Organized farmers contributing to the social construction of Colombia

Abstract

The historical development of the farming community in Colombia has been object of significant abandonment by the State, as evidenced by the absence of commitment to guarantee their rights and the lack of recognition of their identity, which has led them to demand their claims in multiple forms. All Colombians know that the genesis of the internal conflict that the country has lived during the last fifty years is partly found, in the claim that some peasants of certain regions make to the State (a claim known as “warlike territories”, according to María Teresa Uribe). Therefore, and given that the institutions never achieved to cover the basic needs of vast regions of Colombian territory, which has been turning the peasants into a social class marginalized from the economic, political and social development of the country, this article will try to answer the following question: How has the absence of the Colombian State in rural areas permeated the social reality of the farmers and how have they managed as subjects or social agents their rights and state recognition in the midst of the country’s internal conflict?