Caquetá: From a Territory of War to a Peace Territory

Abstract

The historical path of Caquetá has been determined by three basic types of settlement: the indigenous occupation, the process of agrarian colonization initiated with the agrarian reform of López Pumarejo (1936), boosted since 1950; and the urbanization process of the last decades, especially of the Amazon piedmont. Diverse manifestations of violence over territorial control have arisen in Caquetá due to its national and international geographical location, which is favorable to geopolitical economic and spatial interests of the State Armed Forces and the armed insurgent groups (FARC, M-19); its topographic conditions and for being an occupation territory of coca production.

Colonization, drug trafficking and guerrilla groups are part of Caquetá´s political and economic identity, with various vicissitudes in the historical development of appropriation and control of liberties of people from Caquetá, by the belligerent actions of the State in its diverse colonization policies, armed conflict, drug trafficking, environmental damage, and mining, at the expense of the government's economic policies. Due to its geographical location in Amazonia, Caquetá is propitious and strategic to become a territory of peace.