Author: Martín Fernández Cardona (Bogota, Colombia)
Abstract
In Colombia a peace process was started in 2016 with the former guerrilla FARC, this meant the need for reintegration by more than 13,000 ex-guerrilla fighters, to start this process the national government has carried out different initiatives such as training courses for entrepreneurship or innovation. These policies are based on a neoliberal approach, so their objective is to increase the competitiveness of ex-guerrillas in the labor market and to be able to be hired more easily. This does not consider the negative prejudices that exist towards ex-guerrillas, which is the main reason why they are not hired. To reduce these prejudices, positive relationship processes have to be carried out according to the Intergroup Contact Theory, there are already several relationship processes taking place without government supervision, which added to the neoliberal competition environment can cause prejudices to increase.
Introduction
Colombia is a country that has been facing different internal conflicts since its creation, the government is not capable of enforcing the law in certain places of the country, allowing different armed groups to exist in those areas. The Cold War encouraged the creation of different guerrillas in Colombia, between those, the biggest and most recognized was the “Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia” (FARC). FARC was characterized for being a very strong movement which maintained its activity until 2016, when the government of president Juan Manuel Santos agreed a peace treaty with them.
This treaty has created new opportunities and new challenges, one of these challenges has been the reincorporation to civil lives of 13,000 former guerrilla fighters. In this essay I would treat this reintegration process by making an analysis based on Intergroup Contact Theory as a form to break up the differences between former guerrilla fighters and the other members of the community, in order to achieve an adequate reintegration. It concludes that the government has prioritized policies that help the former guerrilla fighter to improve their position in the market in a neoliberal context, but that this has not contributed to improving intergroup relations.
Actual situation of ex-FARC members
There have now past five years since the treaty was signed, however, the future of a lot of ex-FARC members is uncertain: The majority does not have a stable job, from the persons that have finished it’s reintegration process offered by the government (this also includes information about other armed groups and people who left FARC before the peace treaty), only 0.01% are working in the formal sector, there are 77.8% working in the informal sector, and 6.7% are unemployed (Hernández et al., 2021, p. 6). They receive support from the ARN (Agencia para la Reincorporación y la Normalización/Reincorporation and Normalization Agency), which is a government organization whose job is to train, and support the reincorporation process. Former guerrilla members face a series of negative prejudices on a daily basis: That they lack preparation, that they are violent, that you cannot trust them, etc. These prejudices hinder their reintegration to society because lots of citizens and businessmen prefer not to have contact with them by not considering it something positive. (Buitrago, 2018; Fajardo et al., 2021; Hernández et al., 2021).
The former guerrilla fighter has lived a very different life than the average Colombian, in lots of cases he probably entered the guerrilla at a young age, as a consequence, he has lived all his life in a war context inside an illegal organization, where the dynamics for living are very different from the daily life of the other’s Colombians. Also, due to this, lots of them does not have basic education neither work experience, moreover, because of being within the illegality for many years, many of them do not have the legal papers needed to work, like is the case of the “libreta militar” (a document that certifies that you completed your mandatory military service) (Hernández et al., 2021, p. 14).
These different realities are the basis of the negative prejudices of the ex-guerrilla fighter. Overcoming these differences is crucial to reach the reintegration to society and, therefore, strengthen peace. Because of that, they must be tested in different forms to reduce this difference.
Intergroup Contact Theory
An approach that will help us to interpret different forms to reduce these differences is the “Intergroup Contact Theory”, proposed by Allport in the year 1954 (Christ & Kauff, 2019). It is created based on a very basic principle: In order to reduce prejudices, it is necessary that both groups have a positive contact. Thus, the objective must be to have a positive contact, to achieve this there are four conditions: equal status, common goals, intergroup cooperation, and support of authorities, law or customs. Although these conditions are not fully necessary, they are recommended to ensure a positive contact, since otherwise the intergroup contact could even increase negatives feelings towards the other: “Allport was well aware that intergroup contact not always reduces prejudice; on the contrary, it sometimes even might strengthen stereotypical views of outgroups and increases negative sentiments” (Christ & Kauff, 2019, p. 146). By just maintaining positive intergroup contact, a positive change of participants attitude is expected towards the other group; this has been demonstrated empirically in many cases (Christ & Kauff, 2019, p. 150). This theory was created and has been used mostly to improve relationships between different ethnic groups, however, it has also worked to improve relationships between different groups with non-ethnic differences, for example, it has been used successfully in the inclusion of homosexuals, victims of AIDS, among others. (Pettigrew, 1998, p. 68). Given the above, there is a solid basis on what positive impacts can apply this theory in Colombia.
