On paradoxes in the Colombian countryside

Abstract

All countries house a multitude of paradoxes, but perhaps Colombia more so than others. During the six months that I was lucky to live there to conduct research for my PhD, I discovered a country in which countless people dream of and work towards peace, in the hope of ending the longest armed conflict in the Americas, but also a country where the peace deal to end this conflict was rejected in the 2016 referendum. I learnt that Colombia is the second most biodiverse country in the world, and simultaneously the most dangerous country in the world for environmental defenders, and a country where successive governments have continued to hungrily grant environmentally ruinous contracts to extractives companies. In just a few hours of driving, one can go from waterfall pictures and artisanal bakeries of the popular tourist town of “Minca”, to La Guajira, where the rate of poverty is a devastating 67.4% and more than 370 children died of hunger between 2017 and 2022.