Roadblock governance and rebel governmentality: power and practice at the checkpoint in Colombia

This article examines how FARC dissidents in Colombia projected power – despite uneven territorial control – through document verification at roadblocks. Drawing on original research in southwest Colombia, this article shows how rebel power is reproduced through dispersed, capillary techniques of authority, behaviour and practice that are re-concentrated at the arterial chokepoints of roads. This roadblock governance demonstrates the layered power of rebel governmentality that permits armed actors with limited capacity and control the illusion of state-like power while also revealing the constraints in their power over populations.