Criminal heterarchy and its critics: governance and the making of insecurity in Colombia

ABSTRACT

The FARC, Colombia’s oldest and biggest guerrilla organisation, has long been constructed as the country’s public enemy number one, an enemy that is increasingly portrayed as an outright criminal actor who abandoned all political ambitions. This image of the FARC as a criminal threat to the Colombian state and society is central to a broader turn towards criminalisation in Colombian politics. Through the lens of a critical governance perspective and the notion of the state’s discursive selectivity this article analyses turning points during which the construction of Colombian society’s criminal enemies became a driving force in the country’s security governance. Which social forces support the implementation of criminalising forms of security governance and how? What are the social and political consequences of the latter? In answering these questions, the article argues that the war on (guerrilla) crime assumes a ‘productive’ role for Colombia’s formal democracy.

KEYWORDS:

• Criminalisation
• strategic–relational approach
• Colombia
• security governance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Jessop, State Power, 125ff., 202ff.

2. Simon, Governing Through Crime.

3. Ibid.

4. Jessop, State Power.

5. Grande, “Governance-Forschung in der Governance-Falle?,” 566f.

6. Auyero, Bourgois, and Scheper-Hughes, Violence at the Urban Margins; Caldeira and Holston, “Democracy and Violence in Brazil.”

7. Amar, Security Archipelago; Iturralde, “Colombian Prisons as a Core ”.

8. Gustafson, “The Criminalization of Poverty”.

9. García and Anderson, “Violence, Addiction, Recovery”.

10. Mora, “La Criminalización de La Pobreza.”

11. Costa Vargas and Amparo Alves, “Geographies of Death”; Jaffe, “The Hybrid State.”

12. Vilhena Vieira, “Desigualdad Estructural”.

13. Gledhill, The New War; Rodríguez Rejas, “La Espiral de La Militarización ”.

14. Neocleous, War Power, Police Power; Pearce, “Perverse State Formation”.

15. Garland, Punishment and Modern Society, 277ff.

16. See Endnote 2.

17. For an overview of this transformation debate Grande, “Governance-Forschung in Der Governance-Falle?,” 570f.

18. Jessop, State Power, 202ff; Jessop, “The Rise of Governance”.

19. Davies, Challenging Governance Theory.

20. Jessop, “Network Governance Theory”; Jessop, State Power.

21. Davies, Challenging Governance Theory, 18.

22. Jessop, “The Rise of Governance”; Jessop, State Power.

23. Davies, “Network governance theory”, 2693.

24. Jessop, “Kapitalismus, Steuerung Und Staat”.

25. See Endnote 3.

26. Jessop, State Power, 126.

27. Ibid., 123.

28. Ibid., 198ff.

29. Davies, Challenging Governance Theory, 5.

30. For the Latin American debate on the state, see Thwaites 2012.

31. Jessop, State Power, 126, 127.

32. Ibid., 50ff.

33. Franco Restrepo, Orden Contrainsurgente y Dominación, 384.

34. Calveiro, “Acerca de La Difícil,” 30.

35. Jessop, State Power, 42ff.

36. Uprimny and Sánchez Duque, “Derecho Penal y Protesta Social,” 49f.

37. Congreso de la República de Colombia, “Código Penal Colombiano”.

38. Aponte, Guerra y Derecho Penal Del Enemigo.

39. Simon, Governing through Crime, 141ff.

40. CED-INS, “Ruana y Cacerola En El Paro Nacional”.

41. Simon, Governing Through Crime, 111ff; Jessop, State Power.

42. Simon, Governing Through Crime, 14.

43. Grupo Memoria Histórica, “Basta Ya! Colombia,” 43ff.

44. Simon, Governing Through Crime, 5.

45. Uribe Vélez, “Manifiesto Democrático”.

46. Beare, “Fear-Based Security” 12.

47. Uribe, “Manifiesto Democrático”, 4–5; Uribe cited in Franco Restrepo, Orden Contrainsurgente y Dominación, 55.

48. Simon, Governing Through Crime, 75ff.

49. Ministerio del Interior República de Colombia, “Decreto Número 2002 del 2002,” 1.

50. See Endnote 37.

51. Ministerio de Defensa Nacional, República de Colombia, “Directiva Ministerial Permanente (Secreta) No. 29”.

52. General Attorney Interview Amat, “Yo Encontré Una Situación”.

53. FEDES, “Soacha: La Punta Del Iceberg,” 41.

54. Semana, “La Historia Inédita.”

55. World Prison Brief 2016.

56. Ibid.

57. Uribe Vélez, “Speech at Congreso”.

58. Gallón Giraldo, Politica de “Seguridad Democratica”, 12.

59. Prison Insider, “Annual Report Colombia.”

60. Ibid.; CSS, “Segundo Informe,” 2.

61. DeJusticia, “Mujeres, Políticas de Drogas,” 44.

62. Ibid., 13.

63. Iturralde, “Colombian Prisons as a Core”.

64. See Endnote 38.

65. Uribe Vélez, “Manifiesto Democrático”.

66. UNDP, “Regional Human Development Report”, 11; DeJusticia, “Mujeres, Políticas de Drogas”.

67. Semana, “Recupera”.

68. Agencia Prensa Rural, “Ruana y Cacerola.”

69. CED-INS, “Ruana y Cacerola.”

70. See Endnote 68.

71. Redacción El Espectador, “Paro Agrario Sí Está”.

72. Fundación DHOC, “Dos Años Después”.

73. Prison Insider, “Annual Report Colombia.”

74. La Silla Vacía/Universidad Javeriana, “Debate”.

75. Gutiérrez, “Mineros S.A. – No Podemos.”

76. Davies, “Network Governance Theory.”

77. Simon, “Governance through Crime,” 21, 18.

78. See López, “La Refundación de la Patria”, Gallón Giraldo, Politica de “Seguridad Democratica”.

79. See Jenss, Grauzonen Staatlicher Gewalt.

80. Jessop, “The Rise of Governance”.

81. See Endnote 79.

82. Davies, “Network Governance Theory”, 2693.

83. See Endnote 58, 15.

84. Jenss, Grauzonen Staatlicher Gewalt, 262ff.

85. See Franco Restrepo, Orden Contrainsurgente, on plausible negation.

86. Franco Restrepo, Orden Contrainsurgente, 394.

87. Jessop, State Power, Jessop “The Rise of Governance”; Jenss, Grauzonen Staatlicher Gewalt.

88. Uribe Hincapié, “El Republicanismo Patriótico”, 14f.

89. Aponte, Guerra y derecho penal del enemigo.

90. See Endnote 59.

91. Cited in Vargas Meza, “Las Drogas Como Economía,” 4.

92. Díaz Sandoval, “Bogotá”; Redacción El Espectador, “Paro Agrario Sí Está.”

93. García, “De Por Qué Odiamos”.

94. Cited in GARA, “Las FARC ya habían”.

95. Centro de Memoria Histórica, “Encuesta Nacional,” 21.

96. López Hernández, “La Refundación de La Patria”, 76; Centro de Memoria Histórica, “Encuesta Nacional”.

97. Akerman, “Las Finanzas Del No.”

98. See Endnote 2.

99. Jessop, State Power, 202ff.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alke Jenss

Alke Jenss is a post-doc researcher at Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institute in Freiburg, researching linkages between (in)security, (il)legal economy and fiscal restraints in the global south, with a regional focus on Latin America, especially Colombia and Mexico. Her research is situated at the intersection of state theory, development studies and spatial theory approaches. For her PhD thesis on state transformation in Colombia and Mexico under the auspices of the war on crime (at Marburg University), she received the ADLAF dissertation award 2016.