With batons or on the ballot. Indigenous political mobilizations in Colombia

This article describes different stages of the indigenous political mobilizations in Colombia, stages which reflect their particular combination of struggle strategies and their different degrees of articulation to the State: self-government, direct action, use of legal resources, and electoral participation. It shows how the Colombian opening to multiculturalism, which took place in 1991 and has been associated with a relative institutionalization of indigenous demands formulated since the seventies, does not prevent the permanence—or revitalization—of practices of resistance, as in the case of those called Mingas. In a transversal manner, the emphasis is put on how specific claims based on Indianness go hand in hand with alliances and broader claims in favor of the construction of another society, one being inclusive and equitable.