Abstract
Colombia's ongoing violence is rooted in a multi‐dimensional political crisis, expressed by widespread popular struggles, continuing guerrilla insurgencies, and the rise of the drug mafia. This article examines the implications for rural democratisation. The peasant struggles are interpreted as a challenge to clientelism and as a bid for the extension of political citizenship. Their democratic potential, however, is restricted by two factors: the absence of political allies capable of incorporating peasant aspirations into a broader democratic project, and the entrenchment of the drug traffickers as a factor of power in the countryside.

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