From Insurgency to Local Politics the Case of the Former FARC-EP Insurgent Guillermo Torres in Turbaco, Colombia

ABSTRACT

Political participation by the former FARC-EP in Colombia remains challenging. Yet, despite limited acceptance of ex-rebels by Colombian society, ex-insurgent Guillermo Torres successfully ran for office in the municipality of Turbaco. We observe how he negotiated his identity as former rebel, revolutionary musician, and son-of-the-soil, to make himself a credible candidate, and to implement a progressive agenda. We challenge mainstream perspectives on ‘political reintegration’ and localise the ‘rebel-to-party’ debate. We suggest four elements to understand ex-insurgents political participation in local realms: identity and sense of belonging, insurgent and post-insurgent relations with local society, interaction with regional elites, and partisan competitiveness.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Guillermo Torres and his administrative team for their willingness to support this research project despite their many duties, especially in the light of the COVID 19 pandemic. We acknowledge the participation of Alvaro Cortés, Viviana Barrios, and Erick Rojas, who recorded the interviews and assisted with fieldwork.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, Ejercito del Pueblo (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, People’s Army).

2. Initially named Fuerza Alternativa Revolucionaria del Común (Alternative Revolutionary Force of the Commons).

3. He was popularly known as ‘Julián Conrado’, the FARC-EP’ singer.

4. Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, Ejercito del Pueblo (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, People’s Army).

5. In the literature, the term ‘reintegration’ is most frequently used. We propose ‘reconversion’ for the reasons explained below.

6. A video ethnography on this case can be find at: https://youtu.be/gdqcHXnPYEs

7. While most of the literature regarding reintegration identifies its social and economic dimensions (Gleichmann et al. 2004), the Havana agreement – using the term reincorporation, refers to three dimensions: social, economic, and political (Mesa de Conversaciones 2016).

8. Characterized by accordion, trombone, saxophone, and euphonium playing over 18 rhythms, including cumbia, porro, paseadito, and guaracha.

9. Belonging to FARC-EP.

10. Member of the town of Turbaco. See Torres’ song ‘Turbaquero’ written when he was in the guerrilla (Nirvana Elles 2015b)

11. To protect some informants, we do not report their names in this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially funded by the Instituto Colombo-Alemán para la Paz (CAPAZ) as part of a programme to support research projects in 2020–2021.

Notes on contributors

Julian Cortés-Urquijo

Julián Cortés-Urquijo is a Mechanical engineer with a Masters in Development and Rural Innovation from Wageningen University. He is a Ph.D. candidate in the Sociology of Development and Change at the same university within the project: Post insurgency in Colombia: local agency, politics and reincorporation of FARC-EP. His research and professional interests are rural Sociology, cooperatives and solidarity economy, Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR), social movements, militant ethnography, agroecology and the use of video in Social Sciences. He has worked in Colombian institutions as coordinator and advisor in rural development, social dialogue and project formulation. He is currently a policy advisor at the Vice-Ministry of Social Dialogue, Equality and Human Rights in Colombia. He is member of the Peace and Conflict Observatory from Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Rafael Quishpe

Rafael Quishpe is a PhD researcher in the Peace Research Department, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (Germany) and Research Center Transformations of Political Violence (TraCe). He holds an M.A in Peacebuilding from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) and a B.A in Political Science from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. His research focuses on the political reintegration of ex-combatants, the relationship between music and armed conflict and the politics of reconciliation in Colombia. In recent years, he worked as a scientific collaborator at the Colombian-German Institute for Peace (CAPAZ), coordinating research projects between Colombian and German universities related to the political and social reincorporation of ex-combatants, post-conflict democracy and the role of arts in conflict transformation. He is also the director of the Peace Music Library, a project that compiles more than 3,000 songs produced by the actors of the Colombian armed conflict between 1985-2020.

Laura Malagón

Laura Malagón is a Historian and composer who graduated from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. After her studies she completed her master’s degree in interdisciplinary Latin American Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. Later, at the same university, she obtained her doctorate in Cultural Anthropology. Her interdisciplinary background has allowed her to participate in different research projects that have covered, among others, topics such as the role of music and digital media in strengthening political discourses. She is currently a research lecturer at the Freie Universität Berlin in the area of Social and Cultural Anthropology.

Gemma van der Haar

Gemma van der Haar from a background in development sociology, has moved into the field of conflict studies. Her current work is at the crossroads of the two domains. Her research interests concern social practice, governance processes and state formation in conflict and post-conflict settings. A focal point is land governance.