http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3543-9545
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Abstract
In many post-war countries, the relative security brought to rural areas is construed by government officials and business actors as an opportunity for development. This is particularly true for marginal areas, where opportunities for economic development had previously been hindered by the threat of violence. This provides a favourable context for the construction of commodity frontiers. Through the case of Colombia, I show that one of the main challenges faced by frontier policy narratives amounts to differentiating wartime dispossession from peacetime legitimate accumulation. This poses intractable challenges to policymakers and business actors, as it fuels the contradictions between peace consolidation and post-war development.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Acknowledgements
A previous version of this paper was presented at the international conference ‘Governance at the Edge of the State’, in Copenhagen, and benefited from insightful comments from the public and participants. I am particularly thankful to Christian Lund for his invitation and hospitality. Finally, I wish to thank the anonymous reviewers and editors at TWQ for their very rigorous but considerate evaluation.
Notes
1 Berdal and Zaum, Political Economy of Statebuilding; Cramer, Civil War Is Not a Stupid Thing; Distler, Stavrevska, and Vogel, “Economies of Peace”; Jennings and Bøås, “Transactions and Interactions”; Pantuliano, Uncharted Territory; Pugh, Cooper, and Turner, Whose Peace?
2 Grajales, “Losing Land in Times of Peace.”
3 Ottaway, “Rebuilding State Institutions in Collapsed States.”
4 Klein, Shock Doctrine.
5 Rasmussen and Lund, “Reconfiguring Frontier Spaces,” 391.
6 Ibid.; Wolford et al., “Governing Global Land Deals.”
7 Li, Land’s End, 110; see also Hall, Hirsch, and Li, Powers of Exclusion.
8 Jones, Shanahan, and McBeth, Science of Stories, 9.
9 Roe, Narrative Policy Analysis.
10 Bjork-James, “Hunting Indians”; Baretta and Markoff, “Civilization and Barbarism”; Lowenhaupt Tsing, “Natural Resources and Capitalist Frontiers”; Peluso and Lund, “New Frontiers of Land Control: Introduction”; Watts, “Accumulating Insecurity and Manufacturing Risk”; Moore, Capitalism in the Web of Life.
11 Ybarra, “Taming the Jungle.”
12 Martiniello, “Social Struggles in Uganda’s Acholiland.”
13 Woods, “Ceasefire Capitalism.”
14 Cramer, Civil War Is not a Stupid Thing.
15 Rasmussen and Lund, “Reconfiguring Frontier Spaces.”
16 Watts, “Accumulating Insecurity and Manufacturing Risk.”
17 Ballvé, “Grassroots Masquerades”; Ballvé, “Narco-Frontiers.”
18 Fajardo, Las guerras de la agricultura colombiana.
19 DANE, Tercer Censo Nacional Agropecuario.
20 Gómez, Sánchez-Ayala, and Vargas, “Armed Conflict, Land Grabs.”
21 Reyes, Guerreros y Campesinos; Machado and Meertens, La Tierra en Disputa; Londoño, Tierras y Conflictos Rurales; Gutiérrez Sanín and Vargas Reina, El despojo paramilitar y su variación; Meertens, Elusive Justice.
22 McKay, “Democratising Land Control.”
23 García Trujillo, Havana Peace Agreement.
24 OCHA, Humanitarian Needs Overview; PARES, Más Sombras que Luces.
25 Maher and Thomson, “A Precarious Peace?”
26 Ojeda, “Green Pretexts”; Ojeda et al., “Paisajes del Despojo Cotidiano.”
27 Grajales, “Violence Entrepreneurs.”
28 Richards, New War: An Ethnographic Approach.
29 Debos, Living by the Gun in Chad.
30 Gill, Century of Violence.
31 Grajales, Gobernar en Medio de la Violencia.
32 DNP, “CONPES 3859.”
33 Grajales, “Losing Land in Times of Peace.”
34 Rausch, Tropical Plains Frontier.
35 Rausch, Llanos Frontier.
36 Rausch, Territorial Rule in Colombia, 5.
37 Dudley, Walking Ghosts; Riveros Gómez, Pueblos Arrasados.
38 Interview with Alvaro Uribe Calad, former Executive Director of Corpoica, Bogotá, November 2019.
39 Interview with Carlos Augusto del Valle, SAC Deputy Director, Bogotá, July 2015.
40 Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural, “The Renaissance of the Orinoco River Savannas”.
41 Verdad Abierta, “Grupo Aliar-La Fazenda.”
42 Salinas Abdala, “El Caso de Colombia”; Somo and Indepaz, Reconquering and Dispossession in the Altillanura; Mesa Copartes, “Desplazar y Despojar”; FAO, Concentración y extranjerización de tierras productivas.
