Temporalités ()
Les différences de temporalité dans le cadre du conflit colombien : l’exemple du processus de paix d’El Caguán (1998-2002)
Abstract
Armed conflicts and other violent situations are generally understood as experiences that are out of the ordinary. They create a different relationship to time compared to everyday life and the peace periods. This article explores the “time” variable in armed conflicts based on the analysis of the peace talks between the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrilla and Andres Pastrana’s government (1998-2002). We start by providing a general overview of these peace talks in order to establish the context and main characteristics of our case study. We then examine how different temporalities are constructed and expressed by the actors of the conflict. In doing so, we are addressing three different dichotomies: the first one regards “social times” (urban-rural opposition); the second one relates to “strategic times” (long-term guerrilla warfare vs. the short period of the Colombian administration) and lastly, a dichotomy based on the particular relationship that each actor maintains with “the past” or “the future” in their discursive practices. We observe that these different temporalities, experienced or constructed by each actor on the basis of their objective and subjective perception of time, have an impact on the belligerents’ behavior during a particular period of the armed conflict (in this case, a peace negotiation) making the interactions or any attempt at reconciliation even harder.
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