Abstract

CAGUASANGO, Daniel Esteban Unigarro. Peasants in the Northwestern Colombian Amazon: Caught between Coca, Conflict, and Peacebuilding. Antipod. Rev. Antropol. Arqueol. [online]. 2020, n.40, pp.175-200. ISSN 1900-5407.  https://doi.org/10.7440/antipoda40.2020.08.

The signing of the Peace Agreement between the national Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was seen as an opportunity to improve the living conditions of the peasants of the northwestern Colombian Amazon. These peasants occupied the region through a long process of colonization and ended up being involved in the dynamics of coca growing and the armed conflict. However, when some rural inhabitants of the departmental capital, San José del Guaviare, were asked what they expected from the ensuing peace building, some uncertainty was perceived regarding their possibilities of remaining in the territory, given the lack of productive alternatives and the overlapping of management structures such as the Amazon Forest Reserve, the Nukak Indigenous Reservation and the Peasant Reserve Zone. To reveal the current situation of the peasants of Guaviare, in addition to the documentary research, which provided a better understanding of the processes of peasant colonization of the forest environment, the ethnographic fieldwork, carried out during three short stays in six villages and in a former Territorial Space for Training and Reincorporation (TSTR), made it possible to understand the different realities of the rural territory, through informal conversations, open interviews, and workshops involving the community. The results of the research reveal that the inhabitants who, decades ago, settled in the rural area of San José del Guaviare, including the former FARC combatants, are peasants who wish to live in peace, despite the historical difficulties associated with its occupation. To be able to do so, the formalization of land tenure and rural productivity must be guaranteed. The contribution of this article lies in the fact that it manages to unveil the territorial memory associated with coca and the conflict, in part of the Colombian Amazon, based on the voices of peasants and ex-combatants, who share a territory that they recognize as their own, and the problems involved in peace building.

Keywords : Amazon; colonization; conflict; peace building; peasants; rural territory.

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