War beyond the gun: An investigation into the success of Colombia's 'April 19th Movement'.

Abstract

This thesis investigates the struggle of Colombia's April 19th Movement (M-19), principally through the lens of Collective Action Theory with a view to explaining how the M-19 managed to gain so many concessions from the government when it posed no major military threat to the state, asking the question:

“Given that the M-19 had so little power of coercion, and posed a very limited military threat to the Colombian government, how did the organisation gain the capacity to extract so many political concessions during the peace process of 1988 - 1990?"

It focuses on insiders' perspectives and is based on research and a range of interviews with former guerrilla members, former politicians, and academics, conducted mostly during fieldwork in Bogotá, in the spring of 2014. The thesis contends that, through acts of symbolic warfare and consistent communication with the Colombian public, the M-19 was able to extract concessions from the government with notable success.