Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Historical Aspects of Colombia’s Strategic Landscape

  • Chapter
Social Forces and the Revolution in Military Affairs

  • 44 Accesses

Abstract

The Colombian case is arguably the most important strategic crisis in the Americas at the dawn of the new millennium. It is Latin America’s epicenter of brutal warfare, narcotrafficking, and population displacement. Along with the Israeli-Palestinian war, and the contest between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, the Colombian imbroglio is among the oldest military conflicts in the world. Yet, except for the odd “sound-bite” or perhaps a brief story buried in the back pages of the international press, it has remained off the media radar screen. And despite the eclipsing fears of global terror and the quagmire in Iraq, Colombia is among the largest recipients of U.S. military assistance globally. For example, it ranked seventh with regard to U.S. foreign aid in 20051 and was the third largest recipient of U.S. military aid for a number of years between 1998 and 2004. Colombia, then, deserves more scrutiny than it has received. We shall explore Colombia’s strategic significance in relation to the RMA as well as the intriguing question of why this country has been relatively hidden from the global eye.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. Ahead of Colombia in 2005 were Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, and Jordan. For additional related information, see Curt Tarnoff and Larry Nowels, Congressional Research Service, CRS Report for Congress: Foreign Aid; An Introductory Overview of US Programs and Policy (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 2004), p. 13.

    Google Scholar 

  2. An excellent discussion of Colombia’s violence is Malcolm Deas and Fernando Gaitán Daza, Dos ensayos especulativos sobre la violencia en Colombia (Bogotá: Tercer Mundo, 1985).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Even cannibalism was apparent in the region of present-day Cali and northward. See Frank Safford and Marco Palacios, Colombia: Fragmented Land, Divided Society (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 21.

    Google Scholar 

  4. See Paul Oquist, Violence, Conflict and Politics in Colombia (New York: Academic Press, 1980), p. 26.

    Google Scholar 

  5. See John Coatsworth, “Colombia: Roots of Violence in Colombia,” Revista: Harvard Review of the Americas, vol. 2, #3, Spring 2003, p. 8.

    Google Scholar 

  6. For a broader discussion of this, see Charles Berquist, Labor in Latin America: Comparative Essays on Chile, Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1986), p. 293.

    Google Scholar 

  7. For a broader discussion of this, see James Rochlin, Vanguard Revolutionaries in Latin America: Peru, Colombia and Mexico (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2003), chapter 2.

    Google Scholar 

  8. See Eric Hobsbawn, Rebeldes Primitivos (Barcelona: Ediciones Ariel, 1980), p. 229.

    Google Scholar 

  9. See Consultoría para losDerechos Humanos y elDesplazamiento Forzado (Codhes), Un Pais Que Huye: Desplazamiento y violencia (Bogotá: Codhes, 2003), p. 146.

    Google Scholar 

  10. This point is developed fully in Nazih Richani’s superb work The Political Economy of War and Peace in Colombia (Albany: SUNY, 2002). Richani argues convincingly that, especially since the 1980s, subversive groups, criminal syndicates, and the military establishment have reaped high profits from Colombia’s special brand of warfare and that this factor perpetuates the war. A similar point is made by

    Google Scholar 

  11. Eduardo Pizarro Leon-gomez in Una democracia asediada—balance y perspectivas del conflicto armado en Colombia (Bogotá: Norma, 2004), p. 91.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Regarding the use of the word “terror” to describe the Colombian case prior to post-9/11 usage, see Daniel Pecaut, “The Loss of Rights, the Meaning of Experience, and Social Connection: A Consideration of the Internally Displaced in Colombia,” International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, vol. 14, #1, 2000, p. 90.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Alvaro Mutis, The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll (New York: New York Review Books, 2002), p. 270.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. A. P. Martinich (Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2002), p. 95.

    Google Scholar 

  15. For a good discussion of this, see Carlos Fuentes, The Burning Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World (New York: Mariner Books, 1999), pp. 255–258.

    Google Scholar 

  16. See, for example, David Sowell, The Early Colombian Labor Movement: Artisans and Politics in Bogotá, 1882–1919 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992), p. 26.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Gabriel García Márquez, Living to Tell the Tale (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003), p. 303.

