5-16-07, 9:17 am
NARIÑ0, COLOMBIA – Afro-Colombian families displaced by the expansion of oil palm plantations, and by Colombia's paramilitary and military groups who protect the projects, have created squatter communities next to mangrove swamps at the edge of Tumaco, a coastal city in Nariño department. Afro-Colombian communities fear the passage of a free trade agreement with the U.S. will lead to more displacement by similar foreign-owned development projects.
In the Brisas de los Angeles barrio, community members listen to a woman who cries as she recalls the murder of her family members when they were driven from their home by paramilitaries.
In another barrio, called Familias en Accion, a family cooks in a shack built of scavanged wood scraps, built on stilts and walkways above the mud.
In the November 11 barrio, a woman fills up containers where water for dozens of families comes from a single communal water tap and hose. Here the city authorities have used trash, garbage, and even medical waste, to create raised pathways between the houses.
In Nariño department, Afro-Colombian families are trying to implement the 1991 Constitution and Law 70, which guarantees them the land on which they have historically lived. Many communities are trying to recover land taken by large landowners to create oil palm plantations. A bus driver pilots his ancient vehicle through a recovered palm plantation.
Bajo Pusbi is one of the communities fighting to recover its historical territory. In this area near Tumaco, Afro Colombians have recovered part of their lands, and seek to force palm growers to give up the rest. It is a tiny community deep in the jungle and plantations, where armed groups pass through frequently. Jose Santos Cabezas says goodbye to his mother Islavia in the Tumaco airport, as he returns to Bogota. Cabezas was an Afro Colombian activist in Nariño department, helping families trying to implement the 1991 Constitution and Law 70. Cabezas had to flee the death threats of the paramilitaries, and could only come to visit his mother briefly before returning to Bogota, to avoid being killed.
--For more articles and images on free trade and Colombia: http://dbacon.igc.org. See also The Children of NAFTA (University of California, 2004) and the photodocumentary on indigenous migration to the US, Communities Without Borders (Cornell University/ILR Press, 2006).
