Abstract
This chapter analyzes how the situation in the Colombian peace territory of Samaniego evolved after the signing of the peace agreement between the Colombian government and FARC in 2016. Based on interviews and observation in situ, it illustrates some of the opportunities that arise for communities to engage in peacebuilding after the signing of peace nationally, as well as the significant challenges arising in a context of partial agreement, when some armed groups remain active and armed violence continues to affect certain communities. In this context, the community of Samaniego actively participated in several peacebuilding initiatives. Yet, it did not experience a complete transition from war to peace and continued to engage in civil resistance against enduring armed violence, building on its experience as a peace territory. The community also became rapidly disillusioned by the continuing abandonment of the central state and the lack of implementation of the peace accords.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
According to the 2018 census, Samaniego had nearly 30,000 inhabitants and had an indicator of unsatisfied basic needs of 33% in rural areas and 26% in the urban area, in comparison with an average of 14% for the whole country (DANE 2018).
- 2.
Samaniego was part of two projects funded by the European Union and implemented by a local NGO, which supported the establishment and consolidation of peace territories in hundreds of municipalities in Colombia: the project “One hundred municipalities of peace” and its successor “Three hundred municipalities of peace” (Rojas 2007).
- 3.
The agency of the Mayor was key in the establishment of a peace territory in Samaniego, but structural factors were also critical. In particular, the municipality was characterized by a significant level of social organization, and the declaration of peace territory occurred at a time of strengthening of the peace movement in Colombia, which constituted a propitious context for the development of local peace initiatives. For more on the factors that led Samaniego to become a peace territory, see Mouly et al. (2016).
- 4.
See official data about the 2016 plebiscite on the website of the Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil at: https://elecciones.registraduria.gov.co/pre_plebis_2016/99PL/DPL23115ZZZZZZZZZZZZ_L1.htm (last visit: 26 June 2019).
- 5.
The 2016 peace agreement contemplated the implementation of PDETs in marginalized municipalities most affected by the armed conflict as a planning tool to generate structural transformations in these municipalities (Acuerdo final para la terminación del conflicto y la construcción de una paz estable y duradera 2016). The programs, which are due to take place in 170 municipalities over a ten-year period, include projects focused on infrastructure, housing, land titling, education, health, among others.
- 6.
Presidential directive No. 01, adopted on 2 February 2018, available at: https://dapre.presidencia.gov.co/normativa/normativa/DIRECTIVA%20PRESIDENCIAL%2001%20DE%202018.pdf (last visit: 18 July 2019). See also presidential decree No. 885 adopted in May 2017, available at: http://es.presidencia.gov.co/normativa/normativa/DECRETO%20885%20DEL%2026%20DE%20MAYO%20DE%202017.pdf (last visit: 18 July 2019).
- 7.
Former Colombian High Commissioner for Peace Sergio Jaramillo (2014) coined the term “territorial peace” to refer to the need to build peace in each territory according to its specifics.
- 8.
Information about the museum is available on the website of the National Centre of Historical Memory: http://centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/de/narino/museo-escolar-de-la-memoria-recuerdos-de-mi-wayco (last visit: 18 July 2019). The museum also has a Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Education-Website/Museo-Escolar-de-la-Memoria-Recuerdos-de-mi-Wayco-260418271438510/ (last visit: 18 July 2019).
- 9.
See official data about the 2018 elections on the website of the Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil at: http://elecciones1.registraduria.gov.co/esc_pre_2v_2018/ (last visit: 26 June 2019).
- 10.
Importantly, in April 2018 the police detained various leaders from Samaniego accusing them of being part of the ELN guerrillas. They were soon released for lack, and manipulation, of evidence. According to various interviewees, this event revealed how the Colombian state stigmatized people from the locality and dissuaded some leaders from making proposals to the government-ELN negotiating table (e.g., interviews S107, S109 February 2019; Diario del Sur 2018c, 2018f).
- 11.
For more on the social reintegration of former combatants in Samaniego, see Mouly et al. (2019).
- 12.
In August 2019, a group of former FARC top-level commanders announced their decision to take up arms again, owing to the failure of the government to implement the peace agreement. This included alias Romaña, who was in charge of the demobilization of the FARC front which operated in Samaniego before the demobilization of the group (BBC News Mundo 2019).
