Massacres and paramilitary land seizures behind the biofuel revolution

Rapid growth in demand for palm oil as a source of biofuel has led to a humanitarian crisis in Columbia. Armed groups—mainly right-wing militias—are forcing farmers from their land and turning it over to palm oil producers. 200,000 cases a year are being reported. At the same time, coca production is up and 3 million Columbians have been displaced for various reasons. President Alvaro Uribe will be in Washington this week to discuss the situation.

Armed groups in Colombia are driving peasants off their land to make way for plantations of palm oil, a biofuel that is being promoted as an environmentally friendly source of energy.

Surging demand for “green” fuel has prompted rightwing paramilitaries to seize swaths of territory, according to activists and farmers. Thousands of families are believed to have fled a campaign of killing and intimidation, swelling Colombia’s population of 3 million displaced people and adding to one of the world’s worst refugee crises after Darfur and Congo.

Several companies were collaborating by falsifying deeds to claim ownership of the land, said Andres Castro, the general secretary of Fedepalma, the national federation of palm oil producers.

“As a consequence of the development of palm by secretive business practices and the use of threats, people have been displaced and [the businesses] have claimed land for themselves,” he said. His claim was backed up by witnesses and groups such as Christian Aid and the National Indigenous Organisation of Colombia.

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