Reconstructing masculinities: The disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of former combatants in Colombia

Human Rights Quarterly

Volumn 31, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 1-34

  Theidon, Kimberly ^a  

^a Medical anthropologist focusing on Latin

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARMED FORCES; CONFLICT MANAGEMENT; MALE BEHAVIOR; RECONSTRUCTION; SOCIAL MOVEMENT;

COLOMBIA; SOUTH AMERICA;

EID: 68149157324     PISSN: 02750392     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/hrq.0.0053     Document Type: Article

References (92)

1. Don Foster, What Makes a Perpetrator? An Attempt to Understand, in LOOKING BACK, REACHING FORWARD: REFLECTIONS ON THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION OF SOUTH AFRICA 219, 223 (Charles Villa-Vicencio & Wilhelm Verwoerd eds., 2000). Foster notes that the South African TRC's Final Report acknowledged that the Commission had neglected to study masculinity and violence, which prompts him to pose a series of interesting questions:"What is it about masculinity that under certain circumstances renders such an identity form so noxious? What are the circumstances? All of this awaits research." Id. at 227.
2. SeeKimberly Theidon, Transitional Subjects: The Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration of Former Combatants in Colombia, 1 INT'L J. TRANSITIONAL JUST. 66 (2007).
3. Mark Knight & Alpaslan Özerdem, Guns, Camps and Cash: Disarmament, Demobilization and Reinsertion of Former Combatants in Transitions from War to Peace, 41 J. PEACE RES. 499 (2004).
4. SeeTheidon, Transitional Subjects, supranote 2, at 67. SeeAMNESTY INT'L, THE PARAMILITARIES IN MEDELLIN: DEMOBILIZATION OR LEGALIZATION?, AI Index: AMR 23/019/2005 (2005), available athttp://www.amnesty.org/en/ library/asset/AMR23/019/2005/en/dom-AMR230192005en.pdf.
5. SeeJOSHUA S. GOLDSTEIN, WAR AND GENDER: How GENDER SHAPES THE WAR SYSTEM AND VICE VERSA(2001) and Cynthia Enloe's many publications on gender and militarization.
6. SeeNATHALIE DE WATTEVILLE, ADDRESSING GENDER ISSUES IN DEMOBILIZATION AND REINTEGRATION PROGRAMS2, 26 (2002), available athttp://www.worldbank.org/afr/wps/wp33.htm.
7. Christine Bell & Catherine O'Rourke, Does Feminism Need a Theory of Transitional Justice? An Introductory Essay, 1 INT'L J. TRANSITIONAL JUST. 23, 23 (2007).
8. Id.
9. Id. at 25.
10. Id. at 28.
11. See Tom Boellstorff, Queer Studies in the House of Anthropology, 36 ANN. REV. ANTHROPOLOGY17, 19 (2007) for a discussion of the "logic of enumeration."
12. This approach has informed the structure of the Colombian National Commission on Reparations and Reconciliation (CNRR) as well. The DDR program appears as one area of intervention, the "Gender and Specific Populations" as yet another, defined to include women, children, and indigenous populations. While one stated goal of the "Gender and Specific Populations" unit is to make gender a "transversal" theme, this is not a propitious way to begin. More information on the CNRR is available at http://www.cnrr.org/co.
13. Scott Coltrane, Theorizing Masculinities in Contemporary Social Science, inTHEORIZING MASCULINITIES 39, 41 (Harry Brod & Michael Kaufman eds., 1994).
14. R.W. CONNELL , MASCULINITIES 84 (2d ed. 2005).
15. Id. at 76.
16. See MICHAEL HERZFELD, THE POETICS of MANHOOD: CONTEST AND IDENTITY IN A CRETAN MOUNTAIN VILLAGE 16 (1985) for a discussion of "performative excellence."
17. One reader has questioned whether I am categorically denying the role of ideology in the conflict. I acknowledge that a number of former combatants of the FARC and, to a greater extent, the ELN cite social justice motivations for having joined the guerrillas, and I do not want to "depoliticize" the violence. In each instance, however, they also refer to their sense of deception when they encountered the gap between ideology and practice, assuring me that the commanders were involved in drug production and trafficking, extortion, and killing civilians, among other acts. Thus, I argue that ideology has been eclipsed by economic motivations and by the influence of national and transnational criminal networks involved in the drug trade. SeeMarc Chernick, FARC-EP: From Liberal Guerrillas to Marxist Rebels to Post-Cold War Insurgents, inTERROR, INSURGENCY, AND THE STATE: ENDING PROTRACTED CONFLICTS 51 (Marianne Heiberg, Brendan O'Leary & John Tirman eds., 2007).
