The Punta Coquitos sector is located in the area with the highest incidence of erosion, it has few contributions of fresh water from the rivers and, with it, of sediments that compensate for the loss due to erosion. This has contributed to the fact that the coastal resilience capacity, that ability to adapt and maintain its functions in the long term, has been lost.
In a notebook that says “Write down your dreams,” Gloria keeps a newspaper clipping with the photo taken of her and her family leaving Coquitos after the massacre. / Maria Camila Morales
Eel populations, in different regions of the world, have been drastically reduced over the last 50 years. The American eel (Anguilla rostrata), caught in the Caribbean, is in danger of extinction, according to the IUCN.
“The sea has eaten up the land, in these dimensions, due to the destruction of the mangroves, which are what protect the beaches. The most dramatic thing is that the peasants who were once displaced by the conflict, today are being displaced by the erosion,” said former Truth Commissioner Alejandro Valencia, in charge of reconstructing what happened in the Punta Coquitos massacre.
In addition, adds Folco Zaffalon, coordinator of the Urabá project of the Truth Commission, the communities are today “cornered.” “On the one hand, the sea takes away the possibility of maintaining their peasant life. And, on the other, the banana and plantain latifundia are spreading more and more, making it difficult for them to remain in the territory”. In his words, it is a slow process of dispossession.
One of the reparation measures that the Punta Coquitos community has demanded from the local and national authorities, as a result of the massacre, is to implement actions that help contain erosion. “The armed conflict displaced us. And now, the sea is also displacing us. But nobody says anything,” insists Gilberto Pérez, a farmer from Coquitos.
For this reason, they have called for the construction of hard infrastructure, such as retaining walls, to help stop the impact of erosion. But they have also proposed a massive planting of mangroves in order to protect the coast, since they have noticed that in the few places where these coastal trees remain, erosion has been less, and in some parts, the coast has even increased. The mangroves, affirm the peasants, would be an alternative to try to restore the balance and guarantee that the beaches can maintain their balance.
“We need something to help us contain the waves of the sea,” says Nubia, Joiber’s wife, who is also a banana farmer. “At the other end, where the mangroves are very beautiful, the sea has not eaten so much. Here, as it finds the open coast, it eats and eats”.