Bloody Palms: The Dark Side of Plan Colombia

By Teo Ballvé

Excerpt from a piece produced by Project Word for The Nation magazine. Web release May 27, 2009; print release June 15. Full story here.

Brigadier General Pauxelino Latorre led the elderly farmer through a maze of concrete hallways, past a series of harshly lit rooms overlooking banana plantations, and deep into the barracks of the Colombian army’s 17th Brigade in northwestern Colombia. Soldiers saluted stiffly as the general barreled by. The farmer, Enrique Petro, poor, in his late sixties, shuffled a few steps behind, trying to avoid eye contact with the soldiers.

Petro was understandably anxious. Criminal investigations had repeatedly linked the 17th brigade to illegal paramilitary groups that had brutally killed thousands, including Petro’s brother and teenage son. As he walked deeper into the barracks, Petro had a feeling that something bad was going to happen. Latorre opened a door into a room of a building at the back of the base, where Javier Daza, then head of Urapalma, a palm oil company, was waiting. Daza smugly greeted Petro. In the ensuing encounter, Daza and the general did most of the talking.

It was August 2004. A few days before, Petro had complained to the general that Urapalma was growing oil palms on land that paramilitaries had stolen from him in 1997, in the neighboring province of Chocó. Living as a refugee since his displacement, Petro had repeatedly sought his land back and had endured numerous death threats for his troubles. In response to this latest effort, the general quickly suggested a meeting at the base. Petro supposed he had little to lose and agreed. But when the meeting was over, Daza and Latorre had intimidated Petro into legally validating the seizure of his own land. With General Latorre’s signature on the contract as a witness, Petro officially lost 75 percent of his 375-acre farm—for which he has yet to receive the money.

Enrique Petro was one of the lucky ones; he is still alive.