Poverty in the Pacific Region

Buenaventura is a port city with high unemployment rates and poverty caused by criminal groups that try to form illegal economies. Other contributors to the violence include economic inequality, partisan agendas, institutionalized racism, gang activity, corrupt private interests, over-policing, and government neglect.

Receiving food resources en el barrio Bajo Calima en Buenaventura

In addition to unrest, this community with more than 80% Afro-Colombian population does not receive access to necessities like clean water, decent jobs, and educational opportunities. One resident states that the ports have water 24 hours a day, whereas many neighborhoods go without water for weeks.

Port and Houses of Buenaventura

Free Trade Agreement

Violation of Law 70

In efforts to curb poverty and increase economic productivity, The Free Trade Agreement between Colombia and the United States was signed in 2012. As a result, Buenaventura saw economic growth of 42% from 2010-2020. However, the people in the community are not reaping the benefits. The signing of this agreement brought forth the displacement of Afro-Colombians from five neighborhoods located in the Bajamar area of Isla Cascajal, as the local government planned an expansion of the port. Many Afro-Colombians displaced by the project had also been previously displaced from the semi-autonomous Black communities on Colombia’s Pacific coast.

These lands are being developed without the authorization of the Afro-Colombians that own the land, according to Law 70, a direct violation of their rights. “Snyder Rivera, an economist with the Colombian organization Cedetrabajo, which monitors the implementation of free-trade agreements, says advanced port logistics have been prioritized over the needs of the people living collectively in and around Buenaventura.”Many fear, with good reason, that if they are pushed off the island, even if it is into government-constructed housing, they will be worse off since they will no longer have access to the means of sustaining themselves.

Tumaco, known as Colombia’s forgotten territory, is a port city with a majority Afro-Descendant population and 6% indigenous. A Colombian journalist, Antonio Caballero, called on the national government to acknowledge the humanitarian crisis. It has the highest homicide rate in the country and is the largest cocaine producer in the world. This city is geographically isolated with dense jungles in the area. The human rights conditions of entire neighborhoods of Tumaco are undocumented and occupied exclusively by armed groups to the exclusion of the state. Economic disparity is high where 84.3% live below the poverty line and 70% are unemployed seven times the national average.

The residents live in houses on stilts in neighborhoods that stretch onto the septic Pacific tide, which threatens daily destruction. Sanitation is poor and few homes have electricity and the local San Andrés Hospital has no access to running water.

(Cornier, C. (2019, September 30). Letter from Tumaco: Notes from the forgotten pearl of the Pacific. The Bogotá Post.) Retrieved March 4, 2023, from https://thebogotapost.com/letter-from-tumaco-notes-from-the-forgotten-pearl-of-the-pacific/41394/ )