IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 7 ENGLISH | Page 56

It is also one of the country’s most dangerous cities, and is internationally famous for the finding of the Casas de
Pique [Chop Houses] in 2013 and 2014.
Paramilitary groups like the Bandas
Criminales (BACRIM) used them to
torture and dismember their victims.
This aberrant tragedy is the most noteworthy expression of what has been going on in Puerto de Buenaventura, a
place that for too long has been experiencing a humanitarian crisis in which the
Afro-descendant population is suffering
the most. Puerto de Buenaventura’s social scene can be characterized by the
constant violation of human rights that
goes on there. Four fifths of its population is marked by extreme inequality and
citizen insecurity. This can be anything
from displacement to forced disappearances, particularly when it comes to
community, human rights leaders and
activists. It can also mean homicide,
violence, and even sexual violence targeting Afro-descendant women. This is
already part of a common story, which
also includes armed conflict.
A humanitarian space
The Vida Puente Nayero Humanitarian
Living Space is the citizen response to
the impunity, forced recruitment of children, and all the other manifestations of

violence, even gender violence in which
girls are the ones who suffer most. This
has been a scourge in Buenaventura for
years (it is a member of the Communities Constructing Peace in the Territories
initiative [CONPAZ). The Humanitarian
Space is not only a defense mechanism,
but also a self-protection initiative in
facing internal violence and the atrocious crimes that continue being perpetrated in that region. Some of the founders told me that Marisol Medina Arboleda’s assassination (she was dismembered in a Chop House in 2014) provoked the decision to create a protective
space near La Playita. Another victim of
the paramilitaries, sixteen-year old Carlos Angarita: he was dismembered on
April 13th, 2014, in the Humanitarian
Zone, despite it being the most heavily
patrolled place in Colombia. Getting a
feel for the violence and inequality first
hand allow me to appreciate the humanitarian crisis a large, important part of
Colombia’s civil society is enduring:
Afro-descendants. Indifference, impunity, and racism characterize Colombia’s
racialized society and continuously denounced by the Afro-Colombian social
movement, particularly organizations
like the Cimarron Human Rights AfroDescendant Movement and Displaced
Afro-Descendants (AFRODES).

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