Rural Violence in Colombia: 1948-1963

• Published date: 01 December 1974
• Author: John A. Booth
• Date: 01 December 1974
• DOI: 10.1177/106591297402700407
• Subject Matter: Articles

657

RURAL

VIOLENCE

IN

COLOMBIA:

1948-1963

JOHN

A.

BOOTH

The

University

of

Texas

at

Austin

ETWEEN

the

years

1948

and

1963

rural

Colombia

was

lashed

by

political

conflict

so

intense

that

it

has

become

known

by

its

generic

name,

la

Vio-

lencia.

The

dimensions

of

this

orgy

of

guerrilla

warfare,

assassination,

ex-

tortion,

torture,

and

mass

murder

have

prompted

one

observer

to

state:

&dquo;No

other

country

in

Latin

America

-

and

few

nations

of

the

world

-

have

in

mid-twentieth

century

experienced

internal

violence

and

guerrilla

warfare

as

has

Colombia.&dquo;’

The

impact

of la

Violencia

upon

Colombian

society

and

the

Colombian

political

system

has

been

widely

studied,

but

rigorous

quantitative

techniques

have

seldom

been

applied

to

examine

the

origin

and

nature

of

the

conflict.

This

essay

reports

on

an

application

of factor

analysis

to

explore

the

relationship

of certain

social,

economic

and

political

variables

to

the

intensity

and

to

the

persistence

of

violence

in

rural

Colombia

from

1948

through

1963.

NOTE:

This

is

a

revised

version

of

a

paper

presented

at

the

Fifth

Annual

Conference

of

the

Southwestern

Council

of

Latin

American

Studies

at

the

University

of

Texas

at

Austin,

April

14,

1972.

The

author

wishes

especially

to

thank

Professor

Charles

Parrish

for

his

generous

collaboration

and

inspiration

on

earlier

stages

of

this

work.

Professors

Karl

Schmitt

and

Carl

Leiden

provided

stylistic

and

methodological

editing,

respectively.

Computation

was

funded

by

the

Department

of

Government

of

the

University

of

Texas

at

Austin.

1

Robert

H.

Dix,

Colombia:

The

Political

Dimensions

of

Change,

(New

Haven :

Yale

Uni-

versity

Press,

1969),

p.

360.

This

work

by

Dix

reviews

much

of

the

literature

on la

Violencia

(see

Chapter

13).

The

major

works

on la

Violencia

are

Germán

Guzmán

Campos,

Orlando

Fals

Borda,

and

Eduardo

Umaña

Luna,

La

Violencia

en

Colombia,

2

vols.

(Bogotá:

Ediciones

Tercer

Mundo,

1962),

and

Germán

Guzmán

Campos,

La

Violencia

en

Colombia:

parte

descriptiva

(Cali,

Colombia:

Ediciones

Progreso,

1968).

Other

important

studies

of la

Violencia

are

the

following:

James

M.

Daniel,

Rural

Violence

in

Colombia

since

1946,

Special

Operations

Research

Office,

American

Uni-

versity

(Department

of

the

Army,

no

date

or

place

of

publication) ;

Orlando

Fals

Borda,

Subversion

and

Social

Change

in

Colombia,

trans.

Jacqueline

D.

Skiles,

(New

York:

Columbia

University

Press,

1969),

and

"Violence

and

the

Break-up

of

Tradition

in

Colombia,"

in

Claudio

Veliz,

ed.,

Obstacles

to

Change

in

Latin

America

(London:

Ox-

ford

University

Press,

1965),

pp.

188-205;

Horacio

Gómez

Aristizábal,

Teoría

Gorgona

(Bogotá:

Editorial

Iquiema,

1962) ;

Jorge

E.

Gutiérrez

Anzola,

Violencia

y

justicia

(Bogotá:

Ediciones

Tercer

Mundo,

1962);

Eric

J.

Hobsbawm,

"The

Anatomy

of

Vio-

lence,"

New

Society,

No.

28

(11

April

1963),

pp.

16-18,

"Peasants

and

Rural

Migrants

in

Politics,"

in

Claudio

Veliz,

ed.,

The

Politics

of

Conformity

in

Latin

America

(New

York:

Oxford

University

Press,

1967) ,

and

"The

Revolutionary

Situation

in

Colombia,"

The

World

Today,

19

(June

1963),

148-58;

James

L.

Payne,

Patterns

of

Conflict

in

Colombia

(New

Haven:

Yale

University

Press,

1968) ;

Roberto

Pineda

Giralda.

"El

impacto

de

la

violencia

en

Tolima:

el

caso

de

el

Líbano,"

Monografias

Sociológicas

No.

6

(Bogotá:

Universidad

Nacional,

Departmento

de

Sociología,

1960) ;

John

Pollock.

"The

Violence

in

Colombia:

A

Challenge

to

Political

Elites?"

