Accompanying ConPazCol in Buenaventura, August 2025

By Siena Mann
Español

FOR Peace Presence spent three weeks accompanying our partner organization Comunidades Construyendo Paz en Colombia (ConPazCol) in their work to fortify several grassroots community processes underway in Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca. 

Buenaventura sits at the heart of a bay along the Pacific coast of Colombia. It’s a region rich in water, both salty and fresh; many of Colombia’s largest rivers find the ocean here. The city is almost 90% Afro-Colombian, home to communities with strong ancestral connections to this land and the surrounding river systems. Beginning in the ‘90s, the city was drastically transformed by the privatization and internationalization of the port, at the expense of the local population. While the port rakes in profit, the residents of Buenaventura face displacement, extreme poverty, unemployment at 24.2% (I) and food insecurity. 

Through the 1990s and early 2000s, Buenaventura was converted into one of Colombia’s most important international ports. This required massive foreign investment in the megaproject to redesign the harbor. Research demonstrates that organized crime follows the installation of megaprojects (II). This happens “as a result of the often combined impacts of capital influx, urbanization, industrialization, economic growth, and a change of patterns of consumption” (III). According to Hofmann, these projects exacerbate and accentuate conflicts over drugs, minerals, and transport, causing direct violence in local communities, corrupting local state institutions, and destabilizing territories and their populations. 

In Buenaventura specifically, the territory is significant not only for international transport, but also because of its geographically strategic location in the country. The National Center for Historic Memory describes how geography plays a role in the conflict dynamics: 

“Neighborhoods on the ocean, with their estuaries and natural harbors, have been prone to disputes related to maritime transport routes for drug and arms trafficking; neighborhoods bordering the section of the Pacific pipeline that passes through the urban area have been the scene of disputes over fuel theft; communities with rural areas designated for agricultural work have been prone to disputes over their strategic access corridors to the port, the planting of illicit crops, or the development of mining activities in which some illegal armed groups have been involved” (IV). 

As Buenaventura gained significance for transport and trafficking in the early 2000s, the local conflict mirrored the national picture, as illegal armed groups in other territories sought to capitalize by controlling and disputing the existing urban gangs in Buenaventura (V). The political economy of war created fertile ground for the perpetuation of territorial and population control in Buenaventura by illegal armed groups.

These violences have reached extreme levels: according to the Centro de Memoria Historica, 153,000 people have faced interurban displacement since 1990, between 1990-2012 there were 4799 homicides, and between 1995-2013 there were 26 massacres (VI). Of course it is the ethnic communities, who make up over 90% of Buenaventura’s population, who have been and continue to be the most heavily impacted by the myriad direct and structural violences in the city. While Petro has taken steps to open dialogues with all illegal armed actors, including the main illegal urban armed groups the Shotas and Espartanos (VII), the rates of violence in the city have not decreased. 

Despite the daily struggle for survival, local communities have a robust civil society, organizing movements in resistance to the economic, cultural and physical violence imposed on their neighborhoods. ConPazCol leaders were key in many of these grassroots social processes and continue playing important roles in projects for peace and justice in Buenaventura.

These movements exemplify the power of organized people to transform communities and demonstrate that solutions to the armed conflict and conditions of structural violence emerge from the territory and from the grassroots. Now, more than ever, FORPP calls on the international community to support grassroots processes in Colombia for life and peace.  

Movimiento Paro Cívico de Buenaventura: “a vivir con dignidad y paz en el territorio”

The Assembly for the Civil Strike movement in Buenaventura “to live with dignity and peace in our territory,” brought together a coalition of diverse, ethnic civil society organizations in Buenaventura who have been working together to transform the city since the historic strike in 2017.

The massive strike in 2017 unified a coalition of over 250 organizations who shut down the international port of Buenaventura for 22 days, achieving major victories in the pursuit of basic dignities for the communities. The effective strike forced the government to negotiate with the people’s movement. After a negotiation lasting 40 hours, they reached an agreement to address ten areas: 1) territory, housing and infrastructure, 2) health, 3) productivity and employment, 4) the environment, 5) water, sanitation and public services, 6) education, 7) culture, recreation, sports and gender, 8) access to justice, protection and victims, 9) human rights, guarantees and protection, 10) financing mechanism and implementation (VIII). 

These agreements were reified in law 1872 of 2017, passed by congress, which created a fund to promote integral development in Buenaventura that grants 1.6 billion pesos colombianos every year towards the implementation of the resolutions (IX). ConPazCol is part of the civic strike roundtable focused on access to Justice, Victims, Protection, and Memory. 

During the assembly, the executive committee shared the alarming update that only 7% of the resolutions have been implemented. FOR Peace Presence urges the local and national government to implement the remainder of the agreements included in Law 1872 of 2017 which seek to guarantee all Buenaventurans a life with basic dignity and access to public services. In the context of violence and insecurity in Buenaventura, the implementation of the law is more urgent than ever. 

Mujeres Aini Paz y Territorio, Río Naya

FOR Peace Presence and ConPazCol accompanied Mujeres Aini in the return of the remains of beloved Felix Sinisterra Garcia, who was disappeared 25 years ago. His remains were discovered by the Search Unit for Missing Persons (UBPD) in Huila and were lovingly brought to rest in his ancestral home in the River Naya by his family.  

