Abstract
The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó is a self-governing community of
peasant farmers (‘campesinos’) in Urabá, one of the regions of Colombia where
violence by the State, leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries has been
most intense. It is based on a rejection of all violence and on autonomy from,
and neutrality between, the State, paramilitaries and guerrillas. Drawing on
interviews with community members by the first author, this paper considers
how far the Peace Community has succeeded in establishing a radical alternative
to the State legal and penal systems in pursuit of what could be called a ‘real
utopia’ (Wright 2010).2
peasant farmers (‘campesinos’) in Urabá, one of the regions of Colombia where
violence by the State, leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries has been
most intense. It is based on a rejection of all violence and on autonomy from,
and neutrality between, the State, paramilitaries and guerrillas. Drawing on
interviews with community members by the first author, this paper considers
how far the Peace Community has succeeded in establishing a radical alternative
to the State legal and penal systems in pursuit of what could be called a ‘real
utopia’ (Wright 2010).2
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 217-234 |
| Journal | Justice, Power and Resistance |
| Volume | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - Sep 2016 |
