María Ligia Chaverra was the target of an assassination plan in 2008. Photo: Charlotte Kesl
Despite being a collective territory in which land may not be bought or sold, different companies have been able to acquire land in the Curbaradó and Jiguamiandó River Basin.1 In fact, in February 2011, the Superintendent of Notaries and Registration, a Colombian State institution, concluded that 17,720 hectares belonging to the traditional community in the area of Curbaradó and Jiguamiandó had been acquired illegally. Different irregularities have taken place including the alleged signing of contracts by people who were already deceased, the increase of hectares sold, falsification of documents, and coercion and direct threats against the inhabitants in order to force them to sell their property.2
In 2010, the Prosecutor's Office issued arrest warrants against 24 palm oil businesspeople that had allied with paramilitary groups to displace these communities and steal their property.3 In April 2011, 15 people -including palm oil businesspeople, former paramilitaries and politicians- were served summons for the violent seizure of land in this region. "In their desire to economically exploit the collective property (...) the companies were really fronts that concealed the arrangement or alliance between the self-defence forces and businesspeople in order to continue to commit crimes in the Lower Atrato in Chocó", according to the Prosecutor's Offic
Unidentified individuals invade land in Curbaradó
In addition to the illegal acquisition of land, the Biodiversity Zones in Curbaradó were invaded in December 2010 by hundreds of unidentified individuals from Urabá, Córdoba, and several municipalities of Chocó. They built shacks, cut down trees, cleared out land, diverted streams to plant crops, and occupied a plot that the Camelias community had designated to be a forest reserve. According to denunciations made by the small-scale farmers and published by the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission (CIJP), more than 300 hectares were affected in Camelias and Andalucía, rural communities within Carmen del Darién municipality.