Intergroup Contact Theory in Colombia
According to the ARN, by 2019, from the 13,000 ex guerrilla members, just 3,220 continue to life in the special places created by the peace agreement with the purpose of receiving them. (Now called “Espacios Territoriales de Capacitación y Reincorporación”/Territorial Spaces for Training and Reincorporation) which shows a population movement to other places, possibly the return to their communities. This means that intergroup relations are now in progress since when returning to their communities of origin it is inevitable to establish contacts with the locals who have remained in the community, as this is a return without greater supervision and government management there is no information of where and how these intergroup relations are being carried out, and if they are generating positive or negative contact. Possibly they exist both contacts throughout the country. It is unknown if this will help or not to reduce the existent prejudices, but we can make some approximations of how these relations are being carried out by approaching to the Colombian context, for this, we will review one by one the conditions for having a positive contact according to Allport (Equal status, common goals, intergroup cooperation & support of authorities, law, or customs) with the information about what is happening in Colombia.
Equal Status
Despite the big differences between the two groups lives, they also have lots of things in common, they have similar characteristics regarding the language, the religion, or the race. The biggest difference is found in the competence inside the labor market, as ex-guerrilla members do not have the experience, the education, or the basic papers needed to compete efficiently, this lowers the status of former guerrillas compared to those of the civilian population. The ARN helps to reduce this difference by giving training courses, still, this seems not to be enough, as according to the numbers already shown before, the majority of former fighters had not found a formal job. This can bring serious problems, since not having equal status can trigger negative relationships that justify existing prejudices that could lead to violence.
Common Goals
They are immersed in a neoliberal system, because of this, people are forced to compete against each other to achieve economic development. In that sense, everybody competes against each other and the intergroup contacts can deteriorate easily (Richmond, 2014). For this reason, an active role is necessary for organizations that work for peace, presenting other scenarios where they have common goals. Sports tournaments made up of mixed teams can be very useful, since “In striving to win, interracial teams need each other to achieve their goal. Goal attainment, such as a winning season, furthers this process.” (Pettigrew, 1998, p. 68). Not having control over ex-guerrilla fighters returning to their communities of origin complicates the creation of these spaces.
Intergroup Cooperation
The big majority of ex-guerrilla fighters are now living with the community, which ensures that some of them are experimenting intergroup cooperation, for example, there are several cases of companies formed by ex-guerrilla fighters that have achieved a certain degree of integration with society, which can lead to the construction of positive relations. Despite this, there is no public record of this intergroup cooperation, nor of its results.
Support of authorities, law or customs.
As it was stated above, the authorities support is given through the ARN, it gives training in entrepreneurship, administration, innovation, etc., also it gives monthly economic support, helps with the financing of some productive projects administered by former fighters, and offers some benefits to companies that decide to hire them (Buitrago, 2018). As you can see, these aids are oriented to increase the competitive position of the former guerrilla fighters in economic competition, but they have not treated other problems seriously like the prejudices, that can be solved with integration processes. It seems that controlled intergroup relations is not something important for the government, despite the demonstrated success with relatively low-cost actions.
Reinsertion in a neoliberal economic system
Since the 90s, Colombia has been involved in a neoliberal context, the national economy has opened and it is believed that competition is the route to follow for economic development, these reforms reduce the capacity of the State to carry out peace since they promote competition, which in sensitive environments can translate into violence and increased inequality (Richmond, 2014). Within this neoliberal logic, the government directs its reintegration activities to support and encourage the entry of former guerrillas into the labor market, either by promoting entrepreneurship projects, or by linking them with large companies, so it seeks agreements with companies, proposes financing plans for small business operated by former fighters, and training courses. But it does not consider how this market competition can affect relationships in society and how relationships with former guerrillas can be greatly damaged, increasing prejudices that lead to difficult relationships within communities. As a result, several of them have been forced to hide their guerrilla past in order to obtain employment, hiding realities has a negative effect in peacebuilding, since real group integration spaces cannot be reached, preventing positive contacts that can lead to reducing prejudice. Another option that the guerrillas have taken has been to start businesses on their own, however, these businesses do not necessarily have an intra-group environment, so integration in these spaces it is not a guarantee, in addition, by not having the support of the government, many relationships that are generated are negative relations due to the hostile environment generated by the competitiveness nature of neoliberalism.
Conclusion
The government has a neoliberal approach, thus promoting a system of competition within society, this does not help a good integration between former members of the guerrilla and society. In accordance with this, the government has not made enough effort to reduce the prejudices that exist in society about the guerrillas and there is a risk that these negative feelings will increase. The peace process has been going on for 5 years, so several integration processes are already underway, despite this, the government does not have adequate monitoring of these processes, so it is not verified that the relations comply with the 4 conditions of the Intergroup Contact Theory to generate positive relationships, this can trigger processes that only increase negative feelings among citizens towards former guerrillas and consequently, already existing prejudices are reaffirmed. Several cases of repudiation of former guerrillas have been reported, even killing them. Knowing if this has any correlation with the lack of integration is the work of other studies, but it is a possibility that cannot be ruled out. For this reason, it is necessary for other works to study these informal relationships and their negative and positive impact. Today the peace process faces several challenges, guaranteeing a positive relationship between the community and former guerrillas is of vital importance to guarantee the success of the process.
References
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