When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
EL ESPECTADOR

How Big Agriculture Runs Colombia's Rivers Dry

In northern Colombia, large-scale banana and palm oil estates have long used their clout to control land and water resources and leave peasant farmers high and dry.

Dry Colombia still suffers from big agriculture's monopoly
Dry Colombia still suffers from big agriculture's monopoly
Tatiana Acevedo

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — On Aug. 25, 1939, Alejandro Calderón, a Colombian citizen, farmer and resident of the northern town of Ciénaga de Oro sent a letter to then President Enrique Olaya Herrera and his ministers of the interior, industry and foreign affairs. In it, he complained that the United Fruit Company was the only entity established in the region buying and exporting bananas, and had thus come to entirely dominate its economy.

The company generated great profits classifying and buying fruit at very low prices, Calderón wrote. "It is most evidently true that in this trade or industry, only United Fruit, as the buying entity, earns profits that reach fabulous sums while the peasant-producer of the fruit suffers the ruinous consequences of a bad business," the farmer argued.

By the 1930s, Colombian authorities had received numerous letters and complaints asking for greater regulation of labor issues, the creation of a farming or savings bank, and that they persuade United to buy fruit at better prices. All apparently to no avail.

Because there is no farming without water, the monopoly went beyond soil to include water.

The multinational firm, as Calderón pointed out, sought to "obtain the largest possible profits, exploit the peasantry that produces bananas' and "pursue its commercial activities free of all competition, resorting to all types of moves to monopolize this soil." And because there is no farming without water, the monopoly went beyond soil to include water.

Nearly 80 years later, the same areas in northern Colombia continue to suffer the consequences of that inescapable record of land grabbing and water control by large-scale farming interests, a record that also includes generous use of state and paramilitary violence to suppress union, peasant and environmental justice activities.

Professor Sandra Vilardy of the University of Magdalena notes, for example, that the marshland system of Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta is today receiving less water than it needs because of a lack of water in tributary rivers like Fundación, Aracataca and Tucurinca. "They don't flow with sufficient pressure, especially in dry periods, due to the installation of barriers designed to deviate their courses and illegally capture their waters for banana and palm oil estates, which use them to irrigate crops," she argues.

colombia_farming_zonabananera_monopoly

In Zona Bananera, residents have denounced those who deviate waters from their land — Photo: Jerrys Ricardo Arrieta Rodriguez

Another expert on the region, journalist Paola Benjumea Brito, has documented conflicts over water use in the Zona Bananera district where peasants have denounced large landowners in upland areas for deviating waters from the Frío, Sevilla and Tucurinca rivers "toward outlets and reservoirs built on their lands to store water."

As such, there is an abundance of water for some, and a serious lack for many others. While smallholders and residents of less prosperous neighborhoods in towns suffer shortages, others are irrigating and expanding their agro-industrial projects without compunction. Zona Bananera, for example, has three irrigation districts administered by associations of users and tasked with distributing water between small, medium and large-scale producers. But on a day-to-day basis, the biggest estates have the biggest say in these bodies, while some employ private security and armed men "at the gates of irrigation canals to prevent water running toward smaller plots."

There is an abundance of water for some, and a serious lack for many others.

In the coming weeks, there will be a good many newspaper headlines announcing water cuts in the Magdalena department as part of the El Niño phenomenon. It should be noted, though, that the shortages are not generalized.

Indeed, this seasonal phenomenon, rather than being a stand-alone explanation, serves to highlight a social and historical situation. To appreciate the times and places where water is scarce, one must understand where it comes from and how it moves through the big estates.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

FOCUS: Israel-Palestine War

What Are Iran's Real Intentions? Watch What The Houthis Do Next

Three commercial ships traveling through the Red Sea were attacked by missiles launched by Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels, while the U.S. Navy shot down three drones. Tensions that are linked to the ongoing war in Gaza conflict and that may serve as an indication as to Iran's wider intentions.

photo of Raisi of iran speaking in parliament

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at the Iranian parliament in Tehran.

Icana News Agency via ZUMA
Pierre Haski

-Analysis

PARIS — It’s a parallel war that has so far claimed fewer victims and attracted less public attention than the one in Gaza. Yet it increasingly poses a serious threat of escalating at any time.

This conflict playing out in the international waters of the Red Sea, a strategic maritime route, features the U.S. Navy pitted against Yemen's Houthi rebels. But the stakes go beyond the Yemeni militants — with the latter being supported by Iran, which has a hand in virtually every hotspot in the region.

For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the Houthis have been making headlines, despite Yemen’s distance from the Gaza front. Starting with missiles launched directed toward southern Israel, which were intercepted by U.S. forces. Then came attacks on ships belonging, or suspected of belonging, to Israeli interests.

On Sunday, no fewer than three commercial ships were targeted by ballistic missiles in the Red Sea. The missiles caused minor damage and no casualties. Meanwhile, three drones were intercepted and destroyed by the U.S. Navy, currently deployed in full force in the region.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for these attacks, stating their intention to block Israeli ships' passage for as long as there was war in Gaza. The ships targeted on Sunday were registered in Panama, but at least one of them was Israeli. In the days before, several other ships were attacked and an Israeli cargo ship carrying cars was seized, and is still being held in the Yemeni port of Hodeida.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest