La influencia de los factores externos en el surgimiento de la violencia política en Colombia en la segunda mitad del siglo XX

Abstract

This article puts into context the rise of poUtical violence in Colombia in the second half of the twentieth century. The author defends the hypothesis that the Army of National Liberation —ELN— carne into being as a result of a combination of internal and external factors, the latter being fundamental. The metaphor that would explain this social phenomenon is to consider the external factors or the international atmosphere as the «spark» that would make the domestic Socialist or Communist organizations become aware of their possibilities, which would then ignite under favourable internal conditions —the discredited prevailing political systems, the social-economic situation of the majority of the population, the geographical conditions of the country that permit optimum practice of guerrilla warfare and the repressive situation.