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Leah Anne Carroll , Violent Democratization: Social Movements, Elites, and Politics in Colombia's Rural War Zones, 1984-2008 (Notre Dame, IN : University of Notre Dame Press , 2011), pp. xv+447, $45.00, pb.
Reviews
I first met Leah Anne Carroll in Colombia in the late 1980s, when the systematic assassination of Patriotic Union political activists and candidates was well under way. Her fieldwork was very demanding, as it involved visits to three of the most violent rural areas of the country: Arauca, Urabá and Caguán. If I recall correctly, at that time she was going to Arauca. Her book is a remarkable achievement, which has taken some time to compile but gives us detailed accounts of patterns of violence in these three regions which have not previously been brought together in this interpretative fashion. This is not an ethnography of war, but an effort to draw out comparative learning for students of democratisation and social movements about the difference the latter can make in contexts of violence, armed conflict and state repression. As such, it is a welcome break from the focus on armed actors in conflict. After an exhaustive (and sometimes exhausting - the rich detail does not make for an easy read) analysis, Carroll is able to arrive at conclusions that would escape the reach of other research. They are summed up in the final sentence of the book: 'Slowly, as small steps are being made to bring the laws of the center even to the red zones, the peasant and labor movements of the war zones are acquiring the rights of citizenship.' As Colombia enters a critical phase in its search for peace under President Santos, these words will be tested; they are an important measure of whether an outcome of Santos' peace talks will be inclusive citizenship, thus paving the way for sustainable and inclusive peace.
To many,...