Rebels Do Not Take Kindly to Criticism

Nonviolent resistance against rebels has received increasing scholarly attention over the past decade. Research has explained why and when civilians engage in resistance or place different types of demands on rebels. However, the question of whether nonviolent resistance succeeds or fails to achieve its objectives remains understudied. This article addresses this gap by theorising and testing three key factors that shape rebel responses to civilian resistance: the nature of civilian demands, the power of civilian resisters, and the rebels' own power. Fieldwork in Colombia's Caquetá region reveals that FARC rebels accommodated civilian demands only when these did not threaten their strategic goals. The group responded with repression whenever resisters clashed with its politico-military objectives. While unarmed resistance campaigns have successfully overthrown repressive states, there is no evidence for civilians in Colombia or elsewhere managing to push armed groups to make far-reaching concessions, let alone defeat rebels via nonviolent action only

Action (physics) · Criminology · Criticism · Political economy · Political science · Power (physics) · Resistance (ecology) · Sociology · Conflict, Peace, and Violence in Colombia · History and Politics in Latin America · Law · Political Conflict and Governance

• Rebels Do Not Take Kindly to Criticism

  Open Access•Urban Reichhold•Journal of Latin American Studies•2025

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