Anthony Dest

Anthony Dest
Mamolen Dissertation Workshop Alumnus 2018

The 2016 Peace Accord between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) resulted in the disarmament of Latin America’s oldest guerrilla group after more than fifty years of armed conflict. My research analyzes the resilience and ingenuity of communities in Northern Cauca, as well as the racial tensions that emerged, during the negotiations and in the aftermath of the Peace Accords. Based on more than a decade of ethnographic research and work on Colombia’s war, my dissertation — Without Consent The Politics and Conditions of Interethnic Solidarity in Colombia — draws on engaging first-hand accounts from extensive fieldwork in a variety of settings that include community-organizing efforts on Colombia’s coca-growing frontier, the negotiating table in Havana, Cuba, and international advocacy efforts in Washington, DC. Without Consent provides a careful study of the contradictions of social movement organizing and the fragile potential of solidarity in a context of ongoing violence and the deepening of capitalist relations.