Criminal Governance from Below. The Rural Population Facing Illegal Armed Groups in Cajibío, Colombia

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze the manner in which the illegal armed group known as the Frente Jaime Martinez, a faction of the dissident Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP), regulates the social life of rural communities in Cajibío, Colombia. This interaction leads to the establishment of parastatal norms that facilitate the stabilization of the power dynamics of the illegal armed group, which is essential for assuming control over the territory. A qualitative method is employed to capture the significance of observed events by analyzing the underlying meanings in social interactions, as revealed through the life stories of three residents from the neighborhoods of Los Ángeles and La Meseta. It is concluded that the relationship between criminal actors and the rural population demonstrates that established norms function through their daily reproduction within the social environment and through the propensity of criminal actors to ensure their approval via non-coercive mechanisms. In contrast to other research, this study illustrates that legitimacy constitutes a concomitant byproduct of the establishment of criminal governance by illegal armed groups.