Home > Events > Violent Development: Terror and Forced Displacement Among Colombia's Pacific Coast Black Communities

Violent Development: Terror and Forced Displacement Among Colombia's Pacific Coast Black Communities

Dr. Ulrich Oslender, Marie Curie OIF Research Fellow, Department of Geographical & Earth Sciences - University of Glasgow

Wednesday, December 05, 2007
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Bunche Hall 10367
Los Angeles, CA United States

A progressive legislation in 1993 granted collective land rights to Colombia’s black communities living in the rural areas of the Pacific coast region. These measures were partly geared towards supporting sustainable development strategies in the region through territorial empowering of local communities. Yet fourteen years later, the escalation of the country’s internal conflict into the Pacific region has produced unprecedented levels of forced displacements of rural black communities. Once referred to as a ‘peace haven’, the Colombian Pacific coast is now characterized by new spaces of violence and terror, imposed by warring guerrilla and paramilitary groups, as well as the Colombian army. In this presentation, I will examine the nature of this externally induced violence in the region. I will show how specific economic interests, in particular in the African palm sector, are colluding with illegal armed groups that are employed to spread fear and terror amongst local residents for them to comply with the requirements of these economic actors.

Cost: Free and Open to the Public

For more information please contact

Diliana Peregrina
Tel: (310)825-4571
dperegri@international.ucla.edu
www.international.ucla.edu/lac/

Sponsor(s): Latin American Institute