43 Oxfam International, “Divide and Purchase.”
44 Machado, La Reforma Rural.
45 Interview with Carlos Augusto del Valle.
46 Oxfam International, “Divide and Purchase.”
47 “Detrás de Mónica otros vendrán,” El Cerealista, February 2009.
48 García Trujillo, Havana Peace Agreement.
49 Dávila, “Land of Lawyers”; Gutiérrez-Sanín, ¿Qué Hacer Con el Tierrero?
50 Gutiérrez-Sanín, Peña-Huertas, and Parada-Hernández, La Tierra Prometida.
51 Garay-Salamanca, El Reto Ante la Trajedia Humanitaria, 45.
52 Regarding the rationale of these enquiries, see Grajales, “Land Grabbing, Legal Contention.”
53 Estrada and Rodríguez, “La Política de Tierras”; Dávila, “Land of Lawyers.’”
54 Interview with Hugo Gómez, Programme Manager at Mercy Corps, Bogotá, July 2015.
55 Interview with Ivonne Moreno, Senior Consultant, World Bank, Bogotá, October 2017; interview with María Lizarazo, National Coordination Officer, UNDP, Bogotá, July 2015; interview with Johnny Ariza, EU Cooperation Officer, Bogotá, July 2015.
56 Interview with Diego Mora, Deputy Director at the DNP (National Planning Department), Bogotá, October 2017; interview with Margarita Varón, former Special Advisor at DNP, Bogotá, November 2019.
57 Restrepo and Bernal, La Cuestión Agraria.
58 Incoder was eventually replaced by the National Land Agency (ANT), which has a larger mandate over land administration. ANT has been tasked with the distribution and formalization of land within the framework of the comprehensive rural reform.
59 Restrepo, Implementación de la Política Integral de Tierras.
60 Interview with Miriam Villegas, Bogotá, November 2019.
61 Interviews with Jhenifer Mojica, Bogotá, July 2015 and October 2017.
62 Interview with former Incoder staffer, Bogotá, July 2015.
63 Interview with Jhenifer Mojica; interview with Andrés Bermúdes, journalist at the La Silla Vacía web magazine Bogotá, July 2015.
64 Interview with Mojica.
65 Interviews with Mojica and Villegas.
66 See for instance the ruling for the case Finagro v. Mónica Colombia SAS et al., No. 2012-801–070 (Superintendencia de sociedades, October 16, 2013).
67 Interview with Carlos Suescún, congressional staffer for congressman Arias, Bogotá, July 2015.
68 Oxfam International, “Divide and Purchase,” 18.
69 Somo and Indepaz, Reconquering and Dispossession in the Altillanura.
70 Interview with Aida Pesquera, country director at Oxfam, Bogotá, July 2015.
71 A similar configuration is described by Schlimmer in the case of Tanzania. Schlimmer, “Talking ‘Land Grabs’ Is Talking Politics.”
72 Interview with Miriam Villegas.
73 Interview with Jhenifer Mojica.
74 DNP, “CONPES 3797,” 14.
75 DNP, “CONPES 3797,” 15.
76 DNP, “CONPES 3797,” 24.
77 Gaviria Muñoz, “Presentacion. Plan maestro de la Orinoquia.”
78 Interview with Dora Inés Rey, UPRA Deputy Director, Bogotá, October 2017.
79 DNP, “CONPES 3797”; UPRA, Planificación Regional: Altillanura.
80 Interview with Carlos Augusto del Valle.
81 Dinero, “Altillanura Busca Salidas a las Trabas de su Desarrollo.”
82 Interview with Andrés García, Special Advisor for land policies at the government’s negotiating team, Bogotá, October 2017.
83 DNP, “CONPES 3917,” 39.
84 DANE, Tercer Censo Nacional Agropecuario.
85 Interview with Miriam Villegas.
86 Interview with the former director of Incoder’s agrarian procedures division, Bogotá, November 2019.
87 Interview with Martha Gonfrier, Dignillanos spokeswoman, Villavicencio, July 2015.
88 Interview with Consuelo Devia, Dignillanos Vice President, Villavicencio, July 2015.
89 Field notes, Villavicencio, July 2015.
90 DANE, Tercer Censo Nacional Agropecuario.
91 Riveros Gómez, Pueblos Arrasados.
92 Arias Vanegas, Ganadería, Paisaje y Región, 115.
93 Allain, “Défendre le Territoire,” 504.
94 Interview with ANZORC coordinator, Bogotá, October 2017.
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Jacobo Grajales
Jacobo Grajales is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Lille, France, and Fellow of the Institut Universitaire de France. Having previously conducted research on the relationships between the state and armed groups in Colombia, he is now examining the links between post-conflict politics and land policies, with a comparative perspective. His past and current research projects and publications can be retrieved at www.jacobo-grajales.net.