“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
Category Archives: PBI Colombia
“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.
Impressions of my first month in Uraba
The small aircraft of Colombia’s Satena airline circles a uniform green sea of banana plantations, as it arrives at a landing strip in the heart of the Urabá region, long-time hotbed of the Colombian armed conflict. Continue reading Impressions of my first month in Uraba