Mobilisations foncières et logiques d’autonomie des communautés paysannes de l’Urabá colombien (1997-2010)

Historically, the Colombian region of Urabá had been considered an area of agricultural colonization and exploitation of natural resources: the reserve of land seemed unlimited (“baldíos de la Nación”). Since the late 1950s, the central State has been absent from all forms of socio-political and economic regulation in this marginal area, affected by an intense armed and social conflict and a considerable presence of drug trafficking and organized crime. Moreover, Urabá was perceived as a devalued space, doomed to social relegation, while the local peasant population was often stigmatized and accused of supporting guerrillas and drug mafias.Over the past two decades, however, the trend towards the symbolic devaluation of the region was gradually reversed as the central government increased its social anchoring strategies in order to consolidate its legitimacy at the local level. Gradually, Urabá emerged as an area of development, socio-economic modernization and environmental protection. The ethnic and cultural identity of local Afro-Colombian communities has also been gradually rebuilt before being officially recognized in 1993 by the State legislation with the Law 70.From 1997, when the armed conflict went through a particular intense period, several initiatives of resistance to violence emerged. Small farmers who had been internally displaced settled in several protected areas, an initiative thoroughly supported by the Church and by different NGOs. These local strategies of survival and attempts of collective return to the original land led to the development of territorial and political projects located in interstitial spaces. As a result, some local communities have accessed the collective ownership of their land while enhancing traditional methods of agriculture based on mixed-farming and self-sufficiency. They thoroughly challenged the territorial expansion of powerful agribusiness companies (mostly oil palm plantations and cattle-ranching). At the local level, civil society has been gradually constituted and several local community organizations have exercised forms of autonomy, away from local irregular armed groups (guerrillas and paramilitaries) and from the central State