Genesis - The Beginning of the End


Riosucio, el Chocó 1997


Map 2: The Operation Genesis and routes of the exodus.

Pavarando, Antioquia 1997

Quibdó, el Chocó 1997

Riosucio, el Chocó 1997
Below: Paramilitary graffiti: "We wish you a happy Xmas - Peasants self-defences of Córdoba & Urabá". Schoolgirls. Paramilitary graffiti: "Guerrillas & informers out of el Chocó".




Quibdó, el Chocó 1997
In Medellín, in September of 1997, the then Governor of Antioquia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez (President of Colombia 2002-2010) presented the conference “Why Antioquia believes in and thinks of el Chocó” where he and other delegates outlined plans for interoceanic canals (combining river & rail), pipelines, ports & tourism projects, and extractive industries in the neighbouring department. Many referred enthusiastically to the Lower Atrato region
as the “Best Corner of the Americas”. Noticably absent from the conference were representatives of el Chocó's black and indigenous communities, many thousands of whom were now living as displaced refugees in the shantytowns high on the valley sides of Medellín.

Antioquia 2000

Pavarandó, el Chocó 1997

Pavarandó, el Chocó 1997









Turbo, Antioquia 1997



In March of 2000, after three years of forced displacement in the town of Turbo on the Caribbean coast, the first groups of campesinos returned to the region of Cacarica to form two new "Peace Communities": Nueva Esperanza en Dios y Nueva Vida (New Hope in God & New Life). And within weeks they received the collective titles to the Cacarica river basin, consolidating their return to their ancestral lands.

Turbo, Antioquia 2000
(left) The displaced Cacarica community with banners reclaiming "Justice", "Solidarity" & "Truth" & (right) women widowed by Genesis marching through the town on the eve of the 3rd anniversary of the offensive, & the eve of their return to the territory.
Turbo, Antioquia 2000





Golfo de Urabá 2000

On the quayside waiting to return to Cacarica.
Turbo, Antioquia 2000
Crossing the Gulf of Urabá & the mouth of the River Atrato.
El Golfo de Urabá 2000








Cacarica, el Chocó 2000




The Communities of Autodeterminación, Vida y Dignidad –CAVIDA- the Humanitarian Zone Nueva Esperanza en Dios, Cacarica.

Cacarica, el Chocó 2003

Cacarica, el Chocó 2003



Cacoa (chocolate) in the fields.
Cacarica, el Chocó 2003
Cacarica, el Chocó 2003



Quibdó, el Chocó 2002

Quibdó, el Chocó 2002

Quibdó, el Chocó 2003

Quibdó, el Chocó 2003

Quibdó, el Chocó 2003