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This paper focuses on the opportunity, in the short and medium term, for a Colombia that is an OECD member and NATO partner to face the challenges of the public security transition, despite no explicit mention of it appearing in the Peace Agreement (or Final Agreement). To do this, an anomaly will have to be overcome: the so-called 'Lleras Camargo duality', which has facilitated excessive decisional autonomy of the security forces, scant parliamentary control and insufficient political leadership of defence. The paper is divided into contextual and a priori section, with another analytical section focussing on conceptual clarifications and practical lessons of a comparative nature. The final part is dedicated to Colombia's particularities and the presentation of a proposal for addressing eight major challenges: three general, two focused on external security, and three on internal security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The starting point for this paper is the Colombian 'success story'. That is, the claim that a transition has taken place from a problematic conflict situation to a successful postconflict one. As the debates about the Colombian success story revolve around the presence or absence of violence, a proposal is made here to think of the postconflict period in terms of the transformation of the rules on the use of violence. The main aspects of the professionalisation programme accelerated and deepened via the Plan Colombia are analysed in an attempt to grasp the terms under which the Colombian military's expertise is understood. Finally, the reorganisation of violence in the postconflict period is discussed by mapping out the main features of military training programmes in the context of peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Peace Agreement or Final Agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP brought the armed conflict with the guerrilla organisation to an end. The agreement is seen as a model due to several of its features: among others, its gender and ethnic perspective, and its methodology of negotiation in the midst of conflict. This introductory article seeks to present the background to the peace process and the main lines of the agreement reached. It also makes a preliminary assessment of compliance with the accords (as of April 2019) and the prospects of success. A general context is thereby provided to the papers included in this issue of Revista CIDOB d'Afers Internacionals, which is dedicated to the peace process in Colombia, and to understanding the framework within which its contents should be interpreted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses how the Nasa indigenous community of Toribío (Cauca, Colombia) has configured mental reconciliation models in spite of the violent feedback they received during the armed conflict in Colombia. For this analysis, the theoretical perspective of cognitive institutionalism is used. Empirical evidence was collected mainly through semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The results suggest that strategies of peaceful resistance, such as the creation of Permanent Assembly Sites, the Community Life Plan and the Indigenous Guard, have contributed to producing successful solutions in the search for reconciliation and peace in indigenous territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate over the different possible Colombian postconflict scenarios led the aim of a stable and lasting peace to be connected with the realisation of agrarian reform and guaranteed access to land as a way to overcome territorial differences and the urban'rural divide. To achieve this, structural transformation of the Colombian countryside and acceptance of the territorial approach became central parts of the Peace Agreement (or Final Agreement) signed in 2016 between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP. This paper analyses the territorial approach adopted in this agreement, as well as its level of implementation so far, and accepts that the lack of progress on the territoriality of the Colombian conflict will make it difficult to achieve the objectives set out in the peace agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) processes focus on the individualisation of combatants, but the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) opted for a collective reincorporation that combines conversion to a political party with the implementation of collective productive projects in the framework of the Economías Sociales del Común (Ecomún) cooperative. But although it was a strategic bet, environmental factors have not helped this model come to fruition. This paper analyses the strategic, organisational and operational changes undergone by the FARC-EP in its process of transition to legal political life, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses, as well as the challenges it faces to remain united in legality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the world's armed conflicts have mainly taken place within countries. As a result, it is all the more important to investigate internal armed conflicts from underexplored perspectives, such as the use of non-violent tactics by insurgent groups. It is in this sense that some scholars are using the term 'rebel diplomacy' to refer to strategic relations between insurgents and international actors in order to achieve political and military objectives in times of war. Taking as a case study the recent peace process between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) and the Colombian government, this paper analyses the role of the guerrilla group's rebel diplomacy during the peace process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The start of the negotiations in 2012 between the government of Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) over an agreement to put an end to the Colombian armed conflict was marked by the absence of women. In response, women's and feminist movements raised their voices to press the government for inclusion in the process. Due to their intervention, women's invisibility was alleviated by the creation of the Gender Subcommittee, the first of its kind in the world, and the gendered approach was mainstreamed. This paper analyses the meaning of war in the lives of Colombian women and the journey women's and feminist movements took to gain recognition for their experiences and needs in the 2016 Peace Agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1993, when the System of Surveillance of Deaths of External Causes (SVMCE, in its Spanish acronym) was established -- today the Security Observatory -- a reliable record of homicides has existed in Cali which has allowed the control of organised crime to be evaluated as a strategy for reducing homicides. This strategy has been based on the pursuit and prosecution of urban criminal gangs, placing emphasis on intelligence and investigation, as well as coordination between the Police and the justice system. Drug trafficking allowed urban criminal gangs to develop that have had a significant effect on the homicides in Cali and other cities in Colombia. This paper evaluates the impact of the fight against criminal gangs implemented across the whole city of Cali from 2013 to 2015. The deactivation of several criminal gangs and the reduction in the overall homicide rate in the city have brought positive results, above all in the category of "organised crime", but also to some extent in "common crime". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the border shared by Peru, Colombia and Brazil has become an enclave of drug production and trafficking for the international markets. It is a territory whose control is disputed by non-state actors and where state security forces suffer from severe material and transport limitations. This paper takes an ethnographic approach to explain the limitations of border security and the institutional challenges of controlling drug and wood trafficking in this context. It places the ideas of reproduction and social change at the centre of the discussion on drugs and borders, as key ways of thinking about the dynamics of growing and processing coca-derived drugs in the global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]