“Prosperity for Everyone” in the Post-Conflict?: How Does Environmentally and Militarily Oriented State (Re)Control in the Ariari Region Propel Productive Segmentation and Social Fracturing?

Abstract

Through perspectives on political ecology, this article aims to explain the paradoxical outcomes that global policies on state re-territorialization and promotion of green economies have had in the reconfiguration of the municipality of Puerto Rico (Ariari region, Colombian Amazonian Piedmont). On one hand, historically contested areas have experienced both relatively successful programs of peasant parceling, especially during the early 2000s, and more recently, active processes of deforestation and coca resurgence inside La Macarena National Natural Park. On the other, where the State has been able to secure a more militaristic presence, alliances between the State and agribusiness sectors have promoted land valuation and productive reconversion from coca to “clean, alternative and socio-environmentally responsible” oil palm plantations. Thus, a global agenda to accelerate the transition to a post-conflict scenario in the municipality of Puerto Rico has produced fracturing trajectories of peasant titling and green grabbing (and a sort of productive ghettoization) since the mid-2000s, radically transforming the socio-spatial landscape of this municipality.