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Colombians (in Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama and Brazil)

 

After approximately 50 years of conflict in Colombia, the 1990s saw an escalation in violence and threats to the civilian population. These threats increased to such an extent that greater numbers of Colombians crossed international borders in search of safety and international protection as refugees. As the conflict in Colombia is infamous for the internal displacement it has caused, these refugees are often overlooked. However, there are now an estimated 57,000 Colombian refugees in Ecuador and around 200,000 Colombians eligible for refugee status in Venezuela. Several thousand displaced Colombians in Panama and Brazil remain ‘unidentified’ and their exact numbers are unknown due to porous borders and difficulty in accessing them in the Amazon.

The conflict in Colombia gradually shifted from being ideology-based to being driven by economic incentives. In the 1950s, liberal and communist political parties began to militarise and fight each other in a bloody civil war which ended a decade later when they were overpowered by the state's armed forces. Two communist armed groups were founded in the 1960s: the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forced of Colombia) and the ELN (National Liberation Army). Both were against Colombia’s wealthy classes and opposed to U.S. influence in Colombia, the privatisation of natural resources, multinational corporations, and rightist violence. After the end of the Cold War, the FARC financed itself by kidnappings, extortion, and by claiming protection money of drug traders and coca farmers. When the conflict became centred increasingly on drugs, the FARC sought to expand its territorial control over significant production areas. Land owners and other sectors started organising themselves to combat insurgent armed groups and became known as paramilitaries; the main group being the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC). Paramilitaries disputed the territorial claims of armed groups, considering the population in FARC-controlled areas as the guerrillas' socio-economic basis and thus a legitimate target for military attacks. Although 'on different sides', both armed groups and the paramilitaries use the same means to fund their activities and are considered terrorist organisations by the Colombian and other governments. Violations of humanitarian and human rights law have become a strategy of counter-insurgency, and forced displacement a means to 'cleanse' areas of any support civilians are suspected to provide to insurgents. With armed groups recruiting ever more combatants, safe areas for internal displacement have become scarce, pushing people beyond Colombia's borders.

Most Colombian leaders have attempted peace talks while also pursuing a hardline military stance against leftist guerrilla groups. The tide of the war reportedly changed in 2002 when US-funded Colombian troops drove rebels into remote jungle and mountain hideouts, opening up new areas to investment, especially in oil and mining. The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez has been acting as an unofficial negotiator between the Colombian government and the FARC since 2007, but allegations in 2008 by the Colombian government that the FARC received support from the Venezuelan government further complicated regional relations. With the killing of FARC rebel leader, Alfonso Cano in November 2011, the Colombian government believes the country is nearing the final phase of nearly 50 years of war.  Given the continuing violence and unresolved deep-seated issues from unequal land distribution and rural poverty, backed by flourishing criminal gangs and politicians corrupted by drug money, a safe and dignified return of Colombian refugees seems unrealistic in the near future. However, recent reforms addressing the structural aspects of the conflict,  including a new land bill passed by the Colombian government to give back land to displaced peasants (part of a broader Victim's Law that aims to compensate victims of the armed conflict), might help to erode the power of criminal groups and bring the country closer to peace.

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