Banditry in the period of La Violencia in Colombia, a historiographical approach

Abstract

The phenomenon of banditry has existed since the declaration of independence of the Colombian Republic; however, it experienced an enormous boom from the 1930s until approximately the end of the 1960s. Banditry had different forms and occurred in several geographical locations, where the figure of the bandit was extremely popular, not only due to the political and social causes bandits fought for, but also because of the cruelty and bloodbaths that they left behind. This historiographic balance analyzes banditry in the areas where violence increased disproportionately as a consequence of the political and bipartisan conflict. Different approaches, political and social, that play a structural role as a result of bandit violence, are compared.