    Google Scholar 

  18. See Alberto Mayor Mora, Etica, Trabajo y Productividad en Antioquia (Bogotá: Tercer Mundo, 1984), p. 447.

    Google Scholar 

  19. See, for example, Cecilia Herrera, “City as a Modernizing Paradigm,” Pedagogica Historica, vol. 49, #1, 2003, pp. 65–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. See Nazih Richani, Systems of Violence: The Political Economy of War and Peace in Colombia (Albany: SUNY, 2002), p. 16.

    Google Scholar 

  21. For an excellent discussion of this, see Francisco Leal Buitrago, La Seguridad Nacional a la Deriva: Del Frente Nacional a la Posguerra Fria (Bogotá: Alphaomega, 2002), especially pp. 2–18.

    Google Scholar 

  22. For a broader discussion of this, see Doug Stokes, “Why the End of the Cold War Doesn’t Matter: The US War of Terror in Colombia,” Review of International Studies, vol. 29, #4, October 2002, p. 577.

    Google Scholar 

  23. See James Rochlin, Discovering the Americas: The Evolution of Canadian Foreign Policy towards Latin America ( Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press, 1994), pp. 211–212.

    Google Scholar 

  24. See Gustavo Almario Salazar, Historia de los Trabajadores Petroleros (Bogotá: Ediciones Cedetrabajo, 1984), p. 169.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Nicholás Rodríguez Bautista, “Ejército de Liberación Nacional: Una historia de vida,” in ELN: Una historia contada a dos voces, ed. Carlos Medina Gallego (Bogotá: Rodriguez Quito Editores, 1996), p. 159.

    Google Scholar 

  26. For example, it appears on the cover of the ELN’s “Posición del ELN sobre la privatización de ISA-ISAGEN,” pamphlet distributed by the group in Colombia, March 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  27. ELN, “Quienes Somos?” viewed March 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  28. ELN, “Correo del Magdalena,” no. 115, 18 October 1999, www.eln-voces.com, viewed 7 January 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (NewYork: Avon, 1970), p. 163.

    Google Scholar 

  30. See Mauricio Romero, Paramilitares y autodefensas, 1982–2003 (Bogotá: IEPRI, 2003), p. 133.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Defensoria del Pueblo—Colombia, Secretariado Nacional de Pastoral Social Caritas Colombiana, Antioquia: Nordeste (Bogotá: Defensoria del Pueblo, 2000), p. 26.

    Google Scholar 

  32. See Alejandro Reyes, “Drug Trafficking and the Guerrilla Movement in Colombia,” in Drug Trafficking in the Americas, ed. Bruce Bagley and William Walkers, III (Coral Gables: University of Miami, 1994), p. 125.

    Google Scholar 

  33. For a broader discussion of this, see Alexander Robin, “Colombian Trade Union Leader Patricia Buritica Rallies Opposition to Plan Colombia,” Guild Notes, vol. 24, #2, Summer 2000, p. 2.

    Google Scholar 

  34. See Fernán González, Pasado y Presente del Sindicalismo Colombiano (Bogotá: Centro de Investigación y Accion Social, 1975), p. 5.

    Google Scholar 

  35. See Daniel Pecaut, Politica y Sindicalismo en Colombia (Bogota: La Carreta, 1973), p. 89.

    Google Scholar 

  36. For a broader discussion of this, see Miguel Urrutia, The Development of the Colombian Labor Movement (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1969), p. 76.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Ibid., p. 16.

    Google Scholar 

  38. See Álvaro Delgado, Politica y movimiento obrero, 1970–1983 (Bogotá: Ediciones CEIS, 1984), p. 113.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Ibid., p. 191.

    Google Scholar 

  40. See Edgar Caicedo, Historia de las luchas sindicales en Colombia (Bogotá: Ediciones CEIS, 1971), p. 231.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Gobierno de Colombia, DANE, “Población Económicamente Activa y Número de Sindicalizados,” pamphlet, Censo ENS, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  42. See Nora Segura Escobar, “Colombia: A New Century, an Old War, and More Internal Displacement,” International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, vol. 14, #1, 2000, pp. 111–112.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Interview by author with Juan Pedro Schaerer, Jefede la Delegacion, Comite Internacional de la Cruza Roja, Bogotá, 19 February 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  44. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), “Displacement, Development, and Modernity in the Colombian Pacific,” pamphlet (London: UNESCO, 2003), pp. 158–159.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. James F. Rochlin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2007 James F. Rochlin

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Rochlin, J.F. (2007). Historical Aspects of Colombia’s Strategic Landscape. In: Social Forces and the Revolution in Military Affairs. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230609662_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation