Violent Enclosure: The Political Economy of Forced Displacement in Colombia

The Colombian government has been lauded by analysts for the success of its security and neoliberal economic policies, which have allowed the country to attract dramatically increased levels of foreign investment. Little attention, however, has been paid to what Doctors Without Borders called one of the top ten most under-reported humanitarian stories in the world: the forced displacement of Colombians (Doctors Without Borders, 2007). Colombia ranks second to the Sudan in terms of numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) with almost 4 million—approximately 6 per cent of the population (Glennie, 2011). Because they have remained in their country of origin after being displaced by violence, these victims of Colombia’s armed conflict are not recognized internationally as refugees but rather as IDPs.