Paramilitary Groups

7 Key excerpts on "Paramilitary Groups"

• 

  eBook - PDF

  Armed Actors

  Organized Violence and State Failure in Latin America

  • Kees Koonings, Dirk Kruijt, Kees Koonings, Dirk Kruijt(Authors)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Zed Books

    (Publisher)

  The military 27 political objectives. As such they faithfully emulate in the shadows their formal role models in the spotlight, that is to say the political armies of the region. Before looking at the development and recent significance of the para-military phenomenon, let us first try to define the armed actor under con-sideration here. We must make a distinction not only with regard to the regular armed forces, public militias and police but also with regard to organized armed rebellion or revolutionary movements (guerrillas), organized criminal gangs and death squads. Paramilitary forces are defined as an organized form of coercive (military) capacity that is modelled upon a military format but does not belong to the official, hence legitimate, domain of the security forces. The first criterion separates paramilitary units from death squads that are usu-ally of a more ad hoc, loosely organized nature, assembled to wield political violence and terror (Sluka 2000). Nevertheless, the boundaries between para-military forces and death squads are in practice often hazy. Like death squads, Paramilitary Groups tend to be conservative and seek to defend or restore established interests by applying violence to ‘undesired’ social categories and political opponents. This may or may not imply that they side with the state, or more precisely with the government in power. What sets the paramilitary apart from insurgent guerrillas is that they are usually linked to conservative elite sectors and that they tend to ally themselves openly or covertly with the official security forces. Likewise, these characteristics distinguish the para-military armed actor from the so-called corporate military outfits and private security firms (Shearer 1998). In Latin America, paramilitary forces evolved from various sources. Pro-status quo social movements and political parties have been setting up armed groups throughout the past century.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Paramilitarism and Neoliberalism

  Violent Systems of Capital Accumulation in Colombia and Beyond

  • Jasmin Hristov(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Pluto Press

    (Publisher)

  Another example comes from Hungary, where the Better Future Militia in the town of Gyonguospata has been 38 Paramilitarism and Neoliberalism described by the media as a right-wing paramilitary group that works in cooperation with the right-wing Jobbik Nationalist Party and targets the Roma population (Guardian 2012). As we can see, the term ‘paramilitary’ has been used in different political and geographic contexts to refer to a wide spectrum of armed bodies, ranging from large, well-known, heavily armed, long-term organizations operating across a considerable geographic area to small spontaneously formed armed groups confined to a specific location. Nonetheless, one of the steady features across the different cases is the Paramilitary Groups’ pro-state stance – in other words their favourable attitude towards the state or the political party in power – as well as the state’s tolerance, support or promotion of these groups. In the examples from Serbia, Northern Ireland and Hungary the victims are identified mainly on the basis of their ethnic and/or religious affiliation 23 and the violence occurs in the context of a conflict between different ethnic groups (often involving different religions). While the conflict may or may not have complex implications with regard to territories, political rule and so on, the ‘enemy’ of Paramilitary Groups is perceived as someone culturally different from them and from those whose interests they represent. Quite different manifestations of paramilitarism are found across Latin America and the Caribbean, where ethnic identity or religion is irrelevant with regard to the conflicts within which these groups emerge as well as the criteria they use for labelling their ‘enemy’. In Peru, for instance, Paramilitary Groups were first born in the 1980s, through the institution of autonomous peasant patrols ( rondas campesinas ).

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  A Companion to State Power, Liberties and Rights

  • Morley, Sharon, Turner, Jo, Sharon Morley, Jo Turner, Karen Corteen, Paul Taylor(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Policy Press

    (Publisher)

  P

  Paramilitary Groups

  The term ‘paramilitarism’ refers to activities of groups related to the military, but which, at the same time, deviate from the regular military. In addition, paramilitarism can also include the maintenance of local security by armed non-state actors. On some occasions, ‘paramilitarism’ refers to the way in which a state uses violence against other entities, either through the employment of private contractors or through extra-state security forces. In numerous countries, the paramilitary secured the power of authoritarian military regimes. Most members of these groups belonged to the military. In contrast, in some countries of Central America, for example, Guatemala, paramilitary actors were armed civilians who had the goal of counter-insurgencies and the control of the population. There needs to be a differentiation of paramilitary activities, as sometimes the paramilitary (eg police units) are incorporated into the armed forces of a country in cases of armed conflicts. In such cases, paramilitary activities are legitimised by the state.

  Paramilitarism is often presented within academia and public discourse as a new phenomenon, a product of weakened states in the late phase of global capitalism (Hristov, 2010). However, this conceptualisation fails to consider the historical continuity of the phenomenon of paramilitarism, which evolved primarily for the securitisation of space and capital. Paramilitarism has a long tradition not only in Latin America, but globally. In the 1960s and 1970s, paramilitary organisations were employed by the US to support the combating of insurgencies, guerrilla movements and other social movements.

