Dancing with enemies. Emancipatory peace and the politics of reincorporation in Post-Accord Colombia

Summary

What if you had been a member of a leftist, anti-capitalist guerrilla in a Republic plenty of social inequalities, fighting for social justice — and after a peace negotiation, someone in charge of your reintegration into society told you: “Let’s do business”? This is exactly what happened in today’s Colombia. Since 2017, when the Colombian Peace Agreement between the national government and the FARC-EP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army) began its implementation, a multitude of former insurgents have been introduced to the world of entrepreneurship. As the reader might imagine, this sounds a bit odd. Ex-communist militants becoming entrepreneurs? This thesis, written from the perspective of a former guerrilla fighter turned academic undergoing reintegration, explores how different ex-insurgents navigate the neoliberal discourse of entrepreneurship in their search for a regular and livable income and for an emancipatory peace. Some reject it outright. Others negotiate its terms. And some, the author suggests, simply learn to adapt — engaging in what he calls “dancing with enemies”, but still dreaming with social justice and emancipation.