colombian Caribbean on the ordinary practices and spaces of social reproduction, the ordinary geographies, this article explores gendered practices of care and their role in both sustaining and disrupting paramilitary violence and agrarian extractivism. The focus not just on the gendered effects of war and extractivism, but on gender’s constitutive role in the configuration of these processes and dynamics, allows us to contribute to recent literature on extractivism, dispossession and violence from a feminist standpoint.
 
SPANISH ABSTRACT: 
La guerra y el extractivismo estan profundamente entretejidos en los espacios agrarios en Colombia. Casi cuatro a~nos despues de la firma de los acuerdos de paz entre el gobierno nacional y la guerrilla de las FARC, las geografıas del post-conflicto estan caracterizadas por el despojo sostenido de poblaciones locales tras el afianzamiento y la expansion del extractivismo. A partir de trabajo etnografico llevado a cabo en el Caribe colombiano sobre las practicas y los espacios cotidianos de la reproduccion social, que definimos como geografıas ordinarias, este artıculo explora las practicas de cuidado atravesadas por genero y su papel en el mantenimiento y la irrupcion de la violencia paramilitar y el extractivismo agrario. El enfoque, no solo en los efectos generizados de la guerra y el extractivismo, sino tambien en el papel constitutivo del genero en la configuracion de estos procesos y dinamicas, nos permite contribuir a la literatura reciente sobre el extractivismo, el despojo y la violencia desde un punto de vista feminista.

Keywords: ordinary geographies, gender, care, extractivism, dispossession, war, Colombia, geografías ordinarias, género, cuidado, extractivismo, despojo, guerra

Topics: Agriculture, Armed Conflict, Extractive Industries, Gender, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Non-State Armed Groups, Paramilitaries, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict, Violence Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2020

Racialized Geographies and the ‘War on Drugs’: Gender Violence, Militarization, and Criminalization of Indigenous Peoples

Citation:

Hernández Castillo, Rosalva Aída. 2019. “Racialized Geographies and the ‘War on Drugs’: Gender Violence, Militarization, and Criminalization of Indigenous Peoples.” The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 24 (3): 635–52.

Author: Rosalva Aída Hernández Castillo

Abstract:

SPANISH ABSTRACT:
En este artículo reflexiono sobre el impacto que está teniendo la llamada “guerra contra el narco” en los cuerpos y territorios de los pueblos indígenas de México. Tomando como ventana analítica las historias de vida de mujeres víctimas de violencia sexual en regiones militarizadas y paramilitarizadas, así como las historias de exclusión de mujeres indígenas presas en el marco de la lucha contra el narcotráfico, me interesa establecer un vínculo entre la ocupación mediante la violación de los cuerpos de las mujeres indígenas, su control y encarcelamiento, con la ocupación de sus territorios y el despojo de sus recursos naturales. Se trata de procesos que se dan demanera simultánea y que responden a las lógicas neocoloniales del capitalismo en cuya reproducción han sido fundamentales las desigualdades de género y raza.
 
ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
This article examines the effects of the “war on drugs” on the bodies and territories of indigenous peoples of Mexico. This article uses the life histories of women victims of sexual violence in militarized and paramilitarized regions as the analytical framework to inspect, histories of exclusion of indigenous women incarcerated in the context of the war on drugs. This research argues that there are deeply entangled inter-connections between occupation of indigenous women’s bodies through the violation, control, and incarceration and the occupation of indigenous territories and dispossession of their natural resources. These processes take place simultaneously and respond to the neocolonial logics of capitalism, within which gender and race inequalities are essential for their reproduction. 

Keywords: gender, human rights, law, Indigenous people

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Indigenous, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Paramilitaries, Race, Sexual Violence, SV against Women Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Mexico

Year: 2019

Governing a Liminal Land Deal: The Biopolitics and Necropolitics of Gender

Citation:

Chung, Youjin B. 2020. “Governing a Liminal Land Deal: The Biopolitics and Necropolitics of Gender.” Antipode 52 (3): 722–41.

