Military Review English Edition July-August 2016 | Page 51

COLOMBIA

(Photo by Navesh Chitraka, Reuters)

Supporters of Federal Alliance, a coalition of Madhes-based parties and other ethnic political parties and organizations, protest against
the constitution near the Singha Durbar office complex that houses the prime minister’s office and other ministries 15 May 2016 in
Kathmandu, Nepal.

Despite the historically consistent trend of increased violence following conflict termination,
inflated expectations of peace often bring rushed
measures intended to revitalize the economy. Given
the unique vulnerabilities of a postwar society, such
efforts are typically counterproductive, and their ill
effects tend to be felt particularly by those most likely
to remobilize against the state or resort to criminal
enterprise to make ends meet.
In El Salvador, the government quickly embarked
on structural adjustments to modernize its economy
in line with the prevalent market principles of growth
and development. Though its gross domestic product
(GDP) increased threefold between 1986 and 1994,
poverty levels rose and economic inequality worsened.
Underestimated at the time was the economic dislocation of the country and the need for longer-term government-led reconstruction and rehabilitation—socially and economically—to heal the wounds of protracted
war and preclude the type of societal bifurcation that
had spawned conflict in the first place.
MILITARY REVIEW  July-August 2016

Instead, encouraged by the international financial
institutions, El Salvador harmed a very vulnerable
population at a highly combustible time. While war
has not resumed, the failure to manage postconflict
vulnerabilities has contributed to the rise of new
sources of instability: further disintegration of the
Salvadoran society, destruction of property, government illegitimacy, uncontrolled migration, and the
rise of gang structures and violent crime.
As Mats Berdal has found, “the formal end of
armed conflict, especially if reached through a
negotiated settlement, rarely entails a clean break
from past patterns of violence, nor does it mean that
the grievances which gave rise to conflict in the first
instance have been entirely removed.”31 In Colombia,
the talks have focused heavily on what concessions
to offer FARC, but the populations on which it has
preyed continue to struggle and are unlikely to be
adequately cared for by the state. Given Colombia’s
current economic slump, the government may very
well prov e unable to reach and incorporate critical
49