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Colombia: Contradictions of the Territorial Peace Extractive Bargain

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Extractive Bargains

Part of the book series: Frontiers of Globalization ((FOG))

Abstract

This chapter traces the intersecting relationships between extraction, peace, and conflict in Colombia to illustrate that country’s contradictory “territorial peace” extractive bargain. For the past two decades, Colombia’s national government has promoted investment in large-scale extractive projects as drivers of economic development in regions of the country most affected by armed conflict. This narrative took on a new urgency in 2016 when vast swaths of territory were opened to investment after the government signed a peace deal with the country’s largest guerrilla group. This chapter argues, however, that this peace bargain is rife with contradictions as it explores the gap between the national government’s promise of territorial peace after the 2016 Peace Accord alongside its continued reliance on repressive tactics to silence opposition to its extractive model.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Small bottles made to hold lime and crushed seashells that were used by indigenous peoples to activate the stimulating effect of chewing toasted coca leaves (See Taussig, 2004, pp. xi–xvi).

  2. 2.

    See Daniel Tubb’s (2020) Shifting Livelihoods: Gold Mining in the Chocó, Colombia and Michael Taussig’s (2004) my cocaine museum for excellent ethnographies of informal gold-mining operations in the Colombian Pacific.

  3. 3.

    Colombia was not the only country in Latin America to experience rapid growth in its extractive industries. The 2000s and 2010s saw the expansion of Latin America’s “extractive frontier” across Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and Colombia, as new investments spurred the development of projects in areas outside of traditional mining hubs. Where these new projects sprang up, local conflict often developed (see Bebbington & Bury, 2013).

  4. 4.

    These municipalities were designated “PDET municipalities,” as local communities were charged with writing Territorial Approach Development Plans (planes de desarrollo con enfoque territorial: PDET). The idea was that these plans would be used as a management tool for local, regional, and national government agencies to disperse funds and make decisions on productive projects in accordance with local communities’ visions for development and rights as victims of the armed conflict. See https://participedia.net/case/5662

  5. 5.

    In response to coordinated mobilization by some campesino communities demanding rights to FPIC during the 1991 constitutional convention, lawmakers passed a measure to create six campesino reserve zones (zonas de reserva campesina; ZRCs). Communities within these zones were afforded notable autonomy in deciding on issues related to economic development, including how to allocate land for agriculture and natural resource development (see Quijano-Mejía & Linares-García, 2017; Reyes Bohorquez, 2013).

  6. 6.

    See Dresse et al. (2019) and Ide et al. (2021) for broader overviews of theories of environmental peacebuilding.

  7. 7.

    It is important to note that there exists a considerable degree of heterogeneity in opinions within communities—even those that are on the whole either supportive or opposed toward extraction (see, e.g., Conde & Le Billon, 2017, p. 685).

  8. 8.

    Phone interview #3565 with environmental activist, August 2019.

  9. 9.

    See https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps/#/ for Colombia’s ranking over time.

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  1. Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Jamie L. Shenk

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  1. Jamie L. Shenk
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  1. Global and International Studies, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, Canada

    Paul Bowles

  2. Department of Political Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Nathan Andrews

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Shenk, J.L. (2023). Colombia: Contradictions of the Territorial Peace Extractive Bargain. In: Bowles, P., Andrews, N. (eds) Extractive Bargains. Frontiers of Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32172-6_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32172-6_9

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