Book Review: The para-state. An ethnography of Colombia’s death squads

Aldo Civico’s The Para-State. An Ethnography of Colombia’s Death Squads is a comprehensive and thorough analysis of the paramilitary groups in Colombia as a “war machine acquired by the state to produce violence and extend its sovereignty over spaces seen as external, wild, and unruly” (p. 23). As the title suggests, the paramilitaries are portrayed as a device used by the state to extend its social and political control, using illegitimate and violent means.

The analysis presented in the book is based upon the researcher’s field experience in Colombia and previously in Italy and an exhaustive review of pertinent literature, through which Deleuze and Guattari are used in order to support the author’s hypothesis. The findings present in this work are an important asset to understand the power logics that underlie the actions of paramilitaries between 1980s and the demobilization process. Due to the fact that the author is analyzing the paramilitaries as an extension of the state, it is valuable to understand the role that the latter had in this context. This is, in my opinion, its main contribution to the field.

In terms of the methodology and data collection, Civico says, “this book is based on data I collected over multiple travels to Colombia between June 2003 and August 2008” (p. 12). Moreover, the human experiences presented in the book through the ethnographic research are crucial for the exploration of the main hypothesis.

The interviews conducted by the author with demobilized paramilitaries, former drug kingpins, politicians, bureaucrats, and cocaine-related workers provide the reader with the insight necessary to illustrate how politics affect people’s lives on a daily basis.

In the case of demobilized paramilitaries, their reasons for joining the paramilitaries clearly illustrate how the state’s political and economic decisions (or the lack thereof) affect people’s lives. That is, the state’s disregard for the sustenance and security of its population somehow pushes people toward violence and illegal actions as means for survival, since these often entail the earning of higher amounts of money than regular, legal jobs. As Jorge Andrés, a demobilized paramilitary, stated:

But I knew that once you got there you could not turn back, plus I needed the job because I didn’t have a place to sleep or anything to eat. (…) So, the only option I had in life was to go there where they accepted me as I am, just with the clothes I wore and nothing else, without a cent. (…). (p. 62)

On the other hand, the experiences narrated by what I would call the “powerful” (El Doctor, Doble Cero) are fundamental to understand how, when faced against the possibility of losing their privileges, money and power are a dangerous alliance, specially when the state is willing to have others to do its “dirty work.” The self-defense forces were developed to assist wealthy landowners protect their property from the Ejército de Liberación Nacional and Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia guerrillas, in the face of a state that could not control the violence from these guerrillas. Hence, ideologically standing against the leftist predicament of the latter, the former used similar violent means to maintain the statu quo and the social order. Moreover, they portrayed themselves as organizations that provided a public service, since they “cleansed” (<<limpieza>>) the Colombian society from undesirable elements: guerrilla members, workers unions’ leaders, drug addicts, gay people, and thieves. So, in their view, these actions gave them a moral value for the society, which they portrayed as legitimate.

From his practical experience in Sicilia and Colombia, Civico draws a parallel between the paramilitaries and the Sicilian mafia in terms of the relation between the state with organized criminal groups (intreccio vs. intertwinement). However, this argumentation proposed by the author at times seems somehow blind to cultural differences that may underlie the workings of both types of criminal organizations as well as each state. Also, further use of literature to support the point would have been appreciated for more clarity, especially with regard to Chapter 4.

Nonetheless, this argument is used by the author as a theoretical base for the analysis presented in Chapters 5 and 6, through which the intertwinement between the state and the paramilitaries is thoroughly explored to support the hypothesis presented in the introduction. These chapters are highly valuable in terms of the analysis they contain, but, in my opinion, it would have been even richer if the account of the relationship between the state and the paramilitary groups had been complemented with the testimonies of demobilized paramilitary members presented in Chapter 2.

There are many interesting research questions that may arise from what is presented in Civico’s work, from which I would like to highlight the paradoxical predicament of the paramilitaries regarding their relation to the cocaine business versus their “limpieza” (social cleansing) activities, which included the surveillance of social and moral order by prohibiting drug consumption in public in the areas they controlled.

Civico’s fieldwork and choice of research methodology must be praised, since he bravely committed to collecting the human experience of the victimizers, putting himself at risk. In the introduction, Civico reflects on his experience in terms that are moving and inspiring for the reader. For field specialists, it will prove interesting and useful due to its contribution to understanding the complex relation between the state and the paramilitaries as an illegitimate extension of its power through the use of violent means. That is, how the state produces actors of gross human rights violations and widespread violence, by relying on them to do its dirty work and fill in its functions with regard to community social needs. This might help scholars and policy makers understand the actions and inactions of the Colombian state during and after the demobilization process. Also, this book could be recommended to an audience beyond scholars and specialists since it is written in a clear and engaging manner.