Understanding the Multiple Colombian Conflicts: Theoretical Evolution in the Analysis of the Armed Confrontation

Abstract

In this article, we argue that since the violent atomization due to the demobilization of the United Self-Defences of Colombia (AUC, in Spanish) and the abandonment of national claims by insurgent organizations, what we see is not a single armed conflict across Colombia. Multiple conflicts remain active, whose dynamics at the subregional level are independent from what happens in other subregions, even when they are geographically close. To analyze each of these conflicts, we propose that three elements be taken into account: the nature of the armed actors, the interactions that take place between them, and the territories in which they operate. Based on these aspects, we analyze two armed conflicts that take place in the Caribbean—that of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta and that of the south of Córdoba. With these, we identify four types of conflict: criminal hegemony, mafia peace, armed competition, and armed competition with internal alliances.