'Matriarch' Leads Struggle to Recover Stolen Land

[Judi Lynn]

'Matriarch' Leads Struggle to Recover Stolen Land
By Constanza Viera

CAMELIAS, Colombia, Jul 15, 2011 (IPS) - "God willing, we will make it" reads the sign on a rusty old all-terrain vehicle, ideal for the complicated drive to the remote Curbaradó river valley in the banana-producing region of Urabá in northwest Colombia.

This area is part of the jungle province of Chocó, one of the world's most biodiverse places until it was drawn into the armed conflict between left-wing guerrillas and government forces – and, since the 1980s, far-right paramilitary militias – that has plagued Colombia for nearly half a century.

IPS travelled to this isolated region with documentary-makers from Justice for Colombia, a coalition founded in 2002 by the British trade union movement in response to murders of labour activists and the overall humanitarian crisis in Colombia.

The killings in Urabá began in 1995, and the major paramilitary offensive started in 1996. "This has all changed so much that it looks completely different now. Everything has been destroyed: the trees, the jungle, the rivers, the streams," says María Chaverra, 69.

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