Uso bélico de las normas penales en Colombia (1962-1980): arma estatal para derrotar al enemigo

The present text addresses the issue of the use of criminal laws as a weapon to restore order and to combat an imprecise and variable enemy, specifically during the period 1962-1980. During this period, the enemy changes from being the liberal atheist to the communist guerrilla man. The issuing of the Penal Code of 1980 ultimately determines the preference for punishment in the history of Colombia as the most qualified answer to the issue of violence to achieve “national salvation”, or simply to recover or maintain the institutional and social order. Possibly, the option of political power through the penal solution is a simple and irrational alternative or, in any case, the option for the war use of the penal norms that, from the beginning, evaded any expert advice. Therefore, this article investigates the value of the Comision Investigadora de las Causas y Situaciones Presentes de la Violencia (Investigative commission for the causes and present state of violence), whose diagnose of the use of the Penal Code was valid during such period.