Chaos In Colombia: La Violencia

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, on April 9, 1948, in Columbia, the Liberal presidential candidate, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, was assassinated, which is believed to have triggered the ensuing violent era known as La Violencia. The author points out that the La Violencia era was an extremely complex event involving both partisan political rivalry and hostile guerrillas throughout Colombia except for the southern portion and parts of the Caribbean Coast. The paper relates that, in 1958, the creation of the National Front ended the fighting between the political parties, but Colombia still to this day is fighting with the armed peasants and guerrillas. The paper concludes that the primary cause of this long, horrific period of internal chaos was the refusal of consecutive governments to listen to the people's demands for social and economic change due to the partisan political rivalry.

From the Paper:

"The tension started in 1946 when, Conservative Mariano Ospina Perez assumed office and was in charge of the difficult task of ruling from a minority position, since the Liberals controlled Congress. Ospina tried including Liberals into the government.6 In the meantime, the amount of political arguments were increasing in the countryside. The Conservatives thought the answer was what they had always believed to be the answer, violence. Liberals and their movements were led by the leadership of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan. He demanded that Ospina should deal with the important social needs of the developing nation."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bailey, Norman A. "LA VIOLENCIA IN COLOMBIA". Journal of Inter-American Studies Vol 9, No. 4, (1967): 561-575. Available from: School of International Studies. University of Miami http://www.jstor.org (accessed 28 October 2007).
• Leech, Gary. "Fifty Years of Violence". Colombia Journal Online (May 1990) http://www.colombiajournal.org/fiftyyearsofviolence.htm#two (accessed 25 October 2007).
• Ramsey, Russell W. "CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY ON LA VIOLENCIA IN COLOMBIA". Journal of Inter-American Studies Vol 8, No. 1, (1973): 3-44 Available from: University of Texas Press. http://www.jstor.org (accessed 28 October 2007).
• Richani, Nazih. SYSTEMS OF VIOLENCE: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF WAR AND PEACE IN COLOMBIA. New York: State University of New York Press, 2002.
• Rojas, Cristina. CIVILIZATION AND VIOLENCE. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2002.

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