Chapter Four Uribe’s “Peace” Policies: Perpetuating Violence by Disguising the Colombian Confl ict

Abstract

There can be no doubt that the violence in Colombia has increased in recent years due to the use of violent methods that had initially been set in place to address what has become a national quagmire. As a result of the current strong-armed policies aimed at the guerrillas, security seems to have improved, at least in the urban areas, where the large middle class and elites live, whilst the historically abandoned rural areas remain unstable, as guerrillas and other armed actors continue to control large parts of the country in their macabre dance of death (ICG 2005: 22). Nevertheless, this perception of ‘tranquillity’ is not entirely due, to the deployment of the army and its pressure on the guerrillas (TNI 2004: 4). Instead, it is signifi cantly linked with the process of demobilizing the paramilitaries (paras) (ICG 2004: 7), which the government has been selling to the general public as the Ley de Justicia y Paz (Justice and Peace LawLJP)2. The Auto Defensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC- United Self Defence Groups of Colombia) are known for conducting numerous vicious attacks and massacres against civilians whom they believe to be collaborators of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC- Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces), and another guerrilla movement (the ELN), alongside union members and other sectors of the civilian population who are thought to be challenging not only their territorial and economic domination of a specifi c zone but also the government’s status quo.