18. SeeVIOLENCE IN COLOMBIA, 1990-2000: WAGING WAR AND NEGOTIATING PEACE (Charles Bergquist, Ricardo PeÑaranda & Gonzalo Sànchez G. eds., 2001).
19. U.N. HIGH COMM'R FOR REFUGEES (UNHCR), COLOMBI a Situation Map (2006), available athttp://www.unhcr. org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/publ/opendoc.pdf?tbl=PUBL&id=44103c150.
20. La Violenciarefers to the period from 1948-1953 when violent confrontations between the Conservative and Liberal political parties resulted in 200,000 people dead and more than a billion dollars in property damage. For a detailed study of this period, see GERMÁN GUZMÁ N, ORLANDO FALS BORDA & EDUARDO UMAñA LUNA, LA VIOLENCIA EN COLOMBIA (Taurus 2005)(1962).
21. SeeWashington Office on Latin America, available athttp://www.wola.org; Center for International Policy, available athttp://www.ciponline.org(providing ongoing position papers and blogs on US policy in the region); ROBIN KIRK, MORE TERRIBLE THAN DEATH: MASSACRES,DRUGS, AND AMERICA'S WAR IN COLOMBIA (2003).
22. SeeCNRR, supranote 12.
23. U.S. Dep't of State, Office of Counterterrorism, Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs),available athttp://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/37191. htm.
24. SeeWINIFRED TATE, COUNTING THE DEAD: THE CULTURE AND POLITICS OF HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM IN COLOMBIA 127 (2007).
25. The legal sponsorship for these groups was emergency Decree 3398 in 1965, subsequently transformed into Law 48 and approved by the Colombian Congress in 1968. This law allowed the government to "mobilize the population in activities and tasks" to restore public order and contain the insurgent threat."; In 1989, the paramilitaries were made illegal by President Barco who suspended Decree 3398 and outlawed the use of armed civilians in army operations. SeeMAURICIO ROMERO, PARAMILITARES Y AUTODEFENSAS: 1982-2003 (2003).
26. SeeAMNESTY INT'L, supranote 4, at 3.
27. Daniel García-Peña Jaramillo, La relación del Estado colombiano con el fenómeno paramillitar: por el esclarecimiento histórico, 52 ANÁLISIS POLÍTICO (2005) (author's translation).
28. For analyses of these issues, see KIRK, supranote 21; STEVEN DUDLEY, WALKING GHOSTS: MURDER AND GUERRILLA POLITICS IN COLOMBIA (2004).
29. Winifred Tate, Paramilitaries in Colombia, 8 BROWN J. WORLD AFF. 163, 165 (2001).
30. Fernando Cubides, El Poder Paramilitar(2005), available athttp://www.seguridadydemocracia. org/essay-prod-list.asp. For a discussion of internal forced displacement, see ALFREDO MOLANO, THE DISPOSSESSED: CHRONICLES OF THE DESTERRADOS OF COLOMBIA (Daniel Bland trans., Haymarket Books 2005) (2001).
31. García-Peña Jaramillo, supranote 27, at 59 (author's translation).
32. The collective demobilization efforts involved the paramilitary groups exclusively. In contrast, within the individual demobilization program there are former combatants from the FARC, ELN, and to a lesser extent, the paramilitaries. For an overview of the individual demobilization process, see JOSÉ ARMANDO CÁRDENAS SARRIAS, LOS PARIAS DE LA GUERRA: ANÁLISIS DEL PROCESO DE DESMOVILIZACIÓN INDIVIDUAL (2005).
33. U.N. DEP'T OF PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS, DISARMAMENT, DEMOBILIZATION AND REINTEGRATION OF EX-COMBATANTS IN A PEACEKEEPING ENVIRONMENT: PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES (1999), available athttp://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/lessons/DD&R.pdf.
