The absence and presence of state militarism: Violence, football, Narcos, and Colombia

Nationalism, racism, violence, and militarism are incarnate in football itself, as indicated through an engagement with the history and theory of the sport. This chapter considers this context to question the identity of the state and who holds a monopoly on legitimate violence, through a case study of Colombia. It focuses on the 1980s and 1990s, an era dominated by putatively progressive guerrilla movements (the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC), putatively unofficial right-wing paramilitares (the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, or AUC), and putatively populist narcotraficantes/Mafiosi. One aspect was not entirely shared in their tripartite struggle against each other and the state over who could terrorize the population most—the narcos' involvement in football. For while state militarism occupies an important role in the mental map of Colombians, especially since US intervention from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama via "Plan Colombia", it has been largely absent from football, though institutional violence and its symbolism have not.