Dan Lavigne The Human Impact of Conflicts: The Forgotten Story (FARC)

Dan Lavigne

April 23, 2018

Global Politics of Terrorism

Political Science

The Human Impact of Conflicts: The Forgotten Story

            The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) formed in the early 1960’s as a guerilla group following a Marxist ideology. In a brief civil war of the late 1950’s the Liberal and Conservative parties in the country entered into a power-sharing agreement. They agreed to have forced alternation of power within the government, in which each political party would take turns running the government for four years, known as the National Front. This arrangement lasted until 1974 (Hanratty, 1988). Many of the country’s rural poor felt neglected by Bogata and filled in the gap forming a Marxist military group (FARC) that would best address their interests. After over 50 years of fighting a peace agreement was reached the FARC and the Colombian government.

In many cases the conflict may end but underlying issues in these societies remain. I argue that neglecting the remnants of conflict, acts as a form of negative terrorism that continues to harm society even after a peace agreement is signed. In “positive terrorism” (demonstrating violent actions) for example, actions are executed for several different reasons, including, but not limited to, shock value or spectacles like 9/11, or to a lesser extent, the IRA bombings of the 1970’s and 1980’s. Both were designed to play to the fear element of society. “Negative terrorism” by contrast is failure to remove such explosive devices in society.

Over the years FARC has shifted its image going from a Marxist group to one that has been primary focused on the sale of drugs. To protect their positions as well as interest they reverted to setting up landmines as one of the leading tactics of defense. Examples of this are seen in the Caquetá region of Colombia. Groups have established strongholds in the mountains and dense jungles, often with a single access point.  (VICE, 2013). In addition to these strongholds landmines and other explosive devices are often placed in remote villages, like the one found in Evelio Rosero’s work The Armies, to be discussed later. This causes fear within the community, as these landmines are often placed in areas where citizens walk or go to school.

            One such case involved a little girl by the name of Jamie Sanchez. She discovered a landmine accidently near the river while playing with her friends. It went off and they rushed her by boat and motorcycle to the nearest medical facility. She survived this incident and lives with a missing part of her liver and intestines. Through reconstructive surgery and a team of doctors they were able to create plastic “inners” for this little girl (Vice, 2013). In the video we can see the scars on this little girl has, a reminder of a conflict in which she does not remember the origins, nor in which she was directly involved.

In Colombia these explosive devices, though meant for one group ends up negatively affecting civilians in society. This includes landmines and other such devices in once-occupied FARC territories of Colombia. These landmines act as secondary collateral terrorism, killing or injuring non-combatants. Non-combatants are defined as people who are not engaged in fighting during a war. According to the documentary film “Colombia's Hidden Killers” by Vice, they note that since 1990 there has been 10,000 landmine victims. Many of these are farmers and ranchers in the region, once held under FARC.

The internal conflict in Columbia has seeped into the world of literature as well.  In Evelio Rosero’s work The Armies, published in 2007, he tells the story of this conflict. What is worth noting is that neither the conflict, nor the actors involved are named. The best way to describe the period of this novel, is to think in terms of film footage. The novel, from the perception gathered through the discussion, is like viewing only a few of those tiny frames denoting a six-month period. In this fashion the author alludes to the fact that it really does not matter when the reader enters, as this conflict has been going on for a long time. Using the publication date as a marker, the conflict with the FARC had been going on for more than forty years at that point. The author also illustrates ambiguity by not including formal chapters names in his work. In most traditional novels segments are divided by either chapter name or by providing numbers. One section ends, as another begins, as if time does not really matter.

The aim of this novel is to focus around the relationship of people in a small rural town, far from major population centers such as Bogota. One of the most interesting relationship is the one between the Professor, who has taught for many years, and the children of the town. This relationship speaks to the group that is most affected by these conflicts, children. The author uses both the Professor and the children to comment on the “passing the conflict baton” from one generation to the next, and the guilt his generation has. In one scene the professor finds an unexploded grenade in the grass. He expresses that he is “...riddled with shame…. [and how he] forgot about that grenade for months: the grass must have grown up around it, covering it… “(Rosero, 2007, 124). Symbolically the older generation had the opportunity to end the conflict but for whatever reason did not have the capacity to do so. The younger generation lives in the shadow of their mistakes.

Analyzing this scene at a psychological level provides more detailed societal construct.  In the same scene as the Professor tries to get rid of the grenade he tells the children to go “... away. ‘“...shout[ing] at them…. This will blow us all up.”’ They [the children] carry on, unperturbed, and it even seems that more children come out of their houses, interrogate the first ones in whispers, and remain at my back, implacable” (Rosero, 2007, 122). Conflict is all these children know. They are unafraid by dangers that lie hidden. Lastly, the Professor states outright that he feels, “...sorry for the children who have a hard road ahead of them, with all this death, they’re inheriting, and through no fault of their own” (Rosero, 2007, 51).  He believes that this conflict will draw out into the foreseeable future.

The common theme carried here is that conflict and tactics carry consequences that last long even the conflict has ended. Children are often the ones most affected by such scenarios as demonstrated here. Conflict became such a large part of society that the children did not know any better, not fully understanding the dangers of the explosive devices in each case. Leaving such devices still evoke terror in the community, as the community is left to deal with the consequences by military forces from decades before.

Works Cited

Rosero, Evelio. The Armies. New Directions Publications.  New York. 2007. Print.

“Colombia's Hidden Killers: Part 1/2 Documentary”. VICE. Jul 16, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKJblKuj84E

Dennis M. Hanratty and Sandra W. Meditz, editors. Colombia: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1988. http://countrystudies.us/colombia/26.htm