Rape, Blaming the Victim and Social Control in Paramilitary Enclaves: An Approach to the Case of Colombia

Abstract

For several decades Colombia has been a theatre of civil war. Since the mid-1960s, armed guerrilla movements began to challenge a power seen as iniquitous, and from the early 1980s they in turn have been violently opposed by paramilitary groups which are largely tolerated by the state. The highest price for the ferocious confrontations is paid by non-combatants: with the opposing forces calculating their strength on the scale of the suffering inflicted on law-abiding civilians, the latter have become the main target for violence aimed at harming the enemy. One of the particularities of this violence is, frequently, its gendered nature. In the enclaves controlled by armed activists, soldiers, paramilitaries and guerrilla troops it is normal practice to use violence, including rape, to instil discipline over the women’s bodies and behaviour.