34. See alsoKnight & Ozerdem, supranote 3.
35. NAT J. COLLETTA, MARKUS KOSTNER & INGO WIEDERHOFER, WORLD BANK, THE TRANSITION FROM WAR TO PEACE IN SUB- SAHARAN AFRICA (1996), available athttp://www-wds. worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1996/05/01/000009265- 3961214180518/Rendered/PDF/multi-page.pdf.
36. U.N. DISARMAMENT, DEMOBILIZATION AND REINTEGRATION RESOURCE CTR., INTEGRATED DISARMAMENT, DEMOBILIZATION AND REINTEGRATION STANDARDS II.2.4 (2006).
37. SeeLisa J. Laplante & Kimberly Theidon, Transitional Justice in Times of Conflict: Colombia's Ley de Justicia y Paz, 28 Mich. J. Int'l L. 49 (2006); DUDLEY, supranote 28 (discussing the Unión Patriótica).
38. SeeLaplante & Theidon, supranote 37, at 61-62.
39. García-Peña Jaramillo, supranote 27, at 66 (author's translation).
40. For a detailed analysis of the legal framework for this process and the ensuing debates, see Laplante & Theidon, supranote 37.
41. AMNESTY INT'L, supranote 4, at 11-12.
42. Implemented through Resolution 092 of 2004. This Resolution had the effect of suspending the arrest warrants for the members of the AUC who are within the perimeters of its 368 square kilometer area during the period it is in effect, in principle until 1 December 2004. The agreement provides that the zone will be in force for six months, which could be extended depending on the needs of the process, and that in the event that the zone ceases to be in force due to a coordinated decision or unilaterally, the members of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia will have a period of five days to evacuate the zone. The OAS Mission to Support the Peace Process (MAPP/OAS) will verify compliance with this guarantee, with the accompaniment of the Church. SeeLaplante and Theidon, supranote 37, at 63-64, 73-74.
43. SeeMinisterio de Defensa Nacional (Colombia), Programa de Atención Humanitaria al Desmovilizado (2006); FUNDACIÓN IDEAS PARA LA PAZ, ESTADÍSTICAS SOBRE REINSERCIÓN EN COLOMBI A: 2002-2008 (2008), available athttp://www.ideaspaz.org/new-site/secciones/ conflictoynegociacion/estadisticas.htm.
44. For a detailed discussion of the challenges to the law, see Laplante & Theidon, supranote 37.
45. SeeGustavo Gallón Giraldo y otros v. Colom., Sentencia C-370/2006, Expediente D-6032 (Const'l Ct. 18 May 2006), available athttp://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4725a97b64.html.
46. Although the individual and collective demobilization processes vary in detail, I have interviewed former combatants in both programs because I am interested in the reintegration phase and the experiences of demobilized combatants, as well as their families and host communities.
47. The Referral and Opportunities Centers (CRO) are administered by the Ministry of the Interior and provide the demobilized with orientation, caseworkers, social support, and other forms of assistance.
48. I borrow this title from Philippe Bourgois' book on street culture, drug dealing, and masculinity in East Harlem. PHILIPPE BOURGOIS, IN SEARCH OF RESPECT: SELLING CRACK IN EL BARRIO(1995).
49. I was accompanying the Peace Communities, which were under increased pressure from both the paramilitaries and the FARC. SeeKimberly Theidon, Practicing Peace, Living with War: Going Upriver in Colombia(Center for International Policy, Washington D.C.), 30 Oct. 2001, available athttp://www.ciponline.org/colombia/01103001.htm.
50. During the second half of the 1990s, the AUC began actively recruiting fighters, including former guerrilla members. SeeNATALIA SPRINGER, DESACTIVAR LA GUERRA: ALTERNATIVAS AUDACES PARA CONSOLI DAR LA PAZ 304 (2005).
51. SeeTheidon, Practicing Peace, supranote 49.
52. Id. In 2006, I spoke with the director of the CRO in Turbo, and he informed me that 60-70 percent of the ex-combatants enrolled in the program were functionally illiterate.