Author: Youjin B. Chung

Abstract:

Over the past decade, there has been a surge in large-scale land acquisitions around the world. Yet, increasing evidence suggests that many of the prominent land deals signed during the global land rush are struggling to materialise. This emergent pattern of liminality has important implications for understanding the everyday, contingent, and gendered processes of land deal governance and subject formation. Drawing on ethnographic research, this article examines the gendered governance of a “liminal” land deal in coastal Tanzania, through a case of the EcoEnergy Sugar Project. It shows how the project’s prolonged delay has given rise, over time, to two contradistinctive sets of actors and mechanisms of control: biopolitical interventions of international development consultants focused on livelihood improvements, and necro political interventions of district paramilitary forces focused on surveillance and violence. While seemingly contradictory, I argue that both enactments of power fundamentally relied on and reproduced normative gender in rural Tanzania.

Keywords: land grab, biopolitics, necropolitics, gender, development, Tanzania

Topics: Development, Environment, Gender, Land Grabbing, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Paramilitaries, Livelihoods, Violence Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Tanzania

Year: 2020

De la Guerra a la Esperanza: Las Estrategias de Afrontamiento de Reintegrados de las Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia

Citation:

Echeverry, Paula Andrea Cárdenas, Ana Milena Montoya Ruiz, y Olga Cristina Gutiérrez. 2018. "De la Guerra a la Esperanza: Las Estrategias de Afrontamiento de Reintegrados de las Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia." Opinión Jurídica 17 (35): 93-116.

Authors: Paula Andrea Cárdenas Echeverry, Ana Milena Montoya Ruiz, Olga Cristina Gutiérrez

Abstract:

SPANISH ABSTRACT:
El presente artículo es producto del estudio exploratorio “Estrategias personales en hombres y mujeres excombatientes de las Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia y resignificación de su proyecto de vida” realizado en la ciudad de Medellín, Colombia, el cual a partir de los testimonios de dos excombatientes, identificó y analizó las estrategias de afrontamiento incorporadas en su proceso y que han incidido en la resignificación de sus experiencias de vida en la guerra. La investigación usó la metodología del estudio de caso, aplicada en un hombre y una mujer excombatientes de las Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) que culminaron su proceso de reintegración −promovido por la Agencia Colombiana para la Reintegración− y que decidieron participar de la investigación voluntariamente. A partir de sus testimonios se realizó un acercamiento a algunas experiencias compartidas por hombres y mujeres en la guerra y se dio cuenta de la influencia que tienen las condiciones socio-históricas y de género para reconstruir un proyecto de vida en la legalidad. Finalmente, como producto de este diálogo se formulan algunas propuestas para las intervenciones de excombatientes del conflicto armado en Colombia como aportes al proceso de reincorporación actual.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
This paper is a product of the exploratory study “Personal strategies in men and women, ex-combatants of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia and the resignification of their life project”, carried out in the city of Medellín, Colombia, based on the testimonies of two ex-combatants. It identifies and analyses the coping strategies incorporated in the process that have influen-ced the resignification of their life experiences in the war. The methodology applied was case studies with ex-combatants, a man and a woman, of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) who completed their reintegration process, promoted by the Colombian Agency for Re-integration and who voluntarily participated in the investigation. With their testimonies, an ap-proach to some of the experiences shared by men and women in the war was possible, and the influence of socio-historical and gender conditions to reconstruct a life project in legality was made evident. Finally, some proposals are formulated for the interventions of ex-combatants of the armed conflict in Colombia as contributions to the current reincorporation process.
of the armed conflict in Colombia as contributions to the current reincorporation

Keywords: conflicto armado en Colombia, Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, reintegración y reincorporación de excombatientes, estrategias personales de afrontamiento, enfoque de género, armed conflict in Colombia, reintegration and reincorporation of excombatants, personal coping strategies, gender approach

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, DDR, Gender, Gender Analysis, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Paramilitaries Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2018

Genderization and Links with Illegal Armed Groups in Colombia

Citation:

Onofre, Darío Reynaldo Muñoz. 2014. "Genderization and Links with Illegal Armed Groups in Colombia." In Psychosocial Approaches to Peace-Building in Colombia, edited by Stella Sacipa-Rodriguez and Maritza Montero, 121-36. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Author: Darîo Reynaldo Muñoz

Abstract:

This chapter presents qualitative research results on the relationship between gender socialization (genderization) and the joining of illegal armed groups in Colombia, through narratives of 21 male and 13 female ex-combatant guerrillas and paramilitaries, obtained through focus groups, in-depth interviews, and field diaries. The analytical perspective includes: constructionist social psychology, the theory of gender performativity and perspectives from technologies of the self. The results show how certain gender patterns normalized during infancy socialization have a bearing on the future possibility of joining armed groups. They also show how participation in these groups strengthens belligerent subjectivities. The conclusions suggest psychosocial keys for disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration processes, from an ethical–political perspective which combines gender and cultures of peace.

