Modernisation, clearance and the continuum of violence in Colombia

This paper explores the historical and structural conditions that have given rise
to the prevalence of rural violence that has characterised Colombia through most of
the twentieth century and which continues today. It considers the nature and
consequences of such violence as an intrinsic feature of the development process in a
country that has long been of major strategic interest to foreign capital. Emphasising
the particular contradictions that have defined Colombia’s drive toward
‘modernisation’ and its increasing integration into the world economy, the paper
examines the specific role of violence as part of a process of rural clearance. It pays
special attention to the relationship of such violence and clearance to the production
of coffee (of which Colombia has long been the world’s second major exporter) and,
more recently, to the extraction of petroleum.