Colombia: The Peasant Struggle for La Sonora Latifundium

We hereby publish a resume of an article by Nueva Democracia. The excerpts are unofficially translated.

The La Sonora latifundium, of more than 1,000 hectares near Pailitas, Cesar, is being retaken by more than 100 peasant families for the third time. They are seeking to obtain a piece of land.

This land has a dark past linked to paramilitarism and has been turned into a cemetery. La Sonora was a training center for paramilitary troops under the command of Aramis Machado Ortiz, known as “Cabo Machado,” who trained paramilitaries in the Catatumbo Bloc and was an accomplice of Jorge Iván Laverde, implicated in forced disappearances.

The water stream “La Floresta” is currently in a concerning state due to the extraction of aggregate material, which has damaged its ecosystem and contaminated the watershed. This situation affects the seven communities in the lower part of the stream, generating concern among the peasants and the population in general.

The peasants involved in the land recovery in La Sonora come from various communities, many of which have been affected by the historical violence against the peasantry in Colombia. This group includes both local peasants and those displaced from Catatumbo and nearby areas. The history of these families is intertwined with the struggle for land, as many nearby towns were formed from previous recoveries. In La Sonora, there are descendants of former peasants who participate in retakings and participants in movements such as the civic strike in northeastern Colombia in 1987.

The participation of women is notable, as they, alongside men, carry out daily tasks such as cooking, planting, and monitoring. These women fight for their children and are determined to defend their rights. Additionally, the youth are actively involved in the struggle, challenging the notion that “they no longer believe in the countryside.” Their energy and commitment show that they are willing to fight for the land if they believe in the possibility of success.

The peasants argue that the latifundium has abandoned land, meaning that its current owner has illegally appropriated land that should be allocated for the landless peasantry. However, the laws and the State system favor these illegitimate owners rather than the peasants.

The peasants of La Sonora face a threat of eviction that was indefinitely suspended thanks to their struggle to legitimize their actions before the community. However, the alleged owner of the latifundium continues to claim rights, and the State apparatus protects his interests. The peasants have reported local officials and a lawyer that the former owner has been spreading lies and threatening the community. They also accuse representatives of truck drivers of attempting to enter the latifundium with paramilitaries to exploit the stream without environmental licenses.

Despite these threats, the morale and confidence of the peasants remain high. They draw inspiration from successful land recovery processes, such as that of the Oficina, where peasants resisted an eviction attempt by the ESMAD. Currently, the peasants of La Sonora are organizing to face future challenges and are calling on peasant and social organizations to support their struggle.

The recovery of La Sonora is part of a broader context of land occupations in Cesar, which has generated reactions from big landlords who warn about the legal consequences of these actions. The peasants seek to make their struggle visible as a legitimate and necessary action of the popular movement for land.