Colombia: Predatory state and rentier political economy

This article analyzes two interrelated tsunamis that have helped in making rentier capital the country's main mode of accumulation and wealth. It argues that the first was spearheaded by the landed elite, which included cattle ranchers, narco-bourgeoisie, and speculators shifting the bulk of agricultural land from production to speculation. This was followed by a second tsunami led by a warring predatory state that is seeking natural resources rents to finance its expanding war machine. Consequently, this article argues that land speculators alongside a warring predatory state have been transforming the rural economy, and with it the political economy of the country, into an economy in which food production and other productive sectors have a diminishing role to play.