Abstract

VELEZ-TORRES, Irene; PEREZ-PEREZ, José Joaquín  and  RIASCOS-RIASCOS, Diver Antonio. Planning in Dispute and Spatialization of Injustice in Colombia. Cuad. Geogr. Rev. Colomb. Geogr. [online]. 2019, vol.28, n.2, pp.225-240. ISSN 0121-215X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcdg.v28n2.70178.

The article analyzes the links between territorial planning and ethnic recognition based on the experiences of two Afro-descendant communities located in the flat valley of the Cauca river, Colombia: El Hormiguero and El Tiple. It describes the tensions, within the Colombian State, derived from the differential recognition of rights to ethnic populations and the mechanisms aimed at planning the use and appropriation of nature. The methodology applied to the study was a qualitative approach by implementing ethnographic and archival perspectives, which privileged the interaction with the communities, organized around the Community Councils, and the revision of the extensive normative archive that grounds municipal territorial planning. The comparative analysis of the study cases of El Hormiguero and El Tiple reveals an institutionalized form of spatial injustice due to the de facto imposition of private economic interests on territorial planning. This injustice has deprived Afro-descendant communities of their acquired rights, such as recognition, territory, and prior, free and informed consultation.

Highlights: Research article on the confinement of Afro-descendant communities in the flat valley of the Cauca river, which involves injustice regarding the distribution of property and land use. The spatial segmentation caused by the expansion of sugar cane planting was instituted through territorial planning instruments, which have even denied these communities their constitutional rights.

Keywords : afro-descendants; dispute; ethnicity; spatial injustice; spatial justice; territorial planning; environmental racism.

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