The text analyses the contradictory exercises of power of the State in a territory affected by the Colombian armed conflict. It departs from the coexisting presence of ruling powers of the State as an actor in society and other actors publicly claimed as illegals in peripherical contexts of the nation, to reveal the ambiguities that the central State performs regarding the use of violence to achieve different ends. By analysing testimonies collected in the local community, the paper argues that in contrast with the mainstream national discourse and literature idealizing the presence of the central State to deal with the violence of the armed conflict in some territories, the State´s presence seems to be part of the problem to the extent that sometimes sustains the conflicts and endorses violence to justify the action of several institutions and mechanisms of government benefiting several particular interests.