Keywords: gender patterns, gender socialization, guerrillas, para-military troops, demobilization, disarmament, reintegration, children, ethical-political perspective

Topics: Combatants, DDR, Gender, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Paramilitaries, Non-State Armed Groups, Peacebuilding Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2014

Conflicto Armado, Impacto Psicosocial Y Reparación en Colombia: La Voz de Las Mujeres

Citation:

Martinez, Maitane Arnoso, Manuel Cárdenas Castro, Carlos M. Beristain, and Carla Afonso. 2017. "Conflicto Armado, Impacto Psicosocial Y Reparación en Colombia: La Voz de Las Mujeres." Universitas Psychologica 16 (3): 1-12.

Authors: Maitane Arnoso Martinez, Manuel Cardenas Castro, Carlos M. Beristain, Carla Afonso

Abstract:

SPANISH ABSTRACT:
El conflicto armado en Colombia ha durado cincuenta años y ha producido numerosas víctimas. Las mujeres constituyen un colectivo que ha sido especialmente afectado e invisibilizado por la violencia. A partir de 935 entrevistas a mujeres colombianas (17-83 años) pertenecientes a diferentes comunidades étnicas (que se identificaron como mestizas, afroamericanas, indígenas o blancas), el presente estudio explora las violaciones a los derechos humanos que sufrieron, el impacto psicosocial de las mismas, las estrategias utilizadas por las mujeres para hacer frente a la violencia y las medidas que consideran relevantes para reparar los daños que les fueron ocasionados. Utilizando una perspectiva metodológica feminista (Harding, 1987), la recolección de datos fue realizada por mujeres entrevistando a otras mujeres que querían compartir experiencias de violencia a menudo invisibilizadas y, a través de ellas, poder generar un aprendizaje colectivo y proceso de empoderamiento mutuo a partir de una resignificación colectiva de los hechos acontecidos. El instrumento utilizado incluyó una metodología ya contrastada en otros contextos donde se han producidoe violaciones a los derechos humanos (Arnoso et al., 2014; Beristain, 2009). Las respuestas fueron codificadas para un tratamiento adicional cuantitativo y cualitativo. Se encontró una relación entre los diferentes tipos de violencia y las regiones de origen de las participantes, siendo las mujeres indígenas y afroamericanas quienes más negativamente afectadas se mostraron por el conflicto. Los resultados indican que los grupos paramilitares fueron los agentes con mayor frecuencia identificados como autores de la violencia.
 
ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
The armed conflict in Colombia has gone on for fifty years and produced numerous victims. Women make up a collective that has been especially affected and made invisible by the violence. Based on 935 interviews of Colombian women (17-83 years) belonging to different ethnic communities (who had identified themselves as mixed-race, AfroAmericans, indigenous, or white), the present study explores the Human Rights violations they experienced, the psychosocial impact of these violations, the strategies these women used to cope with the violence, and the measures they consider valuable to redress the damage inflicted. Using a feminist methodological perspective (Harding, 1987), data collection was carried out by women interviewing other women who wanted to bring back often invisibilized experiences of violence and thus contribute to their collective learning and empowerment process. They were to do this based on a shared redefinition of the facts. The instrument used included study methods used in other contexts of human rights violations (Arnoso, Beristain & González Hidalgo, 2014; Beristain, 2009) and the answers were coded for further quantitative and qualitative treatment. A relationship was found between the different types of violence and the regions the sample came from, with indigenous and Afro-American women affected more negatively by the conflict. The results indicate that the paramilitary groups were the agents identified most often as the perpetrators of the violence.

