The peninsula of La Guajira, in Colombia’s far northeast, bears little resemblance to the country’s stereotypical image as a tropical paradise. Most of this region, the ancestral territory of the Indigenous Wayuu people, is desert. The beauty of its landscapes attracts numerous tourists who bounce along bumpy jeep tracks connecting Wayuu settlements to the Caribbean coast. The strong winds, meanwhile, have sparked a wind energy boom. But residents see almost none of the wealth generated from their land, which also suffers from South America’s largest open-cast coalmine, Cerrejón.
The Chocó region, with its rainforests stretching to the edge of the Pacific Ocean, is much closer to the picture-postcard image sold by tour operators. But the town of Nuquí, home to 16,000 people, has no pavements or cash machines, and is only linked to the big cities by a small mornings-only airport. Poverty affects two-thirds of the mainly Black population. Colombia’s colonial legacy is very much alive, two centuries after the country’s independence. Like in La Guajira, drug trafficking thrives, complemented by illegal goldmining – fuelling warring armed groups.
