The planes waiting for us to take us from Bogotá to Medellín and from Medellín to Apartadó (1) looked very small, but it seems that small planes can fly as well. Flying into Apartadó we saw endless streches of banana plantations from the air.
Leaving the airplane, I felt like entering the green house of a flower shop. The same smell of tropical plants, the same humidity and temperature.
One of my team mates waited us at the small airport. We jumped into our four-wheel drive and sped off mexican style to the god forgotten town of Turbo. In the distance we could see the foggy mountains with impenitrable forest, where suposedly “the G” (3) is hiding.
Turbo is a town. Only the main roads are paved. There is no supermarket, the nearest cinema is about 500 kms. away. Most inhabitants are Afro-descendents and it has a Carribean vibe. One of the favourite activities of the locals is to put huge speakers with loud reggaeton or ballenato music on the sidewalk and sit in front of them. 60% of people who live here are ‘demobilized’ paramilitaries.
A historical place in Turbo is the Coliseo. It’s a sports centre where you can play football, basket ball or run in circles. Here, between 1998 and 2003, lived more than 3000 displaced people from the nearby regions of Cacarica and Curvaradó in the Chocó department. It was a refugee camp controlled by paramilitaries. They fled their homelands because of intense fighting between the military and the guerrilla, but the civilians themselves were targeted as well (2). Living conditions were very bad. Some of these people decided to organize first themselves and then their return. This was dangerous business, because their land had been taken by paramilitaries and was being exploited by private companies, for exemple palm tree plantations.
They prayed for luck and created humanitarian zones, where no armed forces can enter. They are still threatened and killed by guerrilla and paramilitaries, and whoever has interest in the land they live and work on. Many people never returned from the Coliseo and are still living in Turbo.
Life in our house is hot and humid. I have a shared room that basically lies in the living room. Soon I’ll move to a better one that has a door, a window and doesn’t smell like mold. Our first day consisted of a 6 hours meeting, everybody agreed it was a short one. I’m a bit worried.
(1) Apartadó is the nearest town and the nearest with a supermarket and an airport.
(2) This was in 1997. The operation was called “Operación Génesis”. The violence used to take down the guerilla, conveniently displaced thousands of people from the region and freed the land they were living on.
(3) Guerrilla
