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La Violencia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Colombian Armed Conflicts
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La Violencia (literally "The Violence", in Spanish) is a term that refers to an era of civil conflict in Colombia between supporters of the Colombian Liberal Party and the Colombian Conservative Party, a conflict which took place roughly from 1948 to 1958 (exact dates vary).
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The assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in 1948 triggered large riots in Bogotá and smaller scale uprisings throughout the country. This would mark the beginning of "La Violencia", a period of intense bipartisan conflict that would cost an estimated 180,000 to 300,000 Colombian lives over the next decade.[1][2][3]
Some historians disagree about the dates: some argue it started in 1946 when the Conservatives came back into government, because at a local level the leadership of the police forces and town councils changed hands, encouraging Conservative peasants to seize land from Liberal peasants and setting off a new wave of bi-partisan violence in the countryside. But traditionally, most historians argue that La Violencia began with the death of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán.[1]
During "La Violencia", several members of the Colombian Liberal Party and of the Colombian Communist Party organized self-defense groups and guerrilla units, which fought both against those of the Colombian Conservative Party and among each other.
A minority of these groups did not demobilize during the amnesty declared by General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla after he took power in 1953.
When Rojas was removed from power in 1958, civilian rule was restored after moderate Conservatives and Liberals, with the support of dissident sectors of the military, agreed to unite under a bipartisan coalition known as the National Front, which included a system of presidential alternation and powersharing both in cabinets and public offices.
From the point of view of members of the FARC and the Colombian Communist Party, the Liberal and Conservative elites, though they had instigated the violence, soon grew to fear the consequences of it, and thus formed a loose alliance to preserve their shared desire for political hegemony from possible revolutionary challenges.
- ^ a b Livingstone, Grace; (Forward by Pearce,Jenny) (2004). Inside Colombia: Drugs, Democracy, and War. Rutgers University Press, p. 42. ISBN 0-8135-3443-7.
- ^ Stokes, Doug (2005). America's Other War : Terrorizing Colombia. Zed Books. ISBN 1-84277-547-2. p. 68, Both Livingstone and Stokes quote a figure of 200,000 dead between 1948-1953 (Livingstone) and "a decade war" (Stokes)
*Azcarate, Camilo A. (March 1999). "Psychosocial Dynamics of the Armed Conflict in Colombia". Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution. Azcarate quotes a figure of 300,000 dead between 1948-1959
*Gutierrez, Pedro Ruz (October 31 1999). "Bullets, Bloodshed And Ballots;For Generations, Violence Has Defined Colombia's Turbulent Political History". Orlando Sentinel (Florida): G1. Political violence is not new to that South American nation of 38 million people. In the past 100 years, more than 500,000 Colombians have died in it. From the "War of the Thousand Days," a civil war at the turn of the century that left 100,000 dead, to a partisan clash between 1948 and 1966 that claimed nearly 300,000... - ^ Bergquist, Charles; David J. Robinson (1997-2005). Colombia. Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2005. Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved on April 16, 2006.On April 9, 1948, Gaitán was assassinated outside his law offices in downtown Bogotá. The assassination marked the start of a decade of bloodshed, called La Violencia (the violence), which took the lives of an estimated 180,000 Colombians before it subsided in 1958.
- Rempe, Dennis M. (Winter 1995). "Guerrillas, Bandits, and Independent Republics: US Counter-insurgency Efforts in Colombia 1959-1965". Small Wars and Insurgencies 6 (3): p 304-327.