Dialogs of Peace in Protection of Life: A Comparative Case Study of a Nonviolence Method by the Indigenous Guards of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca in the Post-Peace Accord Context (2016-2021) in Colombia

Sammanfattning: The Peace Agreement of 2016 between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army raised hopes after decades of internal armed conflict, but the levels of violence continue to be high in rural areas. Cauca is the department of Colombia where most social leaders and human rights defenders have been killed since 2016. To resist violence, to defend life and the territories, and to uphold rule of law based on the 1991 Colombian Constitution, the Indigenous Guards of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca use an integral method of nonviolence in the everyday setting. The aim of this study is to understand the impact of this method, perceived by the local people, as an alternative way to create peace in Colombia with concepts defined by Johan Galtung. With a decolonial research approach, an exemplifying qualitative comparative case study with fieldwork for the data collection has been carried out in Cauca, to give voice to and learn from the local communities. The results show a complex situation of an uneven progress of conflict transformation within the department, with significant economic inequalities. The challenges of cyclical war on a small scale are occurring, as in the case of the Proyecto Nasa in the Municipality of Toribío. At once, the possibilities of using this method to break the cycles of war through the power of asymmetry have occurred by conflict resolutions of dialogs with armed actors, as in the case of the resguardo of Paletará in the Municipality of Puracé Coconuco. It is claimed that by strengthening the institution of the Indigenous Guards, the collective actions of peacekeeping and peacebuilding in the territories can improve the process of conflict transformation by revitalizing the implementation of the 2016 Peace Agreement with its territorial focus and the ethnic chapter.