  Scholars argue that the phenomenon of paramilitarism is related to the formation of some states (eg Columbia), and especially to available state resources and the level of threat that a state faces (Kalyvas and Arjona, 2005; Rangel, 2005). It has been stated that paramilitarism is enhanced within weak states, which have to use additional sources to repress threats through the privatisation or outsourcing of violence since their own police apparatus is insufficient (Tobon, 2005). However, this view neglects the multidimensionality of the phenomenon since paramilitarism is not only about the political objective of implementing counter-insurgency measures. Rather, it has simultaneous economic, political and military dimensions. Throughout history, the aims of paramilitary operations have been the combating of guerrilla forces, the sanctioning of civilians perceived as being in favour of left-wing movements or as guerrilla supporters, supporting the armed forces of a country, and, on some occasions, operating in illicit activities. The lines between the political and economic elements of the paramilitary are blurred since its members often own enterprises and sometimes have networks at all levels of government. Furthermore, paramilitarism has often been linked to neoliberalism. In Columbia, paramilitarism enhanced the establishment of neoliberalism by implementing policies favoured by neoliberal politicians. Neoliberalism increases poverty and insecurity. This, in turn, leads to the availability of more people for recruitment in paramilitary organisations, which can trigger the displacement of more people and the enhancement of additional neoliberal practices.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Political Violence and Terror

  Motifs and Motivations

  • Peter H. Merkl(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • University of California Press

    (Publisher)

  Social'Ethnic Conßct m the Near East 317 Schwarze Schar in Germany during the Napoleonic period, Garibaldi's Red Shirts in Italy before the establishment of the Italian State, and so on, with paramilitary or guerrilla or terrorist operations today. Nevertheless it seems certain that ethnic groups in conflict with dom- inating political entities, either imperialist, colonialist, or of another dominant culture on common political turf, have all resorted to the paramilitary option to forward their goals. Legal and logistical support of these paramilitary operations internationally seems quite critical for success. Almost inevitably, the paramilitary organization melts into the political organization of the emerging state, if indeed it does not metamorphose totally into that political organization. This may have been less true in the nineteenth century than it is today. However, it is fair to say that in the twentieth century, Paramilitary Groups that have resorted to terror as an instrument of their struggle for power have also spawned the political leadership of the nation-states to follow. The Irish give a good example of this phenomenon, but the Algerian and the Israeli experiences are probably the most well doc- umented in this regard in the postwar period. Again the Near East provides the best current examples of this process. PARAMILITARY ORGANIZATION In the struggle for national emergence, the fluid lines between para- militarism and guerrilla activities, between political organization and nascent political structures, are only too evident. This is as true for those who have established their state (Algeria, Israel, etc.) as for those who have not (Kurds, Palestinians). The Near East provides us with good examples of the various types of paramilitary structures. There are several distinct forms of paramilitary organization. They usually reflect elements of the social structure of the ethnic group engaged in its emancipatory struggle.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Contemporary State Terrorism

  Theory and Practice

  • Richard Jackson, Eamon Murphy, Scott Poynting, Richard Jackson, Eamon Murphy, Scott Poynting(Authors)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  et al. 2007: 11–12). Although such provisions have been shown to be easily and repeatedly circumvented by US policymakers eager to keep the funding taps open (Stokes 2005; Barry 2002), there is little doubt that such restrictions influence the way in which violence against civilians is ‘contracted out’. Commanders in the field in Colombia have a clear rationale for ensuring that evidence concerning gross violations of human rights is difficult to compile. ‘Independent’ paramilitary forces allow for the application of terrorist force without endangering the primary funding and training source used to conduct the campaign. This logic has long been understood, with a key Colombian investigator into the military–paramilitary nexus during the 1980s, Carlos Jiménez Gómez, describing military commanders implicated in paramilitary violence against civilians as:

  Officials who go overboard when faced with the temptation to multiply their ability to act and take advantage of private agents . . . whom they end up using as a hidden weapon so that, with this plan of hired killers, they can do officiously what they cannot do officially.

  (Human Rights Watch 1996)

  This was also the conclusion drawn by a detailed report from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which found that the Colombian military:

  Recognised that they could avoid the political costs of engaging in war without limits by leaving to the Paramilitary Groups the tasks which violated human rights and international humanitarian law and which would attract the attention of the public and the international community.

