Complementing Development: Evolving Relationships Between the State, Armed Groups, and Local Communities in Colombia

Complementing Development: Evolving Relationships Between the State, Armed Groups, and Local Communities During Infrastructure Implementation in Colombia

In conflict areas, lack of infrastructure is often cited as one of the main reasons for state absence. As a result, infrastructure interventions seek to re-impose the presence of the state in territories where it has been historically absent. However, these territories are not vacuums of order, and infrastructure interventions by the state must contend with existing informal governance actors. In Colombia, these actors include non-state armed groups such as guerrilla, paramilitary, criminal, and composites of the three. This paper examines how infrastructure projects in conflict regions in Colombia, particularly roads seeking to promote economic growth, confronts and negotiates the authority of armed groups. Drawing from extensive field research in 2018 and 2019 in Colombia, particularly in the department of Nariño, this paper outlines how the state and armed groups seek to secure…