A sub-national approach to state-building and security: the role of municipal institutions in Colombia's DDR process |
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| Authors: | Francy Carranza-Franco |
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| Institution: | Francy Carranza Franco is a PhD Candidate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. Her research interests focus on citizenship and its relationship to security in situations of war and conflict. She has worked at the Ministry of Education in Colombia and at the Institute of Political Studies and International Relations (IEPRI), National University of Colombia |
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| Abstract: | The Mayoral Offices of the two most important cities in Colombia— Bogotá and Medellín—played a key role in implementing the national policy of DDR that took place under the Presidency of Alvaro Uribe. Both Mayors developed municipal policies to provide services to ex-combatants from paramilitary and guerrilla groups. The analysis of these policies contributes to the understanding of the role that municipal authorities play in underpinning and redefining national policies of security and reintegration of ex-combatants. The dichotomy between military security and human security presents a theoretical framework to study how national and sub-national authorities interact on the basis of their different security needs. Municipal authorities had to address three main challenges in the reintegration of ex-combatants: first, the consequences of a sudden increase in population and the subsequent pressure on security and coexistence; second, the resistance from the recipient communities and having to achieve a balance in the services provided to victims and demobilised; third, how to establish effective collaboration between municipal and national authorities. The DDR was nationally built, but it was consolidated at the sub-national level. |
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