Order in Paramilitary Times: Violence, Politics and Profit in a Neighborhood of the Colombian Caribbean

Abstract

like many other regions in Colombia, Nelson Mandela’s district has created a new social order in the absence of the state, with its own rules and regulations created and sanctioned by illegal groups. In this context, this article tries to analyze how the networks and phenomenology of the actors, agents and residents of this particular district reflect and unfold the whole department of Bolivar. The role played by paramilitary groups in this region along with the genesis of their combatants and supporters are analyzed through different emotions and basic concepts related with the ideas of revenge, loyalty, success and order. This research shows that the absence of justice, the presence of different cycles of violence and paranoia, along with the permanent referent of success and a local context of cultural impoverishment, are the main factors that explain why part of the population turns into mafias. In the midst of a troubled notion of order, this paper notes that the oppressed and subordinate residents of th e district are able to reproduce structures of patronage which manipulate the armed group for community affairs.