References
Acuerdo final para la terminación del conflicto y la construcción de una paz estable y duradera. 2016.
BBC News Mundo. 2019. FARC: Iván Márquez, exjefe del equipo negociador de las FARC, anuncia que retoma la lucha armada en Colombia. BBC News Mundo, August 29.
Burgos, Diego. 2017. Los colores de la danza de la paz en Samaniego. Radio Nacional de Colombia, August 20.
———. 2019. ¿Qué está pasando en Samaniego (Nariño)? Radio Nacional de Colombia, June 20.
CINEP, and CERAC. 2018. Tercer informe de verificación de la implementación del Acuerdo Final de Paz en Colombia para los Verificadores Internacionales Felipe González y José Mujica.
Contagio Radio. 2019a. Asesinan a Paula Rocero, Personera y defensora de DD.HH. en Samaniego, Nariño. Contagio Radio, May 21.
———. 2019b. Silencian la voz de Libardo Montenegro, periodista comunitario en Samaniego, Nariño. Contagio Radio, June 12.
DANE. 2018. Censo nacional de populación y vivienda [National Census of People and Housing].
Defensoría del Pueblo de Colombia. 2019. Alerta Temprana No 032-19, de Inminencia, para el municipio de Samaniego, departamento de Nariño. Sistema de Alertas Tempranas.
Diario del Sur. 2017a. En Samaniego conforman Mesa municipal de mujeres. Diario del Sur, July 5.
———. 2017b. Mujeres se preparan para el posconflicto en Samaniego. Diario del Sur, December 17.
———. 2018a. En Samaniego capacitan a líderes en procesos de paz. Diario del Sur, April 11.
———. 2018b. Matan a excombatiente de las Farc en Samaniego. Diario del Sur, December 7.
———. 2018c. Nos tocó dormir parados, dijo el exalcalde Montufar. April 27.
———. 2018d. Reactivaron Consejo municipal para la paz. Diario del Sur, May 23.
———. 2018e. Se preparan para el posconflicto. Diario del Sur, February 9.
———. 2018f. Testigo afirma que captura de exalcaldes es un montaje [AUDIO]. Diario del Sur, April 22.
———. 2019a. ‘Elenos’ mantienen paro armado y bloquean vías en Nariño. Diario del Sur, July 16.
———. 2019b. Matan a una dirigente indígena de los Pastos en Samaniego. Diario del Sur, February 22.
———. 2019c. Repudiaron asesinato de periodista de Samaniego. Diario del Sur, June 13.
Dudouet, Véronique. 2007. Surviving the Peace: Challenges of War-to-Peace Transitions for Civil Society Organisations. In Berghof Report Nr. 16. Berlin: Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management.
El Tiempo. 2018. Eln, tras muerte de tres integrantes de las Farc en Nariño: Fiscalía. El Tiempo, February 5.
———. 2019. Sin servicio de energía Samaniego, Nariño, tras hostigamiento. El Tiempo, July 17.
Hancock, Landon E., and Christopher Mitchell. 2012. Between local and national peace: Complementarity or conflict? In Local Peacebuilding and National Peace: Interaction Between Grassroots and Elite Processes, ed. Christopher R. Mitchell and Landon E. Hancock, 161–178. London: Continuum.
Herrera, Juan Manuel. 2017. ‘Eln, el grupo que más sacó ventaja de zonas dejadas por Farc’: OEA. El Tiempo, November 9.
Idler, Annette, María Belén Garrido, and Cécile Mouly. 2015. Peace Territories in Colombia: Comparing Civil Resistance in Two War-Torn Communities. Journal of Peacebuilding & Development 10 (3): 1–15.
Jaramillo, Sergio. 2014. La paz territorial. Paper presented at the University of Harvard, Cambridge, MA, March 13.
Lederach, John Paul. 2019. Forging Inclusive Peace: We Stink More Than We Think. In Navigating Inclusion in Peace Processes, ed. Andy Carl, 23–26. London: Conciliation Resources.
