This article presents a reflection on how the struggles of the Colombian peasantry for legal and political recognition constitute a dispute of meaning around different conceptions of development, sustainability, and rights. Based on the monitoring of the main lines of action of the National Agrarian Coordinator Organization between 2000 and 2014, it is proposed that in this period, the disputes for the recognition of rights were configured from at least two inseparable dimensions: on the one hand, the different assessments regarding the place of the peasantry as a subject of special protection; and on the other hand, the articulation with global debates regarding the need for protection of fundamental goods for the care of life.