Challenges continue for the return of stolen land

First, the communities of Curbaradó and Jiguamiandó,[1] located in the municipality of Carmen del Darién, department of Chocó, were victims of forced displacement. Later, they had to face the violent seizure of their land by palm oil companies. Now, as the communities have returned to their region and organised to defend their rights, threats and selective murders have increased. Nonetheless, the returned communities have been able to remain in their territory. Their objective: the legal restitution and physical return of their land.

Coveted land

Until the beginning of this century, the Curbaradó and Jiguamiandó River Basins were considered to be among the greatest environmental reserves in the world. Land in the Lower Atrato —especially the immense wetlands created by the Atrato and Murindó Rivers—is exceptionally fertile.[2] However, vast areas of this territory have been subjected to large-scale monocropping[3], extensive cattle ranching, and massive timber exploitation, which leave no place for plant and animal life or the ancestral inhabitants of this region.[4]

Armed conflict, forced displacement and internment

In 1996 and 1997, several mass displacements took place in the Lower Atrato[5] when paramilitary groups —with the alleged participation of the Colombian national army[6]— carried out counter-insurgency manoeuvres in the region[7]. These operations, known as “Operation Genesis” or “Black December” left a trail of death, disappearances, destruction, burnt property, and thousands of people forcibly displaced.[8] In just Curbaradó and Jiguamiandó, approximately 3,000 Afro-descendent and mixed-raced people were forcibly displaced. For many years, most of the inhabitants lived in situations of displacement in shelters or with family members in other regions of Antioquia and Chocó.[9] In 1999, the displaced families began to return to Jiguamiandó,[10] and in 2006 to Curbaradó,[11] even though the armed conflict has continued in the region-[12]

Since then the returned population has confronted pressure exerted by illegal armed actors. For instance, paramilitary groups —resorting to a strategy of collective punishment and submission to force the communities to leave their territories[13]— subjected the communities along the Jiguamiandó River to an indiscriminate internment for several months in 2003.[14]

The Colombian Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office has closely followed this matter in the Curbaradó and Jiguamiandó River Basins. On 31 December 2009, the Ombudsman’s Office issued Risk Report No. 031, which determined that the inhabitants of the Humanitarian Zones and Biodiversity Zones of Jiguamiandó and Curbaradó faced a situation of risk due to the presence of illegal armed actors in the collective territory, ineffective legal protection, and undue intervention by individuals and companies into the internal matters of the community councils.[15] Furthermore, on 23 March 2011, the Ombudsman’s Office issued a follow-up brief to the Risk Report, which stated that the “Black Eagles or Urabeños” illegal armed groups and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were present in the collective territories of the area.[16]

Returning to their land: Establishing humanitarian zones and biodiversity zones

In 2006, the displaced communities from the Curbaradó River Basin began to return under the leadership of Enrique Petro Hernández, a small-scale farmer from the region. Petro donated five hectares of his private property to establish the first Humanitarian Zone in Curbaradó. When the small-scale farming families reached the area, they found that the land seized by the paramilitaries had been turned into large-scale oil palm plantations.[17] The first 14 families uprooted the palm trees and constructed temporary housing. As a means of self-protection, these families, and others that were going to return, decided to establish Humanitarian Zones and later Biodiversity Zones. In 2011, the Curbaradó and Jiguamiandó River Basins had eight Humanitarian Zones and approximately 50 Biodiversity Zones.[18]

What are the Humanitarian Zones and Biodiversity Zones?

The Humanitarian Zones are a community initiative to continue to resist in the territory despite the onslaught of the armed conflict. In order to achieve this objective, the members demarcate and visibilise the areas they inhabit and prohibit the entrance of any armed actor, whether it be legal or illegal. These zones are based on the principle of distinction between civilians and combatants under International Humanitarian Law (IHL)[19] and represent a protection tool for the civilian population living in the midst of the armed conflict. They are also supported through national legislation, including Article 22 of the Colombian Constitution, establishes that “peace is a right”. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has supported the establishment of Humanitarian Zones as a “positive mechanism for protecting the civilian population from actions perpetrated by the different armed actors in the region.”[20] Biodiversity Zones have also been established to protect the environment and life.

