Diocese of Quibdo

I’m visiting the Diocese of Quibdo to review SCIAF’s support of Afro-Colombian land rights in the district of Chocó. The flight takes us over the mountains and soon we are looking down on a sea of green - the virgin rainforests of the Colombian Pacific, one of the lungs of the world. This region has one of the richest and most diverse ecosystems in the world. It is home to many unique species of plants and animals and has vast mineral reserves. Yet, it is also an area characterised by extreme poverty and violence.

The Afro-Colombian people of Chocó have roots in West Africa and still maintain a vibrant culture inspired by their ancestral ties. Hundreds of thousands of Africans were sold into slavery in Latin America to work in mines and sugar cane plantations. Some escaped into the rainforest, while others came to settle and build a new life after slavery was abolished in Colombia in 1851.

The region of Chocó – where 85% of the population is of Afro-Colombian descent and 10% are from indigenous groups – is the poorest part of Colombia. More than 80% of people here live in extreme poverty and there are few public services. As the race to extract the region’s vast mineral wealth intensifies and corporations jostle for a share in the profits, the people of Chocó are being caught in the middle.

The expansion of gold, silver and copper mines, illegal logging and the spread of oil palm plantations to feed the bio-fuel market are resulting in displacement, poverty and environmental destruction on a massive scale. Much of Colombia’s cocaine production has moved here in order to escape a government crack-down in other parts of the country, adding drug traffickers and gun-runners to the mix.

Communities are being subjected to a systematic campaign of terror at the hands of left wing guerilla groups and right wing paramilitaries who use threats of violence, intimidation and even murder to push people off their land.

The Colombian constitution formally recognises the ancestral land rights of Afro-Colombians and indigenous people but little is being done to support and uphold these rights. Large corporations and other groups are continuing to squeeze out local communities in order to pursue their own interests.

SCIAF is working with the Community Council of the People’s Peasant Organisation of Alto Atrato (COCOMOPOCA) to help Afro-Colombians assert their human rights and gain legal ownership of their land so they can return to their homes and live in peace. The project also provides agricultural support for communities who have been displaced by violence and helps families that have returned home to re-establish their livelihoods.