Since 2000, communities along the River Naya have suffered enormous impacts from the war and armed conflict, including the disappearances of dozens of community members. Mujeres Aini is dedicated to supporting victims in the search for their loved ones and they have worked with victims to document more than 70 cases of disappearances with the Search Unit for Missing Persons (X). The discovery and return of Felix’s remains marked the first time a disappeared person from the River Naya has been recovered. As such, while the funeral was profoundly painful for the family, it also brought hope to the community that someday their prayers will be answered and they will learn the truth about what happened to their loved ones. 

As FORPP, it was an honor to accompany the family and Mujeres Aini in this moment of grief and community resilience. 

Cabildo Wounaan Phobor: Albergue Humanitario por la Paz 

The Wounaan Phobor is a community of ten families who were displaced from their ancestral homelands on the Rio San Juan almost thirty years ago. They lived many years of strife in the urban neighborhoods of Buenaventura, where they faced the slow by steady violence of cultural extermination. In 2015, the Cabildo obtained one hectare of land, located in the collective territory of the Bajo Calima Community Council, a space where families could recover their dignity, their language, their traditional medicine, and their culture. On this piece of land, the Wounaan Phobor have recovered their language and trained their youth in leadership and the Guardia Indigena, despite abandonment by the Colombian state.

Inspired by the Buenaventura Humanitarian Space and other projects for peace across Colombia, the community Wounaan Phobor began to extend a vision for peace and shelter for other displaced communities. First, they declared the community a humanitarian shelter for peace, where the entry of weapons or armed groups is not permitted. Second, they built La Casa Grande, a large kiosk at the center of their community, which represents their open doors to communities in need of temporary shelter, with a focus on providing a safe landing space for indigenous communities who are displaced by violence. 

Sadly, for the Wounaan Phobor, returning to their ancestral territory in the Rio San Juan and Rio Calima is not an option, especially since the conflict there has intensified after the signing of the 2016 peace agreement. Instead, they are working towards voluntary relocation to different lands, where they hope to live peacefully in territory and rebuild their memory and culture. ConPazCol has played an important role in the organizing of the Albergue por la Paz, advising the families on matters of protection, security, legal representation, documentation, advocacy, and dissemination of human rights violations. 

Citations

1. Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística – Dane. (2025) “Desempleo en julio de 2025 fue de 8,8%, el más bajo desde 2001,” https://www.presidencia.gov.co/prensa/Paginas/DANE-Desempleo-en-julio-de-2025-fue-de-88porciento-el-mas-bajo-desde-2001-250829.aspx#:~:text=Seg%C3%BAn%20el%20Dane%2C%20para%20el,%25)%20y%20Barrancabermeja%20(24%25).
2. For reference see: Alvear-Galindo G, Giraldo-Durán A, Ramírez-Gutiérrez SE, Hernández V. (2022) Economía criminal en Veracruz y la región del Totonacapan, México, 1998-2018 [Criminal Economy in Veracruz and the Totonacapan Region, Mexico, 1998-2018]. Sociedad Y Economía 47: 1–22; Paley DM (2023) Repensar el crimen organizado [Rethinking organized crime]. Revista de la Universidad de México 4: 102–108.
3. Hofmann, S. (2025). Security meanings and land defense in the context of the Interoceanic Corridor infrastructure (CIIT) megaproject. Security Dialogue, 56(4), . https://doi-org.proxy.library.nd.edu/10.1177/09670106251331021 
4. Centro de Memoria Historica. “Buenaventura: Un Puerto Sin Comunidad.” https://www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/descargas/informes2015/buenaventuraPuebloSinComunidad/buenaventura-un-puerto-sin-comunidad.pdf, pg 19.
5. Centro de Memoria Historica. “Buenaventura: Un Puerto Sin Comunidad.” https://www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/descargas/informes2015/buenaventuraPuebloSinComunidad/buenaventura-un-puerto-sin-comunidad.pdf, pg 21. 
6. Centro de Memoria Historica. “Buenaventura: Un Puerto Sin Comunidad.” https://www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/micrositios/buenaventura/ 
7. Radio Nacional de Colombia, “¿Para qué se reunirá el presidente con Los Shotas y Los Espartanos?” December 6, 2022. https://www.radionacional.co/actualidad/reunion-entre-petro-y-los-shotas-y-los-espartanos-para-que-es
8. Acuerdos Paro Civico, “Seguimiento a los Acuerdos del Paro Cívico,” https://sites.google.com/buenaventura.gov.co/acuerdosparocivico/acuerdos?authuser=0 
9. Función Publica “ Ley 1872 de 2017.” https://www.funcionpublica.gov.co/eva/gestornormativo/norma.php?i=84700#:~:text=POR%20MEDIO%20DE%20LA%20CUAL%20SE%20CREA%20EL%20%E2%80%9CFONDO%20PARA,EL%20CONGRESO%20DE%20COLOMBIA. 
10. Consejo de Redacción, “Mujeres detrás del mar que luchan por la defensa de sus derechos,” May 23, 2024. https://consejoderedaccion.org/sello-cdr/investigacion/mujeres-detras-del-mar-que-luchan-por-la-defensa-de-sus-derechos/