Private Security and Paramilitarism in Colombia: Governing in the Midst of Violence

The article examines the links between paramilitary groups and the Colombian state within a context of pervasive violence. Colombia represents a particularly interesting case as high-intensity violence is accompanied by the preservation of a relatively strong institutional framework. Most interpreta...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of politics in Latin America 2017-12, Vol.9 (3), p.27-48
Main Author: Grajales, Jacobo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Counterinsurgency
Humanities and Social Sciences
Outsourcing
Paramilitary groups
Political science
Preservation
Private sector
Security services
Strength
Violence
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The article examines the links between paramilitary groups and the Colombian state within a context of pervasive violence. Colombia represents a particularly interesting case as high-intensity violence is accompanied by the preservation of a relatively strong institutional framework. Most interpretations of this relationship consider it to be either a sign of state weakness or a centralized strategy to outsource violence. Taking a different stance, the paper argues that the existence of paramilitary groups compels us to analyze government through practices vis-à-vis the treatment of violence. A policy linking private security and counterinsurgency, crafted in the early 1990s and known as Convivir, provides an illustration of this approach.
ISSN:1866-802X
1868-4890
DOI:10.1177/1866802X1700900302