Violence(s) and Populism: Approaching a Contested Concept in Colombia and Argentina

This article proposes reconstructing some fundamental aspects of the political-intellectual disputes by defining what was popular in Colombia and Argentina in the second half of the 20th century. We argue that these disputes led to the birth of two concepts which persist in public debate in both countries: violence in Colombia, and populism in Argentina. Specifically, we look at two events which played a central role: ‘April 9th, Gaitan, gaitanism’ and ‘October 17th, Peron, peronism,’ respectively.