CIAO DATE: 07/03

Understanding Colombia: History and Background

A Country on the Verge of Collapse?

Ever more frequently, one hears that Colombia is at the point of disintegration. This concept could be developed in several ways. Let us look at two of them. A report in TIME magazine about a territory of 40 thousand square kilometers that President Pastrana marked out as a demilitarized zone in 1998, so as to proceed with peace negotiations with the FARC, claimed that: "Colombia is in danger of being divided into three parts, along lines dictated by the nation's mountain geography. The Marxist guerrillas are ascendant in the south; the government controls central areas and large urban centers; and right-wing, army backed paramilitary forces...hold sway in much of the north." (Latin American Edition, September 28,1998)

Another view is expressed by one of the most influential observers of Colombian violence, Daniel Pécaut, who is equally emphatic about the dangers threatening Colombia: "This country has not finished constructing itself as a country, as a society that accepts that there is a State and a law to be respected. This country prefers, and is accustomed to negotiating everything. The law is an instrument to be used for negotiation. It is also a country of intermediaries: ... those minor local politicians at the base and the lawyers who manage the laws and who are a part of any negotiation." He goes on to add: "Another explanation as to why people become used to violence is that this country has no founding myth of a unified nation. Brazil has its unifying myth and there the State is very strong. Argentina and Chile each have their unifying myth...Colombia invented its only myth: that its whole history is one of violence. It looks like a myth, because there have been periods in this country when there was no extreme violence, for instance between the years 1910 and 1945 with the exception of 1933 and 1934." (Revista Estrategia, Bogota, Nov. 15, 1996)

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