  (IACHR 1999)

  Second and of equal importance, paramilitaries are employed by the state to increase the terror experienced by the target audience. Indeed, it is the very ‘independence’ of the groups used, and associated perception of a lack of control by any higher power, that can instil such fear. This logic has been acknowledged by Michael Stohl: fear is maximized through the use of ‘notoriously viscous vigilante groups who are widely recognized in society to act as agents of the state but who are not “legally” constrained in ways that official organs might be felt to be’. Specifically:

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Children disengaged from armed groups in Colombia

  Integration Processes in Context

  • Julia Villanueva O'Driscoll, Gerrit Loots, Ilse Derluyn, Julia Villanueva O’Driscoll(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • De Gruyter Open Poland

    (Publisher)

  The guerrilla groups were initially left wing movements coming up for the rights of the rural population. They controlled much of the countryside (40%), remote areas where the state had little presence (Richani, 2010). As stated above, throughout the years the political motivations seemed to evaporate and economic power prevailed. Their structure and methods also changed. Johnson et al. (2005) suggested that this change in the dynamics of the guerrilla may be due to the increased infrastructure and communication. Although Llorente and Vranckx (2012) and Louage (2012) explained them 10 With the term “irregular groups” we refer to all non-state groups involved in the conflict, which are also called violent non-state actors (Mulaj, 2010), non-state armed groups (Non-state armed groups, 2006) or illegal groups (e.g. GO Bogotá) among others. Julia Villanueva O’Driscoll, Gerrit Loots, Ilse Derluyn 3 7 Chapter 2 having to reuse couriers in recent years, as the state eavesdropping on them is too high of a risk. Some participants mentioned an alteration in motives, such as the transformation of discourse from guerrilla groups to criminal gangs. As a director of an NGO explained: “ The difference with guerrilla and criminal gangs is that FARC for example had Leninist and Marxist ideas, ELN has Guevarrian ideas and the latter [i.e. criminal groups] do not have any political motive” (NGO Bogotá). Recently, the FARC and Colombian government have been undertaking attempts to peace agreements through dialogue, which are still ongoing (ODDR, 2013). 3.2.2. Paramilitary Groups The most common known is the group of the AUC. Other groups are the Autodefensas campesinas del Casanare (ACC Self-defense farmers of Casanare), Bloque central Bolivar (BCB Central Bloc Bolivar) and Bloque Cacique Pipinta among others (Defensoría del Pueblo, 2006). As explained in an earlier paragraph, after demobilization processes, Paramilitary Groups officially no longer exist.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Why Paramilitary Operations Fail

  • Armin Krishnan(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  © The Author(s) 2018 Armin Krishnan Why Paramilitary Operations Fail https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71631-2_1

  Begin Abstract

  1. What Are Paramilitary Operations?

  Armin Krishnan

  1  

  (1) Department of Political Science, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA

   

  End Abstract

  Paramilitary operations (PMOs), which are the manner in which to conduct proxy wars, can be best defined as ‘secret war-like activities’ (Johnson 2012 , 481). They typically consist of providing money, training, weapons, other materials, intelligence, leadership support, and sometimes additional fighters to nonstate proxy forces that are irregular , such as ‘specific paramilitary forces, contractors, individuals, businesses, foreign political organizations, resistance or insurgent organizations, expatriates, transnational terrorism adversaries, disillusioned transnational terrorism members, black marketers, and other social or political “undesirables”’ in an effort to initiate or manipulate an (internal) armed conflict, or to achieve some other political, military, or economic objective (US DoD 2008 , 1–3). According to Kennedy and Johnson administration National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy,

  a paramilitary operation is considered to be one which by its tactics and its requirements in military-type personnel, equipment and training, approximates a conventional military operation. It may be undertaken in support of an existing government friendly to the US or in support of a rebel group seeking to overthrow a government hostile to us. The US may render assistance to such operations overtly, covertly or by a combination of both methods. The small operations will often fall completely within the normal capability of one agency; the larger ones may affect State, Defense, CIA, USIA and possibly other departments and agencies. (US NSC 1961 )

  As indicated in this definition, PMOs can be used in both a pro-insurgency context (support to revolutionary or separatist movements) and in a counterinsurgency /counterterrorism context (support to an allied government/host nation to suppress an insurgency).1 Once PMOs reach a certain size, they would be typically supported by indirect nonmilitary US government activities (diplomatic pressure, propaganda , economic pressure, etc.), as well as possibly direct military intervention on behalf of a supported paramilitary group. Furthermore, PMOs may be tightly controlled by the sponsor recruiting and operationally leading indigenous fighters, or they may be autonomous operations , where ‘the CIA would extend financial aid and a minimum of advice and guidance’ so that the ‘leadership [of the resistance group] would possess a degree of operational self-determination ’ (US NSC 1964

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book