The first thing I notice after disembarking from the canoe that carried me across the Curbaradó River and scrambling up the bank are palm oil trees. Continue reading Protecting their mother: Afro-Colombians fight to reclaim their land from palm oil
Category Archives: PBI Colombia
The horrors of the maximum security prison in Valledupar
My first accompaniment as a PBI volunteer, with the Fundación Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos (Foundation Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners) in February of this year to the maximum security prison in Valledupar, remains the most shocking and powerful experience I´ve had in Colombia. I´ll do my best to describe the experience here, but I remember how words failed me when I returned to our office in Bogota and attempted to write up a report on the accompaniment. Continue reading The horrors of the maximum security prison in Valledupar
Along the road less travelled
“Just like a highway” jokes Liliana[1], the human rights defender we are accompanying today. In reality, few things resemble a highway less than the potholed track we were bumping along at that moment. Continue reading Along the road less travelled
“Here, struggling”: Accompanying displaced Afro-Colombian communities
If you ask people in the Curbaradó river valley how they are doing, they will often say: ‘Aquí, luchando’ (here, struggling). During the last several months I’ve been accompanying quite a bit in Curbaradó, and am beginning to understand why they say that. Continue reading “Here, struggling”: Accompanying displaced Afro-Colombian communities
VIDEO: Returning to our lands
The Chocó has some of the richest land in Colombia. There is an abundance of water, minerals, and biodiversity. This has also meant significant potential for agricultural businesses. Since 1996, three thousand Afro-descendents and mixed race persons from the Curbaradó and Jiguamiandó River Basins have been displaced by paramilitary groups. About 10 years after being forcibly displaced, these people returned to their land. However, by then, the land was in the hands of others. In order to resist, they established humanitarian zones. Since then, they have had to face threats and murders that attempt to prevent the resistance process of these communities.