Reflections on coexistence and structural violence in Colombia

Abstract

This article reflects on the challenges of building peace in the current scenario of coexistence and national reconciliation. In this regard, we argue that it is necessary, not only the kind of institutional transformation that is indispensable to implement what was agreed in the peace agreement between the national government and the farc guerrillas –a transformation for which the Colombian State is responsible- but it is also the transformation of the behaviors that have led us to perpetuate the violent cycles that some claim to be the true cause of violence, and which have been present since the beginning of our republican history. In this regard, we show that the problem goes from being a commitment of the State in relation to the fulfillment of the agreement, to a cultural project oriented towards the transformation of the concept of citizenship through the review of the most deeply rooted values in the imaginaries and the subjectivities of current citizenships. For the analysis of these imaginaries, we start with concepts such as the atavistic logic and the micro-political scenarios that we borrow from the available literature on Peace, Development and Citizenship issues.