Blog 8: Political Violence

Blog 8: Political Violence

            “Civil wars are major, armed combat within the boundaries of a sovereign state between parties that are subject to common authority at the start.”⁵ In civil wars, there are over one thousand deaths. Civil Wars have become more prevalent since 1945. This definition focuses on the participants⁴.

La Violencia was an undeclared civil war² in Columbia that lasted from 1948-1958.¹ This fits into the description of civil wars becoming more prevalent after 1945. It was between Columbia’s two very strong political parties: the Conservatives (Bolívar's supporters who wanted a strong central government and alliances with the catholic church) and the liberals (Santander's followers who wanted decentralized government, separation of church and state, and more voting rights for people)³.

The war broke out after a liberal leader, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, was assassinated on April 9, 1948. In response to this, riots and vandalism started. But even as the fighting began, the government continued to operate. The warring parties still held elections and went through the day-to-day motions of normal political life, even as members of their party were fighting each other with intent to kill². However in 1949, the Liberals refused to nominate a presidential candidate, and so the Conservative Party candidate, Gomez, took charge and in 1953 wrote a new constitution.² Gomez was voted out shortly afterwards, but the new government of moderates and liberals could not squelch the violence that continued in the rural parts of the country between party members². Fortunately in 1958, democracy returned to Columbia upon the formation of a Liberal-Conservative coalition government (the National Front) under newly elected president Alberto Lleras Camargo, who slowly stabilized the country's faltering economy and instituted agrarian reform.² This was a major armed conflict that swept through both urban and rural areas.²

There are many strengths to this definition that are exemplified in the conflict. First, the conflict stayed within Columbia’s borders. Second, the two warring parties—in this case they were political parties—that were under one sovereign authority. A third strength is the death toll, which was over 200,000 by 1958. One last, lesser strength is that it also occurred after 1945.

However there is one strength to this argument that is a little confusing. On first looking at the situation, it would appear that the government’s continued operation during the conflict would mean it isn’t a civil war, but that is an incorrect assessment. The definition does not say that the common authority has to cease to exist or stop working for a civil war to be going on. Just because the Political Leaders of the parties didn’t officially go after each other doesn’t mean this wasn’t a civil war. The Political Leaders of a Party don’t always represent all the many facets of the party, so letting the label of this conflict be limited by their actions in this situation would be wrong. The political violence in Columbia is called an “undeclared” civil war for this reason. It was a civil war, even if that wasn’t made official. We can label it as such now because it fits the criteria and further bolsters the definition because the definition doesn’t exclude Columbia’s unusual situation.

Works Cited:

1.     "La Violencia in Colombia." N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2012. <http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/colombia/la-violencia.htm>.

2.     "Colombia Violencia 1948-1958." Wars of the World. N.p., 16 Dec. 2000. Web. 08 Nov. 2012. <http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/cite/colombia1948b.htm>.

3.     "La Violencia." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 July 2012. Web. 08 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Violencia>.

4.     Hawkins, Kirk. "Political Violence." Comparative Politics 150. 5 Nov. 2012. Lecture.

5.   Samuels, David J. Comparative Politics. New York: Pearson Education, 2013. Print.