Elites, Violence and Building Peace in Colombia.

• In Event: Preparing for Peace in Colombia – Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

This paper is based on interviews with different sectors of the Colombian economic elite (coffee, ranching, financial, industrial, sugar producing) as well as some members of the political elite. The interviews aimed to take a view beyond the Havana Peace Process itself, and to analyse whether those with most wealth and power in Colombia see that process as focussed only on the FARC-State armed conflict, or whether some sectors are interested in addressing violence over the long term. This I assume to involve investing in the rule of law and public security accessible to all and equitably distributed. The assumption is based on the evidence from historians that the long term reduction of interpersonal violence, measured principally but not only by homicide rates per 100,000, depends ultimately on the willingness of elites (and economic elites in particular) to accept the rule of law and its effective implementation. Although the Peace Process as such is about Colombia’s armed conflict, the history of the country suggests a more complex pattern of interpersonal, social and political violence. Impunity has been so prevalent, that confidence in the rule of law is minimal. At the same time, some sectors of the elite have been willing to use or condone violence for political ends on the one hand, or have been indifferent to high levels of social violence in their midst on the other. They have hired private security rather than invest in a public security system. They have supported the development of commercial law but shown much less interest in penal law. Peace-building in Colombia will very much depend on the commitment of elites to a violence reducing state underpinned by the rule of law. Why might that be complicated for them? This paper will explore the logics behind varied elite attitudes towards such a proposition.

Author

• Jenny V Pearce, University of Bradford