08 August 2025
Colombia’s Ketchup-Bottle-Case
It may well be Colombian literary culture shining through when the presiding judge of the case against former President Álvaro Uribe cited the French aristocrat: “As Montesquieu rightly said, the law must be like death, which spares no one”. The verdict of 12 years in prison has been 14 years in the making. The most important implication of this case is neither the verdict itself, nor the length of the sentence – it is its nature as a “Ketchup-Bottle-Case”: the opening for more than 100 cases in the system that include crimes against humanity carrying life-in-prison sentences. Continue reading >>
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12 April 2023
Colombia, a Besieged Democracy with (New) Oligarchic Tendencies?
On 20 March, Colombia’s newly formed government suspended the cease fire it had only recently concluded with the Clan de Golfo, one of the country’s most powerful, remaining armed non-state actor (ANSA). The announcement followed repeated attacks against civilians in the country’s North-West ascribed to the group. Not even ten days later, the largest remaining guerrilla group, the ELN (also engaged in the government’s Total Peace initiative), killed nine soldiers in an attack in the frontier region with Venezuela. This blogpost details what distinguishes these post-FARC and post-AUC Armed Non State Actors from their predecessors and how their emergence threatens to ensure that Colombia remains a besieged democracy, despite all the progress it has made. Continue reading >>
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