Colombia is a country of extremes: geographical extremes with the country being divided by mountain ranges; extremes in terms of the unequal division of social and economic resources between population groups and between rural and urban areas; and political extremes, enjoying the longest-running democracy in Latin America while also facing one of the world's most protracted conflicts. Colombia's approaches to dealing with conflict and peacebuilding can also be characterized as somewhat extreme, albeit in a positive way for most observers, as the country has repeatedly innovated ways to resolve conflict, address the harms suffered by survivors and demobilize armed groups. This book shows that the implementation of such peacebuilding and reconciliation policies unfortunately tends to leave much to desire, as they change the everyday reality of those who experienced conflict often far less than their ambitious wording would suggest. In this chapter, I explain the socio-economic and political roots of Colombia's conflict, how different transitional justice (TJ) and other peacebuilding mechanisms have tried to address its harms and how they have tried to incorporate a gender perspective. I then introduce the locations where my empirical research took place, and explain the methods used for it and the ethical dilemmas I encountered.

Conflict, peace and reconciliation?

Colombia has a history of violence and unrest since its independence, with different periods of violent struggle starting with the end of the 19th century. Violence has historically functioned as a tool to effect political change and gain control over resources (Tate 2007). In spite of this violence, Colombia has had relatively stable economic growth from the 1940s onwards (Richani 2002). Nevertheless, a large part of its population has little or no access to resources and social services, with growth principally visible in the major cities but lagging in the rural areas, suggesting the existence of ‘two Colombias’ (Pearce 1990; Hylton 2006). The countryside itself is also characterized by strong inequality, with a small elite of very rich landowners and cattle ranchers owning large areas of land, in contrast to a large group of landless peasants. As a result, peasants have repeatedly occupied abandoned lands to achieve a means of subsistence, which was often responded to with violence (Reyes Posada 1987; Richani 2002).