The socio territorial conflicts: an expression of the overlapping territorialities in the Colombian South Pacific

Abstract

The current socio-territorial configuration of the Colombian South Pacific region is the result of the convergence of multiple actors that have had a strong impact on this process in the region. The research carried out on the basis of the definition of what is understood by territoriality and its objective develops and applies a mixed methodological model that has made it possible us to recognize the configuration of five socio-territorial conflicts, four rural and one urban closely connected with the rural: 1) conflicts between ethnic collective territories and colonization around the palm mono-crop; 2) between drug trafficking and collective territories; 3) between armed groups organized by the control of strategic territories; 4) to a lesser extent, inter- and intra-ethnic conflicts; and 5) conflicts over control of the urban area of Tumaco. It was possible to establish that these conflicts are caused by the overlapping of two geopolitical models with particular territorialities: the first corresponds to the geopolitical model of modernity and globalization; and the second corresponds to the geopolitical model of defending the place, identity and preservation of all forms of life, driven mainly by ethnic community organizations that inhabit the region. In the pretensions of the first model of annihilating the place, to privilege the global space, persistent tensions are generated configuring a state of conflict and are reflected in the territory by the contempt of all forms of life. This explains the extremely high and persistent levels of violence in this region of Colombia.