Tuesday 16 October 2012

KNOTS blogger

KNOTS blogger

"Land laundering": how Colombian paramilitaries hijack grassroots development

Posted: 15 Oct 2012 05:15 PM PDT

This is a guest blog by Teo Ballvé, one of the speakers at the 2nd International Conference on Land Grabbing this week.

With the start of peace negotiations this week that will hopefully bring an end to Colombia's civil war, it's time for researchers and watchdog groups to take a closer look at the role of armed conflict in the rising global interest in farmland.

For a variety of armed actors, displacing peasant farmers is both a means and an end for waging war. It's how they gain territorial control. Land is the violent meeting point of heated ideological struggles and cold economic interests.
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