War Crimes as Dirty Work: An Analysis of Colombian Former Paramilitaries’ Representations

• In Event: Comparative and International Perspectives on State and Political Crimes

Abstract

Based on an analysis of Colombian former paramilitaries’ representations of their participation in violence against petty criminals and people considered guerrilla’s collaborators, we invite to think at participation in parastatal groups as a dirty work (Hugues 1958). The proliferation of parastatal groups in the context of security privatization characterizing contemporary armed conflicts creates thousands of dirty jobs. Our interviewees describe their participation as a banal dirty work of social control enabling to meet the security needs of the State, civil population and the market. Unlike theories on war criminals that explain violence as the result of a reversal of normal social values in a subculture, our interviewees support conventional social values and use neoconservative rhetorical about security, criminals and victims to create a dignifying self-identity of a worker protecting good people’s security. This dirty work enables paramilitaries to search of respect and gain a respectable status.

Authors

• Gabriela Manrique, University of Montreal

• Samuel Tanner, University of Montreal