海角大神

鈥� A version of this post ran on the author's . The views expressed are the author's own.

In old city Cartagena, Colombia, elegant colonial buildings with verandas and wooden shutters contain trendy restaurants, a Benetton store, and expensive shoe shops.听 But the Afro-Colombians selling strands of pearls on the sidewalks, who add life to this tropical tourist haven, may have come from Urab谩, Carmen de Bolivar, Mar委a la Baja, or other areas where threats and clashes between all the armed actors 鈥� paramilitaries, guerrillas, and the armed forces 鈥� forced them to flee the violence.

鈥淓l Salado. Chengue. Montes de Mar委a,鈥� said the victims' attention center official in a basement office in downtown Cartagena, rattling off the chilling names of places known for massacres, explaining why there are so many displaced persons in Cartagena. 鈥淭hirty-two percent of displacement happened in the Caribbean region. And it is still happening.鈥�

And the pressures that force people off their land are in gleaming Cartagena.听

We drive five minutes past Boquillo, an Afro-Colombian community which received [land] titles in a post- Summit of the Americas ceremony presided by President Barack Obama, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the rock star Shakira.听 We (my colleagues from and Agenda Caribe and myself from the ) visit the village of Punto Canoa, and take a walk with its residents along its dirty beach.

鈥淭his was my land, my grandfather's land, my uncles' land,鈥� said a rather fierce woman who speaks a mile a minute.听 鈥淓veryone respected each other's land. But the hotel just took it from us.听 And then they built a canal to cut off access from our village to our land.鈥澨�

The community had been living on this land over a hundred years. We see the sprinkler system watering the golf course that is now sprawled on what had been her land.

Stacked on the beach by this poor community are huge pipes.听 They are for a project to pump the sewage from Cartagena into the ocean right by Punta Canoa.

鈥淭hey are not even going to treat the water.听 And we live from fishing. This is a way of trying to take the land away from us...鈥� [the woman said.]

Earlier that day, we had piled into a wooden boat called 鈥淭hanks Be to God,鈥� and visited the island of Tierra Bomba, right across from the stretch of beach with one soaring hotel after another, as well as the port society and a naval base.听

Four Afro-Colombian communities live on Tierra Bomba.听 These communities were resettled here from where they had lived by the Cartagena harbor when the oil company wanted to use the land eighty years ago. 鈥淭hey told us we could have these islands, no one wanted them, they were full of mosquitoes.鈥澨� Yet their communities found 鈥渋t is a privilege to live here... we want to continue to live here, deliciously.鈥�

Eighty years later, the islands are prime real estate for the rapidly expanding tourist trade of Cartagena. And the Navy plans to expand, put a new naval base on Tierra Bomba island.

鈥淲hat's going to happen to us? No one will tell us. They say, don't worry, the naval base will be a good neighbor.听 The vice president came and told us, there will be a 鈥榩revious consultation鈥� with you before the base is developed...鈥� But the communities haven't heard about any such consultation yet. They have their doubts.

鈥淭here are 49 large-scale development projects coming our way, it's a tsunamai. The companies all come with their studies, saying, don't worry, nothing will happen to you.鈥澨� 鈥淭hey come buying up land at the price of a skinny chicken.鈥�

鈥淲e don't object to tourism, development. It will bring some jobs. We know we can't stop it.... Count on us to support development that does not displace us.鈥�

Most of the Afro-Colombian communities like those on Tierra Bomba and nearby islands, and Punto Canoa in the north of Cartagena, don't have proper titles to their land, despite the decades and even centuries of living in one place, and despite the right they have to their collective titles as Afro-Colombian communities through the 1993 legislation known as Law 70.

When presidents and Santos and [Colombian] rockstar Shakira handed out the听 for Boquilla and Palenque, it was a joyous day for those two communities.听 But they gave title to only a tiny fraction of the AfroColombian lands that should immediately be titled right in and around Cartagena, not to mention the rest of the country.听

鈥淲rite this down in your notebook,鈥� one island community leader said to me. 鈥淯nless we get title, we have nothing. We have nothing.鈥�

鈥� Lisa Haugaard is the 听Executive Director at the Latin America Working Group, who is the main contributor to .