Peace, Democracy, and Human Rights in Colombia (review)

This edited volume is the culmination of work that began as a conference at the University of Notre Dame concerning the challenges that face Colombia. Organized around the three themes in the title—the interlinked issues of peace, democracy and human rights—the volume explores such key topics of relevance to Colombian politics as the drug trade, the peace process, institutional reform and the effects of U.S. foreign policy. The preponderance of the analysis is focused on the 1990s and 2000s, although some pieces either focus more narrowly or range more widely. It features contributions from long-term students of Colombia including (but not limited to), Herbert Tico Braun, Eduardo Pizarro, and Arlene Tickner.

The editors provide essays that frame the basic challenges facing Colombia. Christopher Welna opens the volume with an outline of the title themes, noting the tripartite difficulties faced in this case. The book does not operate around any centralizing framework or theoretical perspective. There are four essays on the peace issue, three on democracy and two on human rights. Gustavo Gallón concludes the volume with a discussion of the difficulties associated with finding solutions, especially given the focus within the Colombian government on solutions that utilize violence.

Worthy of singling out for special mention are the pieces by Álvaro Camacho and Andrés López on the drug trade, Daniel Garcia-Peña on the peace process, and Matthew Shugart, Erika Moreno and Luis Fajardo on democratic reform. The Camacho and López piece provides a succinct history of the historical stages of the Colombian drug trade that is needed for a full understanding of that phenomenon. Likewise, the Garcia-Peña piece does an excellent job of detailing the various peace processes that have been undertaken in Colombia from the Belasario Betancur administration (1982-1986) through to that attempted by Andrés Pastana (1988-2002). Not only does the chapter well summarize the relevant history, it also provides an analytical framework for looking at these policies. The chapter by Shugart, Moreno and Fajardo provides a comprehensive look at the institutional shortcomings of Colombia democracy and examines the reforms to the system passed in 2003 and used for the first time in national elections in 2006. The piece is comprehensive and places the Colombian case in the proper comparative and theoretical context; it is one of the first pieces published in English to look into these changes to the Colombia electoral system.

Perhaps the only significant omission in the volume is a chapter dedicated to the much discussed, but under-studied, paramilitary phenomenon. While the topic emerges in several of the chapters, there is no comprehensive treatment of the subject. Indeed, the main shortcoming of the book is its brevity relative to the scope of its topic. The book could easily have been a three-volume work, with each of the major themes receiving more comprehensive treatment. There continues to be a shortage of solid political science work on the topic of Colombia, despite its complexity and centrality to U.S. foreign policy, and this volume helps fill that gap. The presentation is such that the book can be is useful and accessible to academics, policymakers and the general public.