El exilio colombiano como actor social transnacionalun análisis de las prácticas políticas transnacionales y vínculos establecidos por el exilio colombiano en el marco de los Diálogos de Paz de La Habana - Cuba (2012-2016)

Résumé

This thesis gives an account of the process of transnational political participation of Colombian exile in the context of the Havana Dialogues (2012 - 2016). Its main purpose is, on the one hand, to analyse the political practices, resources used, and links established by this exile community in the aforementioned context and, on the other hand, to reconstruct the physiognomy of the group, identifying its main transformations, in order to estimate its role in the attempt to resolve the conflict in Colombia. The methodological approach adopted was qualitative, in the interpretative tradition of Sociology, using three main techniques: interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. These tools were complemented with the monitoring and analysis of information and interactions through the Internet and social networks. Although the most intensive part of the data collection process took place between 2015 and 2022, the total period of examined activities was nearly ten years. This lengthy follow-up allowed for contact with hundreds of Colombian exile actors, 36 of whom were chosen to be interviewed in extensive and in-depth encounters. The testimonial accounts, provided by people living in 16 different countries - including Spain - were complemented by the observation of a great number of activities promoted by exile groups. Of these, 13 public events were chosen to be observed, recorded, and analysed in a systematised way, which involved following the groups through around ten cities in Europe and the Americas. The data was cross-checked and complemented, on the one hand, with information gathered through primary and secondary documentary sources and, on the other hand, thanks to the monitoring of activities on the Internet and social networks. The study shows that the Havana negotiation process was set up as an exceptional political scenario and an important stimulus for the development of transnational political participation processes by sectors of the Colombian exile community. Activities whose deployment and multiplication were possible thanks to the central incorporation of technological tools as a mediating element in the processes of reorganisation, nucleation, and participation. The combination of technological resources, together with previously accumulated political, social, and cultural capital, made possible the subjectivation and political agency, not only of sectors of the exile community, but also of new actors in the Colombian migrant community. The scenario as a whole gave rise to a hybrid (digital/presential/synchronous) form of organisation and political participation that I have called the ‘transnational exile cyber-commonwealth’. This new organisational prototype has enabled Colombian exiles in recent years, on the one hand, to transcend the limits of their local settlement environments and, on the other, to unite their political action around common tactics and strategies, overcoming, to some extent, the divisions, both ideological and procedural, which had characterised them in previous phases. Likewise, it has also enabled it to achieve three major participatory milestones. The first was the introduction of exile issues and representatives at the official discussion table in Havana. The second was the inclusion of the concept of exile in the Final Peace Agreement. And the third, the dialogue with the institutional framework for the reparation of victims, the reconstruction of the historical memory of the conflict and, in general, for the process of transition from war to peace. These facts demonstrate the activists' capacity, in one sense, to influence the scheme of conversations and the institutional structure created to overcome the conflict and, in another, to broaden the practices and forms of transnational citizenship.