Confined In Chocó: When Guerrillas Decide Who’s Free To Move

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — There may be no region across Colombia’s rich and diversity territory, that is as varied, surprising and special as the Chocó region. Its rainforest is much older and more primitive than the Amazon.

When the Andes mountain range emerged (following the collision of the Nazca and South American tectonic plates), across western South America, it rose across the entire continent almost to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, except in the Chocó and Darién regions, where the mountains rose inland, leaving a single area of primitive tropical rainforest. Before the Andes emerged, the Amazon River and all its tributaries emptied their waters into the Pacific. When the mountain range rose and formed its string of volcanoes, the Amazonian rivers reversed their course and had to spill into the Atlantic. The immense wetlands, the waters forced to retreat, created the Amazon.

But this article is not about geology; it’s about geography and politics. Geography is a destiny for the humans who inhabit it, and more so in a territory as extreme and unique as the Chocó. To begin with, the Americas are connected from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego by highways and roads, except for a brief stretch in the Darién section of Chocó on the border of Colombia and Panama.

Colombian clans

The endless rains, the swamps, the raging rivers, the mudflats, the vermin, the heat, mosquitoes, the seemingly untouchable natural beauty itself, make communication there very difficult. Travel is by sea, by small trails, by paths that are cut open and soon resealed by the jungle, and above all, by river waterways. That is why it is so easy for certain armed groups — especially the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Gulf Clan — who have stolen sovereignty from Colombia, to declare “armed strikes” that confines civilians to their homes and restricts commercial activity.

Freedom of movement is as important as the freedom to think, speak or drink water.

Due to neglect by this and previous Colombian governments, and the corruption or complicity of many local authorities, Chocó is a territory tormented and abused by illegal armed groups. Its very wealth of mining, fishing and timber justifies the presence there of illegal groups with their corrupt and violent armies.

Despite the fact that Chocó has a serious, intelligent and clean governor — the very competent Nubia Carolina Córdoba — the government, with its clumsy idealization of criminals, has in recent weeks allowed the region and especially its least accessible parts, to be confined. It is now the ELN — a far-left guerrilla insurgency group of about 6,000 fighters that is still fighting Colombia’s government — are the ones deciding who can move and who cannot.

A national problem

Besieging the population (as is happening in other regions of Colombia, in parts of the Cauca, Catatumbo and Arauca departments, etc.), and restricting its freedom of movement, is a growing cancer in Colombia. With weapons, blackmail or bribes, people are being prevented from moving around — and not just people but also food, teachers, nurses and social leaders. Right now, this is happening with particular severity in Chocó, but it is increasingly happening every day, in more and more parts of the country.

Freedom of movement, or circulation, is as important as the freedom to think, speak or drink water. Human beings do not have roots, but legs, oars, sails, boats and small planes. If we are prevented from moving, and forcibly confined, we are losing something fundamental.

The government, so prone today to open prisons and freely allow armed groups to commit all manner of felonies, should remember that one of its first obligations is to guarantee the safe movement of people. Soon there will be no more passports to leave Colombia. The northern borders are closing in on us every day. 

If we are to be confined here, we should at least be assured of the right to freely move around (without fear or having to pay bribes, kickbacks and “protection money” to criminals) inside the only thing we thought we had secured: our own country.