Colombia: between elites pactos and democratic transitions

Abstract

The present article points out, with a historical, qualitative and quantitative approach, the different periods of political violence and peacebuilding instances in which political negotiation processes have been involved both among the armed factions of the bipartisanship as between the State and the insurgency in the different post-conflict periods in Colombia, and the possibility represented by the current Havana Peace Agreement, already in its complex stage of implementation, of containing sufficient elements that allow us to characterize whether agreed will lead to a stage of democratization (democratic transition) that would differ from the traditional strategy of resorting to pacts from above, which has been the historical custom among elites in Colombia, (consociational pacts) to contain, negotiate or end periods of high political and social violence. This possibility of breaking with the recurrent cycles of periods of violence and subsequent post-conflict periods through elite pacts is present in the current struggle between those who fight for the implementation of the agreement and among those who fear a process of liberalization and democratic deepening from below.