Masullo, Juan, Cécile Mouly, and María Belén Garrido. 2019. Alternative Forms of Civilian Noncooperation with Armed Groups: The Case of Samaniego in Colombia. In Civil Resistance and Violent Conflict in Latin America: Mobilizing for Rights, ed. Cécile Mouly and Esperanza Hernández, 111–136. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mitchell, Christopher. 2014. The Nature of Intractable Conflict: Resolution in the Twenty-First. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Montúfar, Harold. 2019. Múltiples y lentas agonías. Diario del Sur, May 29.
Mouly, Cécile. 2004. The Role of Peace Constituencies in Building Peace in Nicaragua and Guatemala. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
———. 2013. The Nicaraguan Peace Commissions: A Sustainable Bottom-Up Peace Infrastructure. International Peacekeeping 20 (1): 48–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/13533312.2012.761833.
———. 2019. The Role of the Forums of Consultation and Follow-Up to the Peace Agreements in Decentralizing Peace Implementation in Guatemala. Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA), Toronto, March 27–30.
———. 2021. Peace Communities. In Handbook of Positive Peace, ed. Katerina Standish, Heather Devere, Adan Suazo and Rachel Rafferty. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3877-3_61-1.
Mouly, Cécile, and María Belén Garrido. 2018. No a la guerra: resistencia civil en dos comunidades periféricas de Colombia. Desafíos 30 (1): 245–277. https://doi.org/10.12804/revistas.urosario.edu.co/desafios/a.5282.
Mouly, Cécile, Annette Idler, and María Belén Garrido. 2015. Zones of Peace in Colombia’s Borderlands. International Journal of Peace Studies 20 (1).
Mouly, Cécile, María Belén Garrido, and Annette Idler. 2016. How Peace Takes Shape Locally: The Experience of Civil Resistance of Samaniego in Colombia. Peace & Change 41 (2): 127–162. https://doi.org/10.1111/pech.12184.
Mouly, Cécile, Esperanza Hernández, and Jaime Giménez. 2019. Reintegración social de excombatientes en dos comunidades de paz en Colombia. Análisis Político 32 (95): 3–22.
Paffenholz, Thania. 2015. Can Inclusive Peace Processes Work? New Evidence from a Multi-Year Research Project. In Policy Brief. Geneva: Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding.
Prendergast, John, and Emily Plumb. 2002. Building Local Capacity: From Implementation to Peacebuilding. In Ending Civil Wars: The Implementation of Peace Agreements, ed. Stephen J. Stedman, Donald Rothchild, and Elizabeth M. Cousens, 327–349. London: Lynne Rienner.
Radio Nacional de Colombia. 2019. Un soldado herido por hostigamiento del Eln en Samaniego, Nariño. Radio Nacional de Colombia, July 18.
Restrepo, Isabel. 2017. El Consejo Nacional de Paz en Colombia: ¿una potencial infraestructura de paz para apoyar las negociaciones de paz y la implementación de los Acuerdos? Cuadernos de trabajo en Gobierno y Ciencias Políticas No. 7, May, Medellín: EAFIT University. https://repository.eafit.edu.co/bitstream/handle/10784/11616/cuadernos_trabajo_eafit_7.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y.
Rojas, Catalina. 2007. Islands in the Stream: A Comparative Analysis of Zones of Peace within Colombia’s Civil War. In Zones of Peace, ed. Landon E. Hancock and Christopher Mitchell, 71–89. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian.
Semana. 2019. ELN atacó base militar y dejó sin luz a un pueblo de Nariño. Semana, July 18.
Soto, Jorge. 2015. Los Consejos de Paz y su posible papel en el postconflicto: Mapeo Nacional 2015, December 7. Bogotá: Fundación Ideas para la Paz (FIP). http://www.ideaspaz.org/especiales/consejos-paz/descargas/informe-consejos-de-paz.pdf.
Stedman, Stephen J., Donald Rothchild, and Elizabeth M. Cousens. 2001. Ending Civil Wars: The Implementation of Peace Agreements. London: Lynne Rienner.
UNODC. 2018. Colombia: Monitoreo de territorios afectados por cultivos ilícitos 2017.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mouly, C., Bustos, K. (2022). Samaniego After the 2016 Peace Agreement: Between Hope and Fear. In: Allen, S.H., Hancock, L.E., Mitchell, C., Mouly, C. (eds) Confronting Peace. Rethinking Political Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67288-1_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67288-1_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-67287-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-67288-1
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)