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Under the guise of the war on drugs and terror, the way is being cleared for major economic interests in the Lower Putumayo (Colombia). This paper examines the impact of coca cultivation, petroleum activity and the armed conflict on the ancestral territory of the Cofán community.
By examining the recent history of the Cofán people, this paper shows how, under the guise of the war on drugs and terror, the way is being cleared for major economic interests in the Lower Putumayo. Paramilitary groups have been the principal ally of large investors, corporations and public forces, and are just as active in 2007 as they were before they were demobilised. This paper specifically examines the impact of coca cultivation, petroleum activity and the armed conflict in Cofán territory on this ancestral community.
The Cofán people’s ancestral territory is located in the tropical forest between Ecuador and Colombia, near the major rivers that flow from the Andes mountains to the Amazon basin. About 1,000 Cofán live in Colombia, most of them in 11 communities in the municipalities of San Miguel, Valle del Guamuez and Orito, in the department of Putumayo. Their territory, culture and survival are seriously threatened by dynamics associated with the drugs trade, the armed conflict and large mega-projects being developed in their territory.
Since 1999, many members of Cofán communities have been displaced because of frequent incursions into indigenous territory, selective assassinations, disappearances, forced recruitment, accusations, lawsuits, sexual abuse, destruction of property and the destruction of legal crops by aerial spraying. This displacement is not only the result of armed actions by the various factions fighting in the area; it must also be seen as the outcome of a strategy for expropriating lands that are part of the Cofán’s ancestral territory
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