Their territorial control was quickly contested by paramilitaries, nominally affiliated with the “Gulf Clan” organized crime network. In Chocó, the ELN guerrillas quickly filled the vacuums left by the demobilizing FARC’s 34th and 57th fronts. A few times, social and religious leaders in the upper and middle Atrato used the term “time bomb” to describe conditions: a fear that violence may soon explode to levels not seen since the armed conflict’s worst years. As in Arauca, we heard of large-scale recent recruitment by all armed groups, mostly of minors. As in Arauca, we heard that the ELN and a growing number of FARC dissidents are observing a loose and fragile non-aggression pact (at least in the middle region in southern Chocó, they are fighting). Boats parked by the Malecón, on the Atrato River in central Quibdó.Īs in Arauca, we heard that this began to get worse in late 2018 and early 2019. Populations’ mobility increased, and forced recruitment and laying of landmines abated. “With the Santos government and the peace process, we breathed a new breath of tranquility,” a social leader told us. This coincided with the latter phases of the FARC-government peace negotiations and the FARC guerrillas’ subsequent withdrawal and demobilization in Chocó. People told us they had lived a period of peace from about 2016 to 2018. In the communities we visited in the middle and upper Atrato regions-just as in Arauca-security conditions aren’t as dire, but the armed groups are on the move. To the south of where we went, in Chocó’s San Juan and Baudó river valleys, fighting between the ELN and paramilitaries (and more recently, FARC dissident groups) has displaced thousands of people, mostly indigenous communities. The lower Atrato river, flowing into the Caribbean in northern Chocó, is a site of intense fighting between the ELN guerrillas and paramilitary groups, which have gained control of principal towns. The middle and upper Atrato is living a tense calm, sandwiched between more violent regions of Chocó to the north and south. The Atrato, which flows from south to north, is a major vector for trafficking cocaine and other contraband, and has long been violently contested by drug traffickers and armed groups. Quibdó, Chocó’s capital.īecause Chocó is hard to get around, our visit was limited to the middle and upper Atrato River regions, a few hours north and south of Quibdó, the capital. Fuel is expensive, and so is riverboat travel. Chocó is mostly roadless, and the only way to get around is via rivers, especially the Atrato, which runs from about 40 miles east of the Pacific into the Caribbean. Over 90 percent of the population is Afro-Colombian or indigenous. It is also Colombia’s poorest department, with a very slight presence of the government. It also shows how few roads (the red lines) exist in a department the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined. The green line shows the routes we took in Chocó. Most of its forests remain in pristine condition-for now-which helps make it one of the two or three rainiest places on the planet. It took a while for me to type up these notes, in part because the situation I’m describing is so grim.Ĭhocó is big and sparsely populated, with about a half-million people in an area the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined. It’s been a week and a half since we completed this last leg of our trip. This department (province) borders both the Pacific and Atlantic, as well as Panama, in Colombia’s far northwest. After our early October visit to Arauca, Colombia, WOLA colleagues and I spent several days in the middle section of Chocó.
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