Collective territory

The territories of the Jiguamiandó and Curbaradó River Basins are a part of the collective property granted through Law 70 of 1993 to Afro-descendent peoples.[21] According to this law, collective land is non-transferable, imprescriptible, and unseizable, recognising that collective property has an inherent relation to the ethnic and cultural identity of these peoples.[22] The collective territories are administered by governing boards within the community councils, which are elected through popular vote by the community members.[23]

The violent seizure of land continues

Despite being a collective territory in which land may not be bought or sold, different companies have been able to acquire land in the Curbaradó and Jiguamiandó River Basin.[24] In fact, in February 2011, the Superintendent of Notaries and Registration, a Colombian State institution, concluded that 17,720 hectares belonging to the traditional community in the area of Curbaradó and Jiguamiandó had been acquired illegally. Different irregularities have taken place including the alleged signing of contracts by people who were already deceased, the increase of hectares sold, falsification of documents, and coercion and direct threats against the inhabitants in order to force them to sell their property.[25]

In 2010, the Prosecutor’s Office issued arrest warrants against 24 palm oil businesspeople that had allied with paramilitary groups to displace these communities and steal their property.[26] In April 2011, 15 people —including palm oil businesspeople, former paramilitaries and politicians— were served summons for the violent seizure of land in this region. “In their desire to economically exploit the collective property (…) the companies were really fronts that concealed the arrangement or alliance between the self-defence forces and businesspeople in order to continue to commit crimes in the Lower Atrato in Chocó”, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.[27]

Unidentified individuals invade land in Curbaradó

In addition to the illegal acquisition of land, the Biodiversity Zones in Curbaradó were invaded in December 2010 by hundreds of unidentified individuals from Urabá, Córdoba, and several municipalities of Chocó. They built shacks, cut down trees, cleared out land, diverted streams to plant crops, and occupied a plot that the Camelias community had designated to be a forest reserve. According to denunciations made by the small-scale farmers and published by the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission (CIJP), more than 300 hectares were affected in Camelias and Andalucía, rural communities within Carmen del Darién municipality.

Environmental impact – decreased biodiversity

In addition to the grave human rights violations perpetrated in the area, oil palm crops have caused extensive environmental damage. In 2005, a report by the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office concluded that: “A decrease in biodiversity, principally water and forest resources, has been detected in the large plantations. Furthermore, erosion and sedimentation of the rivers has increased as a result of the mass deforestation.”[28]

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights orders protection for the communities

In 2003, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights granted provisional measures to these communities, ordering the Colombian State to “adopt such measures as may be necessary to protect the life and the right to humane treatment of all the members of the Communities of Jiguamiandó and Curbaradó and ensure that the beneficiaries of these measures can continue to live in their usual residence, without fear of coercion or threat, and that displaced persons may return to their homes or to the ‘humanitarian areas’ established by these Communities”[29]. The Court ratified these measures several times, most recently in 2010[30].

The Constitutional Court issues rulings in favour of the inhabitants of the Humanitarian Zones

The Constitutional Court has also followed up on the issues faced by these communities. Order 005 of 2009, the goal of which the protection of the fundamental rights of the Afro-descendent population subjected to forced displacement, highlights the gravity of the lack of protection and the vulnerability faced by the communities of Curbaradó and Jiguamiandó. With respect to the reports of the threats, persecution, surveillance, attempted murders, and disrespect for the cultural symbols and expressions of these communities, the Constitutional Court ordered the Colombian government to “adopt without delay the measures issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.”[31]

Later, in Order 448, the Constitutional Court expressed “uncertainty with respect to the representation of the Curbaradó community, since (…) it is not clear who legitimately represents the Curbaradó Community Council.”[32] Given this situation, the Court decided to suspend the administrative restitution and physical handing over of the collective territories until the process to carry out a census and description of the population has been completed —in order to identify the traditional inhabitants of the area— and the legitimate authorities of the collective territories has been clarified.[33]