53. I thank Marcelo Fabre for noting this aspect of the Colombian armed forces' recruitment strategy. For a discussion of the ties between soldiering, citizenship, and class and/or ethnic mobility in other Latin American contexts, see DIANE M. NELSON, A FINGER IN THE WOUND: BODY POLITICS IN QUINCENTENNIAL GUATEMALA (1999);
54. Lesley Gill, Creating Citizens, Making Men: The Military and Masculinity in Bolivia, 12 CULT. ANTHROPOLOGY 527 (1997);
55. ANDREW CANESSA, NATIVES MAKING NATION, GENDER, INDIGENEITY AND THE STATE IN THE ANDES (2005);
56. Kimberly Theidon, Intimate Enemies: Violence and Reconciliation in Peru(forthcoming 2009) (on file with author);
57. RICHARD A. WILSON, MAYA RESURGENCE IN GUATEMALA: Q'EQCHI' EXPERIENCES (1999).
58. For a discussion of the role of violence in constructing masculinity, with torture as an important rite of passage that confers authority on the young men who survive it, see Julie Peteet, Male Gender and Rituals of Resistance in the Palestinian Intifada: A Cultural Politics of Violence, 21 AM. ETHNOLOGI ST 31 (1994).
59. Theidon, Transitional Subjects, supranote 2, at 75.
60. Id.
61. I think here of the documentary "La Sierra," filmed in the poor comunas(neighborhoods) that extend up the steep slopes above Medellín. The young men in the film belong to the paramilitaries, the guerrilla, and a variety of gangs or parches. They consistently refer to the fighting between their groups for control of the comunasas "war." LA SIERRA (First Run/Icarus Films 2005). During my research in Medellín in 2006-2007, I grew accustomed to being escorted by one group of young men to one street corner, where they would take their leave because they dared not cross the street onto some other gang's territory. While the DDR process has moved the guns from the street into the home, a complex criminal cartography continues to dictate who can move about and where.
62. The militarization of Colombian society is striking. I recall an advertisement that appeared frequently on the television last year as one component of Uribe's "democratic security" initiative: ";Colombia-A Country of 40 Million Soldiers,"; referring to the promotion of a network of "citizen informants" as a means of extending the state's authority across its territory.
63. SEXUAL MEANINGS: THE CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY 14 (Sherry Ortner & Harriet Whitehead eds., 1981) discusses the role women play in men's prestige strategies. Prestige, as they define it, includes command of materials and human resources, political power, personal skills, and connectedness to the wealthy, mighty, and the skilled.
64. See MATTHEW C. GUTTMANN, THE MEANINGS of MACHO: BEING A MAN IN MEXICO CITY (Michael Kimmel ed., 1996) for an enthographically rich analysis of the role women play in the construction of masculinities.
65. Cynthia Cockburn, The Gendered Dynamics of Armed Conflict and Political Violence, inVICTIMS, PERPETRATORS OR ACTORS?: GENDER, ARMED CONFLICT AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE 13, 16(Caroline N. O. Moser & Fiona Clark eds., 2001).
66. SeeKIMBERLY THEIDON, ENTRE PRÓJIMOS: EL CONFLICTO ARMADO INTERNO Y LA POLÍTICA DE LA RECONCILIACIÓN EN EL PERÚ (2004); Theidon, Transitional Subjects, supranote 2; Kimberly Theidon, Gender in Transition: Common Sense, Women and War, 6 J. Hum. Rts. 453 (2007).
67. I think here of the impact of militarization and the new forms of security and insecurity that a sustained military presence implies. For discussions on this issue, see CYNTHIA ENLOE, DOES KHAKI BECOME You? THE MILITARIZATION OF WOMEN'S LIVES (Pandora Press 1988) (1983);
68. STATES OF CONFLICT: GENDER, VIOLENCE AND RESISTANCE (Susie Jacobs, Ruth Jacobson & Jennifer Marchbank eds., 2000).
69. For an excellent history of the "diversity of violences" in Colombia, as well as an overview of the previous reinsertion processes and the limitations of negotiating a paz parcelada, see Gonzalo Sánchez Gómez, Guerra prolongada y negociaciones inciertas en Colombia, inVIOLENCIAS Y ESTRATEGIAS COLECTIVAS EN LA REGI ÓN ANDINA 17 (Gonzalo Sánchez & Eric Lair eds., 2004).
