A community’s struggle to protect itself from land mines in the Colombian Amazon

CISR
 

SUMMARY: In late 2018, Adiela Jinet Mera, a soft-spoken member of the Siona indigenous group, who has lived her whole life in the western corner of the Amazon rain forest, decided it was time to “heal the territory” where she grew up, and which her ancestors have inhabited for millennia. The Siona territory and its surroundings had been marred with land mines planted during the Colombian civil war of the past half century. She joined the Colombian Campaign to Ban Landmines; her task would be to identify explosive devices that rebel groups planted in two indigenous reservations. “I know this is not an easy path,” she said in a recent speech to her community about the group’s mission. “But it’s not impossible.”


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Published: Friday, June 26, 2020

Last Updated: Thursday, November 2, 2023

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