IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/defpea/v32y2021i2p193-219.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Paramilitary Violence in Colombia: A Multilevel Negative Binomial Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Jennifer S. Holmes
  • Agustin Palao Mendizabal
  • David Saucedo De La Fuente
  • Mercedez Callenes
  • Álvaro Cárdenas

Abstract

Although Colombia is well known for its persistent leftist guerrilla conflict, the country also suffers from paramilitary violence. This study examines the potential factors related to persistent paramilitary violence in the form of human rights violations. How has paramilitary activity, and its causes, changed over time? Why does it persist in some areas after Uribe’s demobilization process but not in others? We use multilevel modeling to explore the determinants of paramilitary human rights violations. A varied range of aspects potentially associated with the paramilitary presence at the municipal level for the period 2002–2015, such as state presence, resources, greed, grievances and conflict are analyzed. The study uses information about paramilitary human rights violations from the Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular (CINEP). Results suggest that the demobilization process reduced the initial paramilitary motivation to fight against leftist guerrilla. However, other factors such as coca cultivation or ranching remained significantly related to the paramilitary activity. The analysis at the municipal level provides clear warnings for continued violence cycles threatening any undergoing or future peace processes or demobilizations and calls for a more nuanced concept of state capacity to understand paramilitary violence.

Suggested Citation

  • Jennifer S. Holmes & Agustin Palao Mendizabal & David Saucedo De La Fuente & Mercedez Callenes & Álvaro Cárdenas, 2021. "Paramilitary Violence in Colombia: A Multilevel Negative Binomial Analysis," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(2), pages 193-219, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:defpea:v:32:y:2021:i:2:p:193-219
    DOI: 10.1080/10242694.2019.1624067
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10242694.2019.1624067
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/10242694.2019.1624067?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vélez-Torres, Irene & Vanegas, Diana, 2022. "Contentious environmental governance in polluted gold mining geographies: The case of La Toma, Colombia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:defpea:v:32:y:2021:i:2:p:193-219. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/GDPE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.