La Violencia

La Violencia ( Spanish : "The violence") describes the violent conflict between the Liberal Party ( Partido Liberal Colombiano ) and the Conservative Party of Colombia ( Partido Conservador Colombiano ), whichlastedfrom 1948 to around 1958 .

Origins

The murder of the popular presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in 1948 sparked serious unrest in the capital Bogotá , the so-called Bogotazo . This unrest spread to more rural areas. As a result, between 180,000 and 300,000 Colombians died by 1958.

Some historians date the conflict differently. They argue that the conflict began back in 1946 when the Conservatives came back to power. As a result, the leadership of the police and city councils changed at the local level, encouraging conservative landowners to take land away from liberal farmers, thus creating a new cycle of violence between the two parties.

development

During La Violencia , members of the liberal and communist parties organized self-defense groups and guerrilla units that fought against the units of the conservative party as well as against each other. In the course of the conflict in 1949 the so-called “independent republics” ( repúblicas independientes ) were founded by the Communist Party of Colombia and liberal and radical farmers in parts of the country. The FARC later emerged from the communist self-defense groups .

The End

Despite the amnesty announced by the newly appointed General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla in 1953, parts of these groups were not demobilized. After Rojas was removed from office in 1958, the Liberals and Conservatives agreed to share power ("National Front").

literature

Ramona Majka: Modernism and Violencia. On the history of society, conflict and ideology of Colombia . Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-631-37154-3 .
Dennis M. Rempe: Guerrillas, Bandits, and Independent Republics: US Counter-insurgency Efforts in Colombia 1959-1965 . In: Small Wars and Insurgencies . tape 6 , 3, Winter, 1995, pp. 304–327 , doi : 10.1080 / 09592319508423115 ( icdc.com ( memento of October 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive )).

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b Grace Livingstone, Jenny Pearce (foreword): Inside Colombia: Drugs, Democracy, and War . Rutgers University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8135-3443-7 , pp. 42 .
↑ Doug Stokes: America's Other War. Terrorizing Colombia . Zed Books, 2005, ISBN 1-84277-547-2 , pp. 68 ( bailey83221.livejournal.com ). - Livingstone and Stokes cite the number of 200,000 deaths between 1948 and 1958 (Livingstone) and "a decade of war" (Stokes).
^ Camilo A. Azcarate: Psychosocial Dynamics of the Armed Conflict in Colombia . In: Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution . March 1999 ( trinstitute.org ). - Azcarate gives the number of 300,000 deaths between 1948 and 1959.
^ Pedro Ruz Gutierrez: Bullets, Bloodshed And Ballots; For Generations, Violence Has Defined Colombia's Turbulent Political History . In: Orlando Sentinel . Florida October 31, 1999, p. G1 ( bailey83221.livejournal.com ). - Political violence is nothing new in Colombia. Over the past 100 years, more than 500,000 Colombians have died as a result. About 100,000 people died in the War of the Thousand Days , a civil war at the end of the 19th century.

[Grace-1] A ^b Grace Livingstone, Jenny Pearce (foreword): Inside Colombia: Drugs, Democracy, and War . Rutgers University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8135-3443-7 , pp. 42 .

[2] Doug Stokes: America's Other War. Terrorizing Colombia . Zed Books, 2005, ISBN 1-84277-547-2 , pp. 68 ( bailey83221.livejournal.com ). - Livingstone and Stokes cite the number of 200,000 deaths between 1948 and 1958 (Livingstone) and "a decade of war" (Stokes).

[3] Camilo A. Azcarate: Psychosocial Dynamics of the Armed Conflict in Colombia . In: Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution . March 1999 ( trinstitute.org ). - Azcarate gives the number of 300,000 deaths between 1948 and 1959.

[4] Pedro Ruz Gutierrez: Bullets, Bloodshed And Ballots; For Generations, Violence Has Defined Colombia's Turbulent Political History . In: Orlando Sentinel . Florida October 31, 1999, p. G1 ( bailey83221.livejournal.com ). - Political violence is nothing new in Colombia. Over the past 100 years, more than 500,000 Colombians have died as a result. About 100,000 people died in the War of the Thousand Days , a civil war at the end of the 19th century.