Project

of

Historical

Crises

and

Political

Development

(Stanford:

Stanford

University,

mimeo,

1970) :

Anibal

Quijano

Obregón,

"Contemporary

Peasant

Movements,"

in

S.

M.

Lipset

and

Aldo

Solari,

eds.,

Elites

in

Latin

America

(New

York:

Oxford

University

Press,

1967);

Richard

S.

Weinert,

"Violence

in

Pre-Modern

Societies:

Rural

Colombia,"

in

F.

J.

Moreno

and

B.

Mitrani,

eds.,

Conflict

and

Violence

in

Latin

American

Politics

(New

York:

Crowell,

1971),

pp.

310-25;

and

Robert

C.

Williamson,

"Toward

a

Theory

of

Political

Violence:

The

Case

of

Rural

Colombia,"

Western

Political

Quarterly,

18

(March

1965),

35-44.

658

INTRODUCTION

Since

the

nineteenth

century

Colombia’s

two-party

political

system

has

been

characterized

by

a

deep-seated

party

identification.

Allegiance

to

the

Conservative

and

Liberal

parties

has

cross-cut

virtually

all

social

and

economic

strata.

The

parties’

allegiants

have

formed

two

pyramidal

structures,

each

with

a

base

in

the

peasantry

of

the

great

haciendas

which

largely

dominated

the

nation’s

economy

prior

to

the

expansion

of

coffee

cultivation.

The

pro-Liberal

or

pro-Conservative

orientation

of

whole

communities

was

originally

based

upon

the

peasant’s

identifi-

cation

with

the

political

party

of

that

member

of

the

political

and

economic

elite

who

controlled

his

livelihood

-

his

landlord

the

hacendado.2

2

During

the

nineteenth

century

the

Liberal

and

Conservative

parties

were

in

frequent

and

bitter

conflict,

culminating

in

the

devastating

War

of

a

Thousand

Days

(1899-1902)

in

which

100,000

perished.

Most

of

the

combatants

were

peasants

mobilized

by

hacienda

owners

in

support

of

the

parties.

This

war

de-

cisively

resolved

the

dispute

in

favor

of

the

Conservatives.3

3

The

terms

of

the

negotiated

settlement

provided

for

the

symbiotic

participation

of

both

parties

in

a

system

in

which

a

slight

Conservative

electoral

majority

ensured

that

party’s

long-

run

dominance

and

control

of

the

PresidenCy.4

A

deterioration

of

this

relationship

between

the

parties

after

1930

led

to

the

beginning

of

the

tragic

conflict

known

as

la

Violencia.

The

Conservative

party

controlled

the

Presidency

and

Congress

until

1930,

when

a

party

split

produced

two

Conservative

candidates

and

resulted

in

a

Liberal

victory.

In

an

attempt

to

broaden

its

electoral

appeal

the

Liberal

party

enacted

reform

legislation

damaging

to

the

economic

interests

of

wealthy

Conservatives

and

Liberals

alike.

The

dormant

animosity

between

the

parties

began

to

grow

anew,

and

a

reformist-moderate

rift

began

to

develop

within

the

Liberal

party.

By

1946

the

Liberals

could

not

agree

on

a

single

candidate:

Gabriel

Turbay,

a

moderate,

and

the

immensely

popular

Jorge

Eliecer

GaitAn,

a

populist

with

social-

ist

leanings,

split

the

Liberal

vote;

Conservative

Mariano

Ospina

P6rez

was

elected

President.

After

1946

conditions

deteriorated

rapidly.

The

Ospina

government

began

to

use

the

police

and

army

to

repress

Liberals

in

an

attempt

to

reestablish

control

of

the

political

system.

On

the

other

side,

Gaitin

began

to

mobilize

urban

laborers,

the

lumpenproletariat,

and

Liberal

peasants

in

his

support

for

the

1950

election.

The

Liberal

party’s

congressional

election

victory

in

1947

indicated

to

Conserva-

tives

that

defeat

in

the

1950

presidential

election

was

certain,

and

the

government

increased

its

pressures

against

Liberals,

exacerbating

interparty

hostility.

In

1948

GaitAn

was

assassinated

and

Bogota

was

rocked

for

days

by

an

enormous

riot,

the

Bogotazo.

Certain

Liberal

elements

then

initiated

an

uncoordinated,

abortive

at-

tempt

at

revolution

against

the

Conservatives

by

arming

peasant

bands.

Conserva-

tives

then

redoubled

the

use

of

arms

against

Liberals

in

rural

areas.

And

thus

the

2

Orlando

Fals

Borda,

Peasant

Society

in

the

Colombian

Andes

(Gainesville:

University

of

Florida

Press,

1955),

pp.

42-43.

3

Dix,

pp.

77,

81,

84.

4

Hobsbawm,

"Peasants

and

Rural

Migrants,"

pp.

52-53.