Table Of ContentBetween the Guerrillas and the State
Between the Guerrillas and the State
The Cocalero Movement, Citizenship,
and Identity in the Colombian Amazon
María Clemencia Ramírez
Translated by Andy Klatt
Duke University Press Durham & London 2011
© 2011 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ♾
Typeset in Arnhem by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data appear on the
last printed page of this book.
This book is dedicated to the campesinos of Putumayo
in the hope that its message will contribute
to their voices being heard and their
proposals being taken into account
to my daughter Ana Manuela
and to my new granddaughter Abril
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Acronyms xiii
Introduction 1
1. History of Colonization, Marginalization, and the State: Guerrillas,
Drug Trafficking, and Paramilitarism in the Colombian Amazon 21
2. Coca and the War on Drugs in Putumayo:
Illegality, Armed Conflict, and the Politics of Time and Space 54
3. Turning Civic Movements into a Social Movement:
Antecedents of the Cocalero Social Movement 86
4. The Cocalero Social Movement:
Stigmatization and the Politics of Recognition and Identity 110
5. Negotiations with the Central Government:
Clashing Visions over the “Right to Have Rights” 134
6. Competing States or Competing Governments?
An Analysis of Local State Formation in a Conflict- Ridden Zone 167
7. From Social to Political Leadership: Gaining Visibility
as Civil Society in the Midst of Increased Armed Conflict 183
8. Plan Colombia and the Depoliticization of Citizenship
in Putumayo 214
Epilogue 233
Appendixes 239
Notes 253
References 283
Index 297
Acknowledgments
This book is a concrete reflection of what I have learned about the long-
term but always dynamic state of affairs of campesinos in the department
of Putumayo between 1997 and 2008, the period that I have spent conduct-
ing fieldwork there. I owe my very sincere gratitude to the members and
leaders of the peasant community in Putumayo who were ready to give me
their perspective on the changing situation in Putumayo at different stages
of my fieldwork. The ongoing theoretical discussion I maintained with the
four professors who comprised my thesis committee at the Harvard Univer-
sity Department of Anthropology, David Maybury- Lewis, Sally Falk Moore,
Begoña Aretxaga, and MIT professor Jean Jackson, helped me refine my
analysis. I have not yet been able to accept the premature death of Begoña
Aretxaga, and I can only say that she continues to be my inspiration. Jean
Jackson has become a very close friend, the first person to whom I turn for
academic and practical advice. She is always ready and willing to read and
discuss my work, and her comments have been invaluable to me in writing
the final version of this book.
I am especially grateful to Margot Nelson Gill, Administrative Dean of the
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, who helped me
secure financial assistance, allowing me to extend my time at Harvard and
complete my dissertation, which is the core of this book. My time spent as
the 2004–5 Santo Domingo Visiting Scholar at Harvard’s David Rockefeller
Center for Latin American Studies gave me the opportunity to update the
Spanish version of my book published in 2001 in Colombia by the Colom-
bian Institute of Anthropology and Colciencias, and to write its last chapter,
focused on Plan Colombia.
This work would not have been possible without funding from the fol-
lowing sources: in the United States, the Wenner-G ren Foundation for
Anthropological Research, the United States Institute of Peace, the Mellon
Foundation, The Cora Du Bois Charitable Trust, and The Edmund J. Curley
Scholarship; in Colombia, the Colombian Institute for the Promotion of Sci-
x Acknowledgments
ence and Technology, known as Colciencias, and the Colombian Institute of
Anthropology and History.
I thank all the people who welcomed me into their homes during my
fieldwork, who answered my questions without hesitation, and who pointed
me in right directions. To Gaby Lorena Reyes, my field assistant, without
whom I could not have operated as I did in a conflict- ridden region. Her
family network in Putumayo and Cauca always welcomed me warmly and
made me feel at home. Thank you to all the public officials who shared their
time with me to answer my questions and to discuss the events of July and
August 1996; to Nancy Sánchez for providing me with audiotapes of the Orito
negotiations and of meetings subsequent to the signing of the accords; to
Teófilo Vásquez for providing draft copies of the Orito Agreement, materials
that were key to the ethnography central to this book; and to Eduardo Díaz
and Jaime Navarro for their trust in me and the frankness with which they
shared their perspectives on events from a human point of view and as gov-
ernment officials.
Thanks go to Marta Herrera and Andrés Leonardo Pinzón, who designed
and produced the maps; to María Lucía Sotomayor, with whom I first trav-
eled to the Baja Bota of Cauca and later to the Sibundoy Valley. Her long
friendship has been invaluable. I am also grateful to many other people
who have helped in this project; to Luz Piedad Caicedo, for classifying the
journalistic documentation; to Magadalena Arango, for her help in locating
photographs and videos; to Mónica Ruán and Margarita Sandino for their
help in classifying information; to Patricia Morales for her help with the
transcription of interviews; to César Rozo, with whom I traveled to Puerto
Asís and Mocoa at the beginning of my fieldwork and who helped me with
my initial information gathering; and to Henry Salgado, Juliana Iglesias,
and Elsy Castillo, researchers with the Colombian Institute of Anthropology
and Colciencias. Henry and Elsy conducted research analogous to mine in
Guaviare and Caquetá, respectively, so we were able to share and exchange
information. Juliana has worked as my assistant since 2003 and has been
invaluable in systemizing information related to Plan Colombia.
Thanks go to Colcultura, the Ministry of Culture, and the Colombian In-
stitute of Anthropology and History, which granted me the leaves of ab-
sence necessary to further my graduate studies, write my dissertation, and
spend a year as a Visiting Scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin
American Studies; and to my colleagues at the Colombian Institute of An-
