National territorial ordering?

In some rural isolated zones of little state presence, illegal groups of the conflict today act with impunity, without state control, and sometimes even with tacit permission. The national government reports, as the next on the armed conflict do not ignore the relationship of the violation of human rights with the geographical situation:

In many regions of our country, geographical location is used by criminal groups to commit series of violations of human rights (...) Although the state has made efforts to control or reduce illegal armed groups, through the various demobilization processes, these criminals have become the drug trafficking gangs, generating an increase in other crimes such as threats, forced disappearance and massive displacement. (FGN, 2011, p.

158)

According to the report based on the confessions of de-mobilised groups, from paramilitary and guerrilla members who have operated in rural zones, there were 1,652 massacres and 78,801 cases of forced displacement (a figure counted by communities, not by individual members). Even though the data available does not clarify specific zones, the analysis refers to a “geographical situation” and affirms that the number of mass displacements and forced disappearances (the official figure is only 35,108 inhabitants) has increased this year. In addition until this year 175,514 persons were killed by armed groups all over the country. It is very important to keep in mind that these figures are based on the confessions of paramilitary and guerrilla members before 2005 and, thus, refer to previous years (including the first part of the democratic security period). Finally, it is worth saying that the document (widely

distributed among private media) does not clarify the time period and does not differentiate murders perpetrated by one armed group or another.

On the other hand, the Informe Codhes (Non-governmental organisation for the defending of human rights and displaced populations) has revealed different figures of forced displacement and connects the most affected places of displacement with the so-called special zones of consolidation (zonas especiales de consolidación) defined by the government during the implementation of the ‘laboratories’ of the the democratic security policy:

An approximate number of 280,041 persons (about 56,000 homes) were displaced in 2010 in Colombia due to the armed conflict and other manifestations of social and political violence. The most remarkable fact is that 32.7% of this population, at least 91,499 persons (18,300 homes), came from the zone where the National Consolidation Plan was implemented, a program of the Government, created in 2007 with the aim to consolidate the democratic security policy, to maintain the investment levels and to advance an effective social policy (Codhes, 2011).

8 Forced Displacement Figures in Colombia. Codhes, 2011.

As it can be observed from this figure, the numbers regarding the consequences of the conflict present important variations depending on the source.

(Acción Social –green line- from the national government or a non-governmental

human rights defenders organisations such as Codhes-blue line-). Thus, the massive number of deaths reported during the armed conflict, shows variations according to the source. But what seems to be clear is that the civilian population is not the victim of crossfire but of selective murders, expropriation, disappearances, and forced displacements, all of them classified as violations of human rights that are clearly affecting the Colombian rural population in the current decade.

This data shows how the dynamics of the consequences of violence that affected the civilian population in rural zones during the nineties decade are still operating despite the democratic security policy aims.

The war that is being waged, is not so much developed through direct actions, or confrontations between the groups involved. The war is developed through actions where armed actors have decided to turn civilians populations into military targets (González, Bolivar, & Vásquez, 2003, p. 126 ).

This is the reason for which the expression “victims of crossfire,” used very often in the mass media, is not a sufficient explanation for the question of why so many civilians fall victim to this internal and territorial armed conflict.

Furthermore, geographical perspectives on the recent violence in Colombia indicate that the armed groups of the conflict “are inserted in spatial conditions that generate conditions of violence” (Vásquez, 2005, p. 44):

It is evident that the territorial fight between the armed actors is not only reduced to the stages of the paramilitary project or to the relationships with guerrillas’ local economies, it also has a topographical character which is a key aspect on an irregular war. Thus, guerillas settled and operated from the ladders of the mountains in high zones; from there, they enter to urban centres and plain zones. Whereas, paramilitaries are settled in plain zones and urban centres from which they incur to police stations and to small villages in the mountainous zones where the guerrilla is present, have supplies and a social basis (González, Bolivar, & Vásquez, 2003, p. 124)

To summarise, the territorial aspects of the Colombian internal armed conflict in terms of symmetrical behaviour of its forces (Vásquez, 2005) are factors that reach a better comprehension from a geographical perspective of the conflict. This symmetrical behaviour is manifested in massacres, and the different forms of making contact with civilian populations, their presence in the zones, and the control over municipalities and regions. It is possible that, during the last part of 2000, with the implementation of the particular logics of democratic security, this situation has undergone remarkable changes; but in this context, panoramic studies that allow the construction of a complete version of how the spaces of conflict have been transformed in the last part of this decade are expected.