Vertreibung als Strategie: Landkonflikte in Kolumbien

Abstract

Schlagwörter: Raum, scale, gewaltsame Vertreibung, Lateinamerika, paramilitärische Gruppen, strategisch-relationaler Ansatz, Bewegung der Kleinbäuerinnen/-bauern

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Displacement as Policy: Land Conflicts in Colombia.

Abstract

Rural land conflicts in Colombia are typical of such conflicts in Latin  American, but Colombia is, at the same time, an exception: nowhere else has the violent displacement of people from regions with promising  agro-industrial or mining projects, and the outsourcing of violence to paramilitary groups, been so systematic. Out of a total population of approximately 44 million, the United Nations now estimates between 3.6 and 5.2 million internally displaced Colombians. This article analyses the violent reconfiguration of rural Colombia. It does not just look at the actual conflicts butalso at the relations of domination which, in turn, influence these conflicts and the production of space. Neil Brenner’s (2004) approach allows for a critical analysis of the developments in Colombia – most  notably how state strategies have radically restructured rural spaces from the 1980s onwards and how they more or less constituted a coherent state-spatial project during Álvaro Uribe Vélez’s two presidential terms from  2002-2010. More than other space-theoretical approaches, Brenner combines the process of spatial structuring with the question of the driving forces at different institutional scales for the remaking of state space. Doing this, Brenner adds a spatial perspective to Bob Jessop’s (2008)  strategic-relational approach to state theory and enables a differentiated analysis of processes in sub-national spaces and institutional scales, the modalities employed and the relation to subaltern spatial strategies. This makes this approach extremely interesting and helpful to better understand the complex landscape of rural confl icts in Colombia.

Keywords: space, scale, violent displacement, Latin America, paramilitary groups, strategic-relational approach, peasant movements