Between the Guerrillas and the State: The Cocalero Movement, Citizenship, and Identity in the Colombian Amazon PDF
Preview Between the Guerrillas and the State: The Cocalero Movement, Citizenship, and Identity in the Colombian Amazon
Between the Guerrillas and the State Between the Guerrillas and the State The Cocalero Movement, Citizenship, and Identity in the Colombian Amazon María Clemencia Ramírez Translated by Andy Klatt Duke University Press Durham & London 2011 © 2011 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ♾ Typeset in Arnhem by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book. This book is dedicated to the campesinos of Putumayo in the hope that its message will contribute to their voices being heard and their proposals being taken into account to my daughter Ana Manuela and to my new granddaughter Abril Contents Acknowledgments ix Acronyms xiii Introduction 1 1. History of Colonization, Marginalization, and the State: Guerrillas, Drug Trafficking, and Paramilitarism in the Colombian Amazon 21 2. Coca and the War on Drugs in Putumayo: Illegality, Armed Conflict, and the Politics of Time and Space 54 3. Turning Civic Movements into a Social Movement: Antecedents of the Cocalero Social Movement 86 4. The Cocalero Social Movement: Stigmatization and the Politics of Recognition and Identity 110 5. Negotiations with the Central Government: Clashing Visions over the “Right to Have Rights” 134 6. Competing States or Competing Governments? An Analysis of Local State Formation in a Conflict- Ridden Zone 167 7. From Social to Political Leadership: Gaining Visibility as Civil Society in the Midst of Increased Armed Conflict 183 8. Plan Colombia and the Depoliticization of Citizenship in Putumayo 214 Epilogue 233 Appendixes 239 Notes 253 References 283 Index 297 Acknowledgments This book is a concrete reflection of what I have learned about the long- term but always dynamic state of affairs of campesinos in the department of Putumayo between 1997 and 2008, the period that I have spent conduct- ing fieldwork there. I owe my very sincere gratitude to the members and leaders of the peasant community in Putumayo who were ready to give me their perspective on the changing situation in Putumayo at different stages of my fieldwork. The ongoing theoretical discussion I maintained with the four professors who comprised my thesis committee at the Harvard Univer- sity Department of Anthropology, David Maybury- Lewis, Sally Falk Moore, Begoña Aretxaga, and MIT professor Jean Jackson, helped me refine my analysis. I have not yet been able to accept the premature death of Begoña Aretxaga, and I can only say that she continues to be my inspiration. Jean Jackson has become a very close friend, the first person to whom I turn for academic and practical advice. She is always ready and willing to read and discuss my work, and her comments have been invaluable to me in writing the final version of this book. I am especially grateful to Margot Nelson Gill, Administrative Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, who helped me secure financial assistance, allowing me to extend my time at Harvard and complete my dissertation, which is the core of this book. My time spent as the 2004–5 Santo Domingo Visiting Scholar at Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies gave me the opportunity to update the Spanish version of my book published in 2001 in Colombia by the Colom- bian Institute of Anthropology and Colciencias, and to write its last chapter, focused on Plan Colombia. This work would not have been possible without funding from the fol- lowing sources: in the United States, the Wenner-G ren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the United States Institute of Peace, the Mellon Foundation, The Cora Du Bois Charitable Trust, and The Edmund J. Curley Scholarship; in Colombia, the Colombian Institute for the Promotion of Sci- x Acknowledgments ence and Technology, known as Colciencias, and the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History. I thank all the people who welcomed me into their homes during my fieldwork, who answered my questions without hesitation, and who pointed me in right directions. To Gaby Lorena Reyes, my field assistant, without whom I could not have operated as I did in a conflict- ridden region. Her family network in Putumayo and Cauca always welcomed me warmly and made me feel at home. Thank you to all the public officials who shared their time with me to answer my questions and to discuss the events of July and August 1996; to Nancy Sánchez for providing me with audiotapes of the Orito negotiations and of meetings subsequent to the signing of the accords; to Teófilo Vásquez for providing draft copies of the Orito Agreement, materials that were key to the ethnography central to this book; and to Eduardo Díaz and Jaime Navarro for their trust in me and the frankness with which they shared their perspectives on events from a human point of view and as gov- ernment officials. Thanks go to Marta Herrera and Andrés Leonardo Pinzón, who designed and produced the maps; to María Lucía Sotomayor, with whom I first trav- eled to the Baja Bota of Cauca and later to the Sibundoy Valley. Her long friendship has been invaluable. I am also grateful to many other people who have helped in this project; to Luz Piedad Caicedo, for classifying the journalistic documentation; to Magadalena Arango, for her help in locating photographs and videos; to Mónica Ruán and Margarita Sandino for their help in classifying information; to Patricia Morales for her help with the transcription of interviews; to César Rozo, with whom I traveled to Puerto Asís and Mocoa at the beginning of my fieldwork and who helped me with my initial information gathering; and to Henry Salgado, Juliana Iglesias, and Elsy Castillo, researchers with the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and Colciencias. Henry and Elsy conducted research analogous to mine in Guaviare and Caquetá, respectively, so we were able to share and exchange information. Juliana has worked as my assistant since 2003 and has been invaluable in systemizing information related to Plan Colombia. Thanks go to Colcultura, the Ministry of Culture, and the Colombian In- stitute of Anthropology and History, which granted me the leaves of ab- sence necessary to further my graduate studies, write my dissertation, and spend a year as a Visiting Scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies; and to my colleagues at the Colombian Institute of An-
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