What do rebels do when they rule?

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Notes

1. The argument for doing this is to ‘protect’ the communities since the conflict is ongoing. I assume Arjona is concerned about the Colombian army, since in Viotá the insurgents were pushed out in 2003 and by the time the book was finished, the FARC-EP guerrillas were effectively demobilised and approaching the end of the peace negotiations with the national government. Still, what I find puzzling is that the book provides sufficient detail to identify the actual villages.

2. A remarkable video on the FARC-EP’s last March, shot in Argelia, Cauca – one of the municipalities where my own field work has been based can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUZ_LegLGAU&t=3s

3. This research has been possible thanks to the Irish Research Council’s kind sponsorship through the Andrew Grene Postgraduate Scholarship in Conflict Resolution (GOIPG/2015/2479) and to the equally kind co-funding by the Conflict Resolution Unit in the Department of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Ireland.

4. The focus groups, according to the author, typically consisted of a teacher, merchant, an undefined elderly person, and one equally undefined local leader (p. 118), leaving it uncertain as to how/whether smallholders or agrarian leaders were represented in the sample.