Keywords: Colombia, armed conflict, psychosocial consequences, coping strategies, reparation, women, Conflicto Armado, consecuencias psicosociales, estrategias de afrontamiento, reparación, Mujeres

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnicity, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Indigenous, Justice, Reparations, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Paramilitaries, Rights, Human Rights, Violence Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2017

Tierra, Derechos y Género. Leyes, Políticas y Prácticas en Contextos de Guerra y Paz

Citation:

United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). 2006. Tierra, Derechos y Género. Leyes, Políticas y Prácticas en Contextos de Guerra y Paz. Bogotá: United Nations. 

Author: Donny Meertens

Annotation:

"Este documento ofrece una primera mirada sobre la problemática de los derechos de las mujeres a la propiedad de la tierra en Colombia, con miras a describir su devenir histórico, visibilizar las dificultades persistentes e identificar los retos tanto para la política pública como para los movimientos de mujeres que buscan ampliar y consolidar su ciudadanía. La preocupación por esta temática se enmarca dentro de los dos objetivos del Programa de Paz y Seguridad de UNIFEM en Colombia: visibilizar el impacto diferenciado del conflicto sobre las mujeres y fortalecer los enfoques de prevención y protección para mujeres afectadas por el conflicto" (Meertens 2006, 4).

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict Prevention, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Conflict, Gender, Women, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Paramilitaries, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2006

Masculinities in Transition? Exclusion, Ethnosocial Power, and Contradictions in Excombatant Community-Based Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland

Citation:

Holland, Curtis, and Gordana Rabrenovic. 2018. "Masculinities in Transition? Exclusion, Ethnosocial Power, and Contradictions in Excombatant Community-Based Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland." Men and Masculinities 21 (5): 729-55.

Authors: Curtis Holland, Gordana Rabrenovic

Abstract:

This study critically examines how masculinities and intersecting ethnonational and social class identities underscore the social and political agencies of excombatants in Northern Ireland and in the specific context of community-based peacebuilding. The authors draw on interviews with female and male leaders in grassroots and governmental organizations, which illustrate how state-led practices of exclusion reshape such intersectional identities and increase the instrumentality of hypermasculinist, pseudo-paramilitary practices in maintaining excombatants’ status and control on neighborhood levels. The research documents how structural dynamics of excombatants’ social class locations and political disaffection help shape their social agencies of “resistance,” underscored by desires for autonomy and recognition, and channeled by ethnogendered scripts rooted in both violent cultures of paramilitarism and nonviolent peacebuilding masculinities. The implications on women of male excombatants’ takeover of leadership roles in the community sector are also discussed.

Keywords: masculinities, peacebuilding, paramilitaries, class, Northern Ireland, exclusion, transitional justice

Topics: Armed Conflict, Class, Combatants, Male Combatants, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Justice, Transitional Justice, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Paramilitaries, Peacebuilding Regions: Europe, Northern Europe Countries: United Kingdom

Year: 2018

From Guns to God: Mobilizing Evangelical Christianity in Urabá, Colombia

Citation:

Theidon, Kimberly. 2015. “From Guns to God: Mobilizing Evangelical Christianity in Urabá, Colombia.” In Religious Responses to Violence: Human Rights in Latin America Past and Present, edited by Alexander Wilde, 443–76. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

Author: Kimberly Theidon

Annotation:

Summary:
“This chapter draws on field research with former combatants from the paramilitaries Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN). Since January 2005 I have been conducting anthropological research on the individual and collective demobilization programs. To date my Colombian colleague Paola Andrea Betancourt and I have interviewed 236 male and 53 female former combatants. In addition, we have interviewed representatives of state entities and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as well as the military, the Catholic and Evangelical churches, and various sectors of the 'host communities' to which former combatants are sent or to which they return. I sought to understand the local dynamics between victims and victimizers and the experiences of those individuals and communities the UNDPKO rightly describes as lying somewhere in between" (Theidon 2015, p. 445). 
 
“I begin with an overview of Colombia’s current DDR program and its impact on Urabá, located in the region with the highest concentration of demobilized combatants. I then explore how evangelical pastors manage memory and the past, issues of great relevance in the lives of former combatants and those around them. This leads to a discussion of repertoires of justice and the elaboration of local theologies of redemption and reconciliation. I conclude by analyzing the role these churches play in providing a space for the development of alternative masculinities and the much-desired personal transformations that may allow these former combatants to forge una nueva vida” (p. 446).

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, DDR, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Justice, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Paramilitaries, NGOs, Post-Conflict, Religion Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2015

Pages

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