Colombian state reactions to peace: the legacies of the narcoguerrilla-narcoterrorist discourses

Abstract

ABSTRACT For years, the Colombian state maintained its position about how the guerrillas’ involvement with drug trafficking has made them lose their political and/or ideological nature. Political and military sectors supported this approach and used the term narco-guerrilla or narco-terrorists. The peace process initiated in 2012 during the Santos administration seemed to alter this narrative. This article analyzes how Colombia’s peace process had a contradictory effect on the ‘narco-terrorist’ characterization of the FARC-EP: it opened windows of opportunity both for more peace-prone discourses and for an even more virulent version of the criminalization of the guerrillas.