Jasmin Hristov's book is an exploration of the history and evolution of armed paramilitary forces in Colombia, focusing primarily on the past two decades. Her stated intent is to "offer a model of a twenty-first-century state apparatus of coercion under a formally democratic regime by exploring the structure and functions of that apparatus, the conditions that make it a necessity, and its capacity to evolve into new forms" (p. xi).
Paying particular attention to this period not only makes her book especially relevant to an understanding of the current situation in this beautiful and catastrophic nation, but also highlights one of her central points: the intrinsic relationship between paramilitarism and neoliberal capitalism. The combination of neoliberalism and paramilitaries, while perhaps most drastically expressed in Colombia, is similarly present elsewhere throughout the region. Emphasizing this connection, even if through its most extreme example, has far-reaching implications for understanding a fundamental aspect of neoliberal economics as applied in Latin America -- the forcible dispossession of large groups of structurally disadvantaged people from their means of subsistence.
After describing the application of neoliberalism within the particular historical development of the sociopolitical and economic context of Colombia (chapter 1), Hristov details the current features of what she terms the "State coercive apparatus," or SCA (chapter 2). In this, she includes paramilitarism (chapters 3 and 5), defined as "the use of violence to advance the economic interests of a particular sector of society with the tolerance or support of the state" (p. 60). The book shows the dual function of violence in contemporary Colombia -- both as an instrument to suppress opposition and as a tool to enrich a privileged few.
As she notes, the role that technically illegal but in practice actively supported paramilitary groups play in the widespread violation of human rights, and the repression of opposition that these are intended to achieve, has been well documented. Her book, while attending to these features, offers a view of the ways in which this violence directly facilitates the acquisition of resources, and the subsequent concentration of wealth into the hands of a small elite class. This attention is one of the book's major and most important contributions, both for the study of human rights and for understanding the current political and socioeconomic situation in Colombia, with implications far beyond its borders.
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