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In this interview with Gilles Bataillon and Gérard Martin, Daniel Pécaut traces his intellectual journey. He talks about his meeting with Alain Touraine, his discovery of Colombia in 1965, and his first works on trade unionism. He outlines the debates engaging Colombian, American, and French intellectuals on the phenomena of violence in Colombia, and he explains the trajectory of his own analyses, which led to him writing his thesis, L’Ordre et la Violence. He then looks at the evolution of his reflections, first in his works on Brazil, then in the journal Problèmes d’Amérique Latine, which he directed from 1978 to 2000. Finally, he talks about the recent evolution of the conflict in Colombia and his participation in initiatives that originated from peace negotiations and memory and truth commissions.