Colombia. The New Left: Origins, Trajectory and Prospects
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Description
The emergence of new parties and electoral coalitions of the left and right has reconfigured Colombian politics in the last decade. With this, it appears that the centrist inertia of Colombia’s long-term two-party political discourse has been broken—a centrism that, discrediting open ideological debate in democratic arenas, has created incentives for violent political expressions. In the short term, this shift has made it possible for the labels ‘left’ and ‘right’—common in other countries of the region—to become part of the lexicon of political discussion and analysis in Colombia for the first time in several decades. In the medium to long term, as we shall see below, the emergence of solid political blocks of the left and right may signify the transformation of the political system as a whole and force the traditional political parties (Liberal and Conservative) to reinvent themselves accordingly. This chapter focuses on one of these new poles: the new Colombian left. Specifically, it is concerned with the parties and electoral coalitions of the left that, since the founding of the Frente Social y Político (FSP, Social and Political Front) in 1999, have made unprecedented electoral advances, including the election of congressional candidates with some of the highest vote totals in the 2002 elections, the election of the first leftist mayor of Bogotá in 2003, and the highest vote ever for a leftist presidential candidate in 2006. The chapter also examines the articulation between these parties and social movements and other political forces that constitute a nascent leftist block, in opposition to the new rightist block that has formed around the figure of President Álvaro Uribe. Given that the resurgence of the left is a regional phenomenon, as the other chapters in this volume demonstrate, this chapter places the study of the Colombian case in the context of the new Latin American leftist parties and movements. Consequently, it attempts to achieve a balance between: (1) an analysis of how the peculiarities of the Colombian situation have conferred certain particular features on the recent evolution of the left in the country; and (2) an analysis of the similarities and influences between the Colombian left and the new left currents that have emerged throughout Latin America. In relation to the central themes of this book, laid out in Chapter 1, several theses inform the description and analysis presented in the pages that follow. First, I argue that the origins and characteristics of the new left should be understood as part and parcel of a ‘thawing process’ of the bipartisan political system dating from the nineteenth century. I further argue that an equally central component of this process is the consolidation of a ‘new right’ in the country. For this reason, throughout the chapter I underline both the parallel origins of and the contrasts between the two blocks, and the changes these have produced in Colombia’s political system. Second, with respect to the links between political parties and social movements, I argue that their articulation is still incipient and that, in this context, the parties have tended to be the most visible actors of the new left. This contrasts with the Bolivian and Ecuadorian cases—and even the Argentine and Mexican cases—in which social movements have been the original engines of the left’s resurgence. It also contrasts with the Brazilian case, in which the articulation between social movements and the party was fundamental from the very beginning of the Workers’ Party (PT). Third, I attempt to demonstrate that the considerable electoral gains since 2002 by leftist parties in municipal, congressional and presidential elections occurred before those parties had consolidated themselves—that is, the political juncture has been such that the new left had had to attempt to organize viable parties after having reached Congress, the Bogotá Mayor’s office and other democratically elected offices. In this sense, the Colombian experience contrasts with those of Brazil and Uruguay, in which the PT and the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) respectively went through processes of organization and consolidation for several years before rising to positions of political importance. Fourth, with respect to the proposals of the new left, I contend that its nucleus consists of a combination of, on the one hand, political negotiation and protection for the democratic rights as a solution to the armed conflict and, on the other hand, its opposition—formulated in very general terms—to economic neo-liberalism. In view of the rights-centred and redistributive character of the 1991 Colombian Constitution and the repeated efforts of the Uribe government to reform it, the new left has tended to condense its platform in defence of the constitution. The Colombian context creates a situation—paradoxical in historical and comparative perspective—in which the left tends to take the lead in defending existing institutions and offer more detailed alternatives with respect to public order (a topic in principle more favourable to the left in situations of deepening inequality and persistent poverty such as the one obtaining in Colombia).
Source Publication
The New Latin American Left: Utopia Reborn
Source Editors/Authors
Patrick Barrett, Daniel Chavez, César Rodríguez-Garavito
Publication Date
2008
Recommended Citation
Rodríguez-Garavito, César, "Colombia. The New Left: Origins, Trajectory and Prospects" (2008). Faculty Chapters. 1897.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1897
