In order to mark off the new Humanitarian Zone of Andalucía, a peasant farmer cuts down trees to make a fence. Photo: Adrian Johansen

Dawn arrives to the Curbaradó River Basin, a territory within the Lower Atrato, department of Chocó. On 12 September 2009, seven of the 50 families return to Andalucía after having been displaced from their community 12 years ago.

After the violence of «Operation Genesis», several companies introduced the cultivation of oil palm or African palm —as a raw material for biofuels—2, spreading a dark shadow over more than 25,000 hectares in the Curbaradó River Basin. The integrity of this land, which a hundred years ago had been considered one of the greatest environmental reserves in the world, was completely transformed. Trees, rivers, streams, birds and animals disappeared and schools, houses, churches and cemeteries were destroyed3.

It is eight in the morning and some 70 Afro-Colombians and indigenous persons come to Caño Claro from nearby areas to support the expected return. They will help mark off the new Humanitarian Zone (HZ) and cut down palm as an act of dignity and life. Tears flow from many of them as they remember the foundation of a home, now only inhabited by memories, concealed under enormous palm trunks.

Along the way, we pass the former cemetery of the hamlet of Andalucía, an area inhabited by workers from Urapalma and Palmas del Curbaradó, companies illegally invading these properties. The original cemetery from the 1960s was destroyed and the remains were flushed into the adjoining terrain divided by a palm drainage ditch4, where the bones and clothes of the deceased buried in the former cemetery may still be found.

«They did not even respect the memory of our deceased. They did not respect the lives of human beings, the wealth of the rivers and the trees. At most, only five trees remain standing today. The rest were destroyed. The forests were older than we are. Water sources, rivers and streams, birds and animals that no longer exist»5.

We walk a little more and come to a canteen used by workers under the orders of Jaime Sierra, palm businessman with the company Palmas del Curbaradó6.

We enter the former hamlet of Andalucía, where the ruins of the school are the only things left standing. On this day, beds, kitchen, and meeting space will have to be improvised by turning the school into a refuge of bedding and tents to shelter the families returning to the land where they had raised the roofs of their houses. Many nostalgically remember stories of their childhood and youth and sadly point to the small plot of land where their children used to play. They look to the mountains in the horizon woven in blue with mottos of hope and peace.

The community work begins with marking off the area, fixing signs indicating the population is protected by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and cutting down palm lying within the property. Some people start building their houses. You can see the emotion in people’s eyes, also the sadness.

Don Elías —the legitimate owner of the land where the new Humanitarian Zone of Andalucía is now being built— shows us where his house used to be. Three mango trees are still there, the only memory remaining besides some foundation discovered under the weeds. Life will continue to be difficult from this moment on since it will be hard to grow crops on land still damaged from the palm roots. Oil palm demands a lot from the earth, leaving it quite sterile. Since it is native to Africa, it needs to have very dry land to grow, so lands were drained by creating large canals. Land takes thirty years to recover once the palm has been removed7.

A court ruling forces the removal of the companies

On 2 November 2009, the Chocó Administrative Court issued a ruling confirming the many declarations made by the peasant farmers over the years. The court ruling is binding for the 42 «occupants in bad faith», including nine palm companies, two livestock companies, merchandisers, and 29 persons who all must vacate the collective land belonging to the community. Although the departure of these parties should be imminent, they remain and the companies continue their activities8.

23,000 hectares of collective property, which was seized by the palm and livestock companies, continues to be occupied in the Curbaradó River Basin9. According to INCODER Resolution 2424 of 2007, 29 individual properties are still in the possession of these persons, even though there are many open cases and several national and international court rulings.

At the Humanitarian Zone of Camelias, a few hours from Andalucía, people returned to their land in mid 2008. Nonetheless, on approximately 70% of the collective land, the Palmas S.A. and Urapalma companies continue to grow vast illegal tracts of oil palm. This land, which was violently seized from the legal proprietary communities in 2001 through paramilitary operations allowed by the 18th Brigade, presently comprises 1,050 hectares.

Due to «bud rot» —a disease affecting African palm in this region—, these same companies (and others that want to enter in the area —like BANACOL) are beginning to grow other kinds of mono-crops, including plantain, cassava or corn, which are also used to produce biofuels10.

On 15 February 2008, a new phase began in the process for the collective and individual properties, which were «occupied in bad faith» by palm, livestock and lumber companies. In February 2009, nearly 254 hectares in El Cetino, up to then cultivated illegally by Agropalma, and 1,050 hectares in Camelias were «returned» in an act without legal support to make it effective. An issue of concern is that the material restitution of the property holds the communities responsible for resolving the phytosanitary problem caused by the diseased palm11.

Dusk arrives and the beds are ready. The seven families that returned to Andalucía today may close their eyes and think about what they have dreamed for so long: «returning to their land and beginning a life planted with new hope».

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At the request of CIJP, PBI accompanied the families’ return as an observing organisation. State security forces also provided perimeter protection as part of the precautionary measures granted to the Curbaradó River Basin communities by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)12.

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1 «La Tramoya: Derechos Humanos y Palma Aceitera. Curbaradó y Jiguamiandó», Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission and CINEP Databank, 2005; «Operación Para “Pacificar” Urabá Devolvió A. Del Río A La Prisión», El Tiempo, 5 September 2008
2 «Palma, bendita que se hizo maldita. el caso del Curbaradó y Jiguamiandó», Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, January 2007
3 «Han pasado 12 años... y estamos dignificando nuestra vida», Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission,  29 September 2009
4 «Los usurpados del Chocó,» Semana Magazine, 14 March 2009
5 Ibid.
6 «Constancia y Censura Ética 170209», Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, 17 February 2009
7 «La palma africana», Ecoportal.net, 10 July 2006
8 «Orden judicial para restituir predios comunitarios en Curbaradó y Jiguamiandó»,  Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, 5 November 2009; «Violación de derechos humanos por siembra de palma africana en territorios colectivos de Jiguamiandó y Curbaradó»,  Ombudsman Resolution N° 39 of 2 June 2005, Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office
9 «Devolución parcial de tierras en Curbaradó», Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, 19 February 2009
10 «Amenazas para empresariales, plan gota a gota de exterminio Curbaradó y Jiguamiandó.» Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, 24 November 2009
11 Ibid.
12 «Informe sobre la Visita al Terreno.» Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, www.cidh.org/countryrep/MPColombia2.20.09.sp.htm.