Colombia: Political Pamphlets

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 3032 H 320 PAM
Held at	: Institute for the Study of the Americas   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://ilas.sas.ac.uk/resources/library ›
Full title	: Colombia: Political Pamphlets
Date(s)	: 1970-
Level of description	: Collection (Fonds)
Extent	: 1 box
Name of creator(s)	: Institute for the Study of the Americas

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Colombia has a long tradition of both democracy and political violence, and this remains true for the period covered by the bulk of this collection. Prior to 1974 the country had been ruled for sixteen years by a National Front which allowed for the alternation in power of the two main parties, the Partido Conservador Colombiano (Colombian Conservative Party, PCC) and the Partido Liberal Colombiano (Colombian Liberal Party, PLC). This period also saw the emergence of a variety of leftist guerrilla groups, most prominently the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia--FARC), the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional--ELN), the Popular Liberation Army (Ejército Popular de Liberación--EPL) and the 19th of April Movement (Movimiento 19 de Abril--M-19). The transition to open competition between the Liberals and Conservatives in 1974 failed to end the insurgency, which was further complicated by the increasing involvement in the fighting of drugs cartels and right-wing paramilitary organisations, the latter with suspected links to both the cartels and the government. The 1970s and 1980s bore witness to a cycle of repression, violence, human rights abuses and failed peace talks. Of the parties actually involved in this conflict only the M-19 are represented here, along with other small radical socialist groups. However the causes and the consequences of the civil war, especially Colombia's gross economic inequalities and the catalogue of disappearances and human rights abuses, dominate the agendas of the NGOs, pressure groups, trade unions, Church bodies and international organisations whose publications are held here. As the country remains volatile it is likely that these issues will continue to predominate in any new material that is collected..

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Pamphlets, reports, congress reports, documents, press cuttings, communiqués, and profiles, 1970 onwards, issued by Acción Cultural Popular, Acción Sindical del Atlántico, Amnesty International, Anti-Slavery Society for the Protection of Human Rights, Asamblea Nacional Popular, Colombia Human Rights Committee, Comité Costarricense de Solidaridad con el Pueblo Colombiano, Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos (Colombia), Comité por la Defensa de los Derechos del Hombre y de los Prisonieros Políticos en Colombia, Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca (CRIC), Corporación Integral para el Desarrollo Cultural y Social (CODECAL), Grupo de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo (GIDE), Integración para el Desarrollo y la Acción Social, Movimiento 19 de Abril Conferencia Nacional (7th : 1979 : Colombia), Primer Encuentro Internacional de Comités-Colombia en el Exterior (1979 : Paris), Solidaritätskomitee mit Kolumbien (Austria), United Nations Working Group of Experts on Slavery, Union Revolucionaria Socialista.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
Mostly Spanish, some items in English, French, German.

System of arrangement:

Randomly within boxes (at present)

Conditions governing access:

Open for reference purposes to all researchers and postgraduate students.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies can usually be obtained - apply to library staff.

Finding aids:

Records at item level on library catalogue (SASCAT)

Archival Information

Archival history:

The majority of the materials held in the political archives of the Library Institute of Latin American Studies originate from the Contemporary Archive on Latin America (CALA), a documentation and research centre on Latin America which donated its holdings upon its closure in 1981. This core collection has continued to be supplemented by further donations and by materials acquired through the visits of Institute staff and their contacts to the relevant countries.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Institute for the Study of the Americas

Allied Materials

Related material:

See also Political Pamphlet material for the rest of Latin America, as well as related material in the library's main classified sequence, all held in the ILAS library.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Description compiled by Daniel Millum, Political Archives Project Officer at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the Institute for the Study of the Americas.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Created 01/02/2005 AIM25