Replication Data for: Land Titling, Race, and Political Violence: Theory and Evidence from Colombia

Under what conditions do reforms prompt violent counter-reform? Reform threatens elite interests in structurally unequal societies, prompting them to use their power to counter reform. While the existing literature has demonstrated the material logic of counter-reform, we build on critical race theory to argue that elites are more likely to target reforms to racially marginalized beneficiaries. We test this argument using original data on the largest communal land reform program undertaken in Latin America, the titling of collective lands belonging to Black communities in Colombia, through Law 70: the Law of Black Communities. We show the legal recognition of Black collective property rights increased right-wing paramilitary attacks in municipalities where Black communities requisitioned formal land titles. In addition, we show that titling reforms for peasant and indigenous communities faced fewer attacks after legal recognition, relative to Black communities. These findings together offer new insights into the puzzling racialization of the Colombian civil conflict since the 1990s.