Towards total peace: from South America to the Middle East, lessons from the armed conflict in Colombia

Writing about Colombia is an exercise that inevitably predisposes one to rely on the classic references generally held about the South American country. Yet, with this comes the danger of falling into old clichés that resurface like ghosts, enveloping the mystique of the country, and feeding imaginations that, for better or worse, exist about this place. The problem with this approach is that one inevitably ends up using the same tired metaphors to describe Colombia. A country undoubtedly of extreme events, and such tragic, implausible consequences, that one is forced to mention "magical realism" as the literary slogan of the country, where reality continues to surpass fiction. 

A country where writing has much to feed on, as demonstrated by Gabriel García Márquez and the rise of the "Latin American Boom". Or where contemporary writers like Mario Mendoza draw inspiration, to portray a "degraded realism", through stories of ‘third world countries cities” like the capital Bogotá, where Latin-American noir novels are beset with death and frustration, while at the same time, a place with a longing for hope, that keeps the engine of life running. Colombia, that country of joy, celebration, salsa, and vallenato, which has been blessed by both the Pacific coast, and the Caribbean Sea. The latter, intensely portrayed by the writer Margarita García Robayo not only as beautiful, but also with a cruel day-to-day life for the population, where sometimes the sea appears more as an escape route than a port where tourists arrive. Colombia: a source for imagination, creation, and fantasy. Not only for the world of literature, but also for political experiments, and consequently, as a case-study for cultural and political analysis, as is the objective of this article.

In order to grasp a current view of Colombia with all the appropriate nuances and contradictions of the place, we had an extended conversation with Isabel Rincón Flórez, Political Scientist, (National University of Colombia), social worker (Restitution of land Unit, Colombia) and Master’s student in Peace, Development, and Conflict Resolution (University of Pamplona).

Ask Isabel how she would describe the Colombia of the last 10 years, and she reacts first with a laugh at the absurdity of the question, but quickly furrows her brows, takes her time, breathes, and answers that, ‘the first thing to understand about Colombia in recent years has to do with the peace talks with FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the signing of the peace agreement, for which former President Juan Manuel Santos received the Nobel Peace Prize. An agreement that was finally signed on November 26, 2016. 

Still, despite the diversity of resources, entrepreneurial culture, and economic potential that Colombia has today, and with a new and recently elected president, Gustavo Petro, this country continues to be the subject of global social representations as a centre of drug trafficking. Colombians abroad are accustomed to hearing references to Pablo, as a signifier that stigmatizes them -and their nation- as a petrifying curse of time. As if Colombia has no future, as if it has not changed, or Colombian society has no other aspirations, no other imaginaries. On the contrary, for Isabel, “Colombia has a lot to show the world in terms of peacebuilding, a lot. And it would be wonderful for the international community to focus its eyes on resilient Colombia, not the Colombia of Pablo Escobar. The Colombia that, despite being immersed in historical and profound wars for almost half a century, has moved forward, and is looking at different approaches to nation-building, that is talking and discussing total peace.

For Isabel, Gustavo Petro (President of Colombia) ‘may not be the best administrator, but at least he has a political project for peace, that orientates the entire administrative system in aim towards that goal. However, she notes, “this does not

prevent us from recognizing that the effort being made at the state level to change many things is considerable, because as Gustavo Petro says; the primary economic model of Colombia has been the exploitation of non-renewable natural resources, with a very high environmental cost. Now, he proposes to change the economic model of exploitation, to transition towards a green economy, “And that obviously has significant and powerful opponents in the country, who say that this project makes no sense and argue that it is unfeasible”.

Yes, Pablo Escobar and Cocaine may be the first things that come to mind when many people hear the word Colombia. This is despite the fact that the leader of the Medellín Cartel died almost 30 years ago. Yet today, he is resurrected through Netflix series, and the pioneering genre of “narconovelas”, such as Caracol Colombia. Series in which perhaps unintentionally, the life of Escobar has been romanticized, transcending the 20th century as a mythical character, and now reborn as a 21st century hero for audiences, especially so for the working classes throughout Europe and the United States. Football fans, artists, and rappers vindicate him as an entrepreneur of the underworld, and a genius of the not-so-underground economy, to be followed as a path to success.

Still, the interesting thing about writing about present-day Colombia is precisely the ability to turn the page. To break free from the image of the media product reproduced in its nth power, -an easy formula where Colombia is reduced to the trade of coca-derived products and its inefficient and costly struggle- in the failed "war on drugs.", which besides the life cost, has also represented a harmful policy against the environment. Indeed, notes Isobel, “the current president is concerned about a future without carbon emissions, and advocates for policies that alleviate current global warming. He intervenes in the UN, insisting that the rest of the world needs a change in environmental policies. In addition, Petro has gone in the opposite direction of the international discourse of the State of Israel and the barbarism that has been occurring against the Palestinian people.”

Colombia is undoubtedly a complex society that deserves to be studied and reported upon from perspectives that are closer to the transformations that the country has experienced in recent years. In this historic moment, when other regions of the world (Palestine, Ukraine) are in the midst of armed conflicts, where civilian populations are suffering the consequences of the "collateral damage" of bombs and missiles; the country in the Americas with the largest displaced civilian population (8,219,403 from 1985-2021 according to Colombian Gov. Unique Victims Registry) and an armed conflict of over 50 years, has many lessons to teach. Today, Colombia works to rehabilitate its image, promoting and building a project centered on the promotion of life and a green future. 

For Isobel, “the government of Gustavo Petro has been very clear in rejecting what Hamas did emphatically because it was an attack against life. But it also emphatically rejects the reaction of the State of Israel to these events or for it to provide an excuse for the start of an additional war. For me, as a defender of life, it is incredible that the media in Colombia insists so much on condemning Gustavo Petro for taking a peaceful position regarding the conflict in the Middle East. Because a country that has suffered the vicissitudes of armed conflict is a country that must prepare to talk about peace and not to talk about war. And not to support genocides, no matter where they come from, from whichever people. The infant population in Palestine being a victim of this cruelty is a population that, to recover historically from the violence that has been happening, at least, I calculate, in social cost, at least 40 more years to overcome this genocide. We must look at international cases, like what happened in Uganda.”

To read the complete interview with Isabel Rincón Flórez, please click here.