70. This is true not only of the violent neighborhoods in which they live but also for those women who participated in the armed groups, especially the FARC and ELN. In our interviews with female ex-combatants, they have recounted that having a male partner was one way of avoiding the unwanted attention of other male combatants. Additionally, pairing up with a higher level official (commandante) was a way to access certain benefits such as food, clothing, and other privileges.
71. The role of the mothers and girlfriends is a topic worthy of further research. I was accompanied by someone who had been a high-level member of the urban militias and now works with the mayor's office on the Peace and Reconciliation process. My colleague assured me that the women play a very important role in deciding when there will be violence, against whom, and whether or not that violence will be lethal.
72. For a psychoanalytically informed analysis of disarmament and symbolic castration, see MARIA CLEMENCIA CASTRO & CARMEN LUCIA DIAZ, GUERRILLA REINSERCIÓN Y LAZO SOCIAL (1997).
73. SeeKimberly Theidon, Domesticando la violencia: El alcohol y las secuelas de la guerra, IDEELE: REVISTA DEL INSTITUTO DE DEFENSA LEGAL, July 1999, at 56.
74. SeeELISABETH REHN & ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF, WOMEN, WAR AND PEACE: THE INDEPENDENT EXPERTS' ASSESSMENT ON THE IMPACT OF ARMED CONFLICT ON WOMEN AND WOMEN's ROLES IN PEACE-BUILDING(2002), available athttp://www.unifem.org/ resources/item-detail.php?ProductID=17. Additionally, Catherine Lutz offers an analysis of the intersection of gender, race, and class in her book, CATHERINE LUTZ, HOMEFRONT: A MILITARY CITY AND THE AMERI CAN 20TH CENTURY(2001).
75. In a survey conducted by a research team from the University of Antioquia with funding from UNIFEM, researchers determined that domestic violence occurred in seven out of ten households in which the male partner was a demobilized combatant. Paulina Angarita Meneses, En 7 de Cada 10 Hogares de Reinsertados Hay Violencia, EL TIEMPO(Colom.), 31 Mar. 2008.
76. David H.J. Morgan, Theater of War: Combat, the Military, and Masculinities, inTHEORIZING MASCULINITIES, supranote 13, at 165.
77. For an excellent comparative study of individually demobilized combatants from the paramilitaries, the FARC, and the ELN, see CARDENAS SARRIAS, supranote 32.
78. BOURGOIS, supranote 48.
79. Id. at 51.
80. Id. at 2.
81. Id. at 8.
82. Id. at 9.
83. I am influenced here by Loïc Wacquant's research with African-American boxers on Chicago's South Side. Loïc Wacquant, Pugs at Work: Bodily Capital and Bodily Labour Among Professional Boxers, BODY & SOC'y, Mar. 1995, at 65; Loïc WACQUANT, BODY AND SOUL: NOTEBOOKS OF AN APPRENTICE BOXER (2004).
84. ERVING GOFFMAN, THE PRESENTATION OF SELF IN EVERYDAY LIFE (Overlook Press 1973) (1959).
85. I am thinking here, of course, of Marcel Mauss and his work on culture and the body, and how we learn to use and inhabit our bodies as members of a particular cultural group. SeeMarcel Mauss, Techniques of the Body, 2 Econ.&Soc'y 70 (1973) (1934).
86. GOLDSTEIN, supranote 5, at 306.
87. Antje Krog, Locked into Loss and Silence: Testimonies of Gender and Violence at the South African Truth Commission, inVICTIMS, PERPETRATORS OR ACTORS? GENDER, ARMED CONFLICT AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE, supranote 61, at 203.
88. Comments made during Frank Pearl's Address at the Transitional Justice and DDR Meeting hosted by the International Center for Transitional Justice (22-23 May 2007).
89. Wacquant, Pugs at Work, supranote 78.
90. Jonathan Spencer, On Not Becoming a ";Terrorist";: Problems of Memory, Agency and Community in the Sri Lankan Conflict, inVIOLENCE AND SUBJECTIVITY 120 (Veena Das et al. eds., 2000).
91. Id. at 120.
92. JUDITH BUTLER, GENDER TROUBLE: FEMINISM AND THE SUBVERSION OF IDENTITY (1990).