Latin America

27 Colombia - Tumaco

Jose Santos Cabezas says goodbye to his mother Islavia in the Tumaco airport, as he returns to Bogota. Cabezas was an Afro Colombian activist in Nariño department, helping families trying to implement the 1991 Constitution and Law 70, which guarantees them the land on which they have historically lived. Many communities have been displaced by the expansion of oil palm plantations, and by Colombia's paramilitary and military groups who protect the projects. Cabezas had to flee the death threats of the paramilitaries six years ago, and could only come to visit his mother briefly before returning to Bogota, to avoid being killed.

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