ABSTRACT
If one thinks about the Colombian conflict, one thinks about cocaine, drug cartels, Pablo Escobar or mules. Some would go even further and reduce the infamous narco-connotation to Colombia itself. Indeed, “the unusual thing about the Colombian conflict is that is has no ethnic component, it does not have a religious component, it is not about secession.”1 What it is then that the conflict is about? Is it about guerrillas fighting to “establish their jungle leftist kingdom?”2 Or is it that “the phenomenon of drug trade has in fact denaturalized the ideological confrontation which tends to criminalize ever more?”3 There is one thing that can be said with certainty about the Colombian conflict: “it is a conflict without rules, the only rule is that there are no rules.”4 The reason for this is given straightforwardly by one interviewee: “war cannot be humanized, war is inhumane. Shall we kill each other in a humane way? In a healthy way?”5 Indeed, all parties to the Colombian conflict make sure that the war remains as inhumane as possible. Human rights are thereby not merely disrespected; they have also turned into instruments of the conflict. How can it be that human rights are acknowledged by all illegal actors involved in the conflict, yet their violation has increased?6 This is the case because “human rights have become political weapons within the logic of war.”7 Each side is blamed for not following basic human rights, which in turn provides an excuse for the accuser not to respect them either. Accordingly, Carlos Castaño – former political head of the “Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia” (AUC) – assured that “the taxes upon the crops are necessary to keep up the fight against the FARC, it does not evidence personal profiteering.”8 He further argues in his revelation “Mi Confession”9 that the FARC financed itself beginning in the 1990s through drug-trafficking, collecting between 100 million dollars and 200 million dollars per year: “While I bought 100 or 200 shotguns on the weapon market, the FARC obtained 1,000 or 2,000.”10
