On his first day in office, President Gustavo Petro invited all illegal armed groups in Colombia to work towards “total peace”. In November 2022, Congress approved Law 2272 of 2022 granting him the legal framework to open negotiations. In this context, the self-defined Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC, also known as Clan del Golfo, a splinter group created after the demobilisation of the AUC-paramilitary organisation in 2006) expressed their intention to join “total peace” by reducing offensive actions. On 30 December 2022, Petro signed Decree 2658 initiating a bilateral ceasefire with the AGC. To date, however, the possibility of establishing a negotiation with this group remains uncertain. In this bumpy process, the violent actions that occurred in the context of the miners’ strike in Bajo Cauca, between 2 March and 5 April 2023 have a particular political weight. In this piece, we look at the challenges and opportunities for materialising “total peace” in territories characterised by a strong dependence on illegal mining.
Security beyond militarisation
During the miners’ strike, a security crisis unraveled due to the violent actions carried out by the AGC, such as the burning of public transport vehicles and ambulances and vandalism. These actions were a reaction to the destruction of some dredges used for illegal mining between the Bajo Cauca and Sur de Cordoba regions, carried out by the army between 2 and 20 March 2023.
At the beginning of the strike, the Petro administration set up a negotiation table with the mining sector. However, while the strike’s committee was negotiating with the government, on 19 March, six more vehicles were burnt down by unknown actors on the road between Caucasia and Medellin. In response, Petro suspended the bilateral ceasefire with the AGC and reactivated military operations against this group.
Social leaders and grassroots organisations expressed fear that Petro’s decision was leading to the reactivation of the military operations of the AGC against civilians. The challenge emerging for “total peace” from this scenario was resolved by pushing for a human security policy going beyond the militarisation of the territory.
Destigmatising social protest for civil society participation
In a context where all actors (including bureaucrats, private companies, and the security forces) need to establish a relationship with local illegal armed groups, there is a great risk of stigmatising social protest.
During the miners’ strike, strong tensions emerged in relation to the participation of the AGC in the miner’s mobilisations. In several local and national media, the strike was portrayed as a “fake mobilisation” orchestrated by illegal armed groups. Under the accusations of collusion with the AGC, the strike committee rejected the violent actions occurring during the strike.
A critical point of tension during the miner’s strike was the request of the strike committee to cease military operations against the mining machinery (backhoes and dredges), whose use is prohibited by the Law 1450 of 2011. In this context, the committee’s interests coincided partially with the interests of the AGC, which finance themselves through this machinery participating directly in the extractive activities or collecting a tax from local miners.
The participation of AGC in the mining sector turned this topic into a key challenge for “total peace”, whose key pillar is the participation of civil society. Hence, the Petro administration decided to try to articulate the fight against large-scale illegal mining alongside a dialogue with the informal mining sector.
Reconversion of illegal economies while respecting the environment
Economic inequalities in mining regions highlight the necessity of formulating new environmental management plans. The reconversion of the illegal economies under a framework of respect for the environment emerges as a central challenge.
The Bajo Cauca region, with the highest index of unsatisfied basic needs in Antioquia, has seen a history of failed attempts for the reconversion of illicit economies. For example, municipalities have been included in the ‘Territorial Development Plans’ and the ‘National Plan for the Substitution of Illegal Crops’, both programs created by the 2016 Peace Agreement with the FARC-EP, but they have been poorly implemented. Petro inherited the failures of these schemes.
During the miner’s strike, the need to imagine alternative pathways for socio-economic development and to break economic dependency on mining, emerged as a priority for the implementation of “total peace”. Achieving just land distribution involves recognising big legal mining enterprises like Mineros Aluvial as part of this conflict.
The chances for “total peace” in the Bajo Cauca region.
The penetration of illegal armed actors in the political life of regions that rely on illegal mining highlights that social and political agreements are required in order to bring about structural transformations and push forward new programs of socio-economic development. At the same time, this process must be paired with a human security policy centered on protecting human rights.
Petro’s decision to suspend the ceasefire with the AGC and to continue dismantling illegal economies in the region while supporting the legalisation of small-scale miners through the implementation of a Mining District is a bet to demonstrate that “total peace” coincides with an attempt to transform the war economies that have been sustaining the armed conflict in the last 30 years. If the AGC demonstrates a commitment to support the process of economic reconversion and fully respect civilians, it is possible to imagine the reactivation of the bilateral ceasefire which will open the road for negotiations in the near future.
Andrei Gómez-Suárez
Andrei Gómez-Suárez is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Religion, Reconciliation and Peace at the University of Winchester. He is the co-founder of Rodeemos el Diálogo (ReD, Embrace Dialogue), He is also an Associated Researcher in the Department of Latin American, Hispanic and Portuguese studies at Bristol University and senior consultant of Positive Negatives. He is the author of Genocide, Geopolitics, and Transnational Networks (Routledge, 2015), El Triunfo del No (Ícono, 2016), producer of La Confianza, and writer and producer of Jessica: Coca, Stigmatization, Violence and Development in Colombia and Colombia’s Broken Peace (Positive Negatives, 2020, 2022).
Chiara Chiavaroli
Chiara Chiavaroli is an anthropologist and a PhD student in the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics (LSE). She is a member of Rodeemos el Diálogo (ReD). She has been a consultant for Chatham House and for the Centre for Reproductive rights.
