Latin America

International Alert has been working in Latin America since 1994. We focus on the Andean region as a whole, but our operational work is primarily focused in Colombia.

Colombia - We have worked in Colombia for over a decade. Today, this work focuses on engaging the private sector, in partnership with other elements of civil society, in conflict prevention, peacebuilding and sustainable development. Find out more about our work in Colombia

From 1994 to 2004, we conducted research and consultations on small arms control, accompanied peace advocates, supported peace processes with local actors and generated comparative learning in Colombia. In response to the private sector’s role in the region’s conflicts and awareness of their peacebuilding potential, our focus has now shifted to the private sector.

Building on our research on the private sector’s peacebuilding potential in Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala, Alert plans to support similar initiatives in the wider Andean region. This includes engaging Colombian firms and multinationals in a variety of initiatives to prevent conflict and support peacebuilding, such as the UN Global Compact, the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and a series of measures falling under the umbrella of corporate social responsibility. By working with the traditionally polarised private sector on these strategies and approaches, we hope to find practices and frameworks for preventing violent conflict and transforming these relationships into genuine partnerships for sustainable development.

We work through:

• Engaging multinational extractive industries with Conflict Sensitive Business Practice (CSBP) and Voluntary Principles on Human Rights and Security.
  
  
• Researching and advocating local business engagement on conflict and peace issues.
  
  
• Coordinating multi-stakeholder roundtable meetings on issues of economy and conflict between the private sector and other elements of civil society.
  
  
• Adapting and translating conflict sensitive tools and methodologies for the private sector investing in conflict areas.

The conflict contex

Widespread political and social polarisation has increased throughout Latin America after a brief period of what appeared to be stability, increasing democratisation and private-sector led development. This polarisation is preventing countries in the Andean region from finding formulas for development and governance based on consensus, compromise and attention to the needs of vulnerable populations and communities. Multiple factors can be identified that are sustaining these divisions in the Andean sub-region, such as:

• Persistent socio-economic inequality;
  
• Weak public institutions;
  
• Labour leaders and other activists continuing to find themselves under physical threat (despite general improvements in freedom of speech);
  
• Drug trafficking paired with the lack of sustainable alternatives to illicit cultivation; and
  
• Political competition over the balance between state versus private management of oil, gas and mineral resources.

While Colombia is the only Andean country currently experiencing outright armed conflict between guerrilla groups, paramilitaries and state forces, there has been an emergence of other non-state armed groups such as the Alfarista Liberation Army in northern Ecuador thought to be tied to FARC and Venezuela; the Shining Path in Peru that has re-emerged mostly to defend coca trafficking routes in the jungle; the right-wing Camba Nation movement in eastern Bolivia opposed to current president Evo Morales’ economic and agrarian policies; and the training of civilian militias in Venezuela in preparation for possible future US interference.

In many cases, the private sector, particularly transnational extractive industry companies, has contributed to the region’s conflicts by seeking favourable access to resources and land while the living conditions of nearby communities stagnate or even deteriorate. This has exacerbated tensions between the private sector and other dimensions of civil society, contributing to political and social polarisation.

For more information, contact William Godnick

Back to top

Last updated: November 2006

Latin America - home

Colombia

Local Business, Local Peace – Colombia Case Study

Las empresas locales y la paz: el potencial de construccion de paz del sector empresarial nacional - Resumen ejecutivo

Práctica empresarial sensible al conflicto: guía para la reforestación comercial en Colombia (PESC-R)

Conflict-Sensitive Business Practice: Guidance for Extractive Industries

Práctica Empresarial Sensible al Conflicto: guía para la industria extractiva

Fundación Ideas para la Paz – Partner organisation

Indepaz – Partner organisation

UN Global Compact

Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights