Peace without Guarantees: The Murder of Leaders of Restitution and Substitution of Crops for Illicit Use in Colombia

Abstract

The article analyzes the assassination of social leaders based on the study of two ‘propeace
policies’, land restitution, and the program of substitution of illicit crops (pnis).
We argue that the violence against these leaders is related to participatory designs that
promoted both policies and that neither considered strong local and national oppositions
in their implementation nor were they consistent enough to implement the necessary
mechanisms to protect the lives of leaders. To support this proposition, the article uses
data from the Observatory of Restitution and Regulation of Agrarian Property Rights
on the murder of leaders in Colombia. In addition, it makes a detailed review of the
institutional designs of restitution and substitution based on information from the press,
secondary literature, and interviews with leaders of these policies. We conclude that
the implementation of restitution and substitution did not imply a realignment of state
agencies at the territorial level, nor did it redesign counterinsurgency policies that
identified leaders as targets of attack.