Colombian Peace Talks Move to FARC's Political Participation
Years of war in Colombia have established a political economy based on conflict and contributed to institutional erosion and the consolidation of anti-democratic practices undermining good governance. The deterioration of the democratic principles of the 1991 Constitution began under the administration of Cesar Gaviria (1990 to 1994) and only worsened under the administration of Alvaro Uribe between 2002 and 2010. Over the last decades, the dominant classes and the traditional political parties have managed to erode the democratic aspects of the constitution by incrementally circumscribing the independence of the judiciary and diminishing legislative power while increasing presidential authority and the autonomy and power of the security apparatus of the state. This has happened against the backdrop of the increasing influence of narcotrafficking political organizations (ie. the paramilitaries) over state institutions. Consequently, Uribe's amendment to the 1991 cons