Bajo Fuego

The peasant community in Colombia has historically been excluded from economic progress and rural development; while their needs and interests have been neglected, their collective identity has been un-/underrepresented in the public and political debate. The peace agreement signed in 2016 constituted an opportunity to change the trend of marginalization, and, amongst other things, on paper made it possible to access basic needs such as land and technical assistance for rural development and increase social participation in decision-making processes on the local, regional and national level.
We consider it important to be present and film in the context of the implementation of the peace agreement while allowing the perspective of the peasants to be central in the representation of the current historical moment. We believe that the internal armed conflict in Colombia has been the result of a history of segregation and rural underdevelopment. Further, we believe that it is important to allow for the voices of the marginalized to be heard, particularly now, as they can help in understanding the importance of the proper, full and timely implementation of the 2016 peace agreement that ultimately seeks to end decades of violence in Colombian society.
One of the issues the peace agreement aimed to resolve was the substitution of the coca crops held and cultivated by (generally poor) peasants. Miranda and the surrounding rural communities features a lot of coca cultivation (as well as marihuana) and the concretization of the (desired and proposed) transformation of the local situation is urgent, as the political decision-making process with regards to the substitution of coca seems to be in a continuous state of flux. The policy changes announced by Colombia’s newly elected president Ivan Duque have included forced eradication and the return of fumigation with the carcinogenic glyphosate. This documentary aims to focus on these dynamics by following the events from the perspectives of the peasants. In doing so, it aims to humanize the experiences of these rural communities, while also telling a story on the difficulties of this historical moment from a social perspective that is not easily recognized in the public domain.
Apart from the issues related to the substitution program, this documentary has another focus, which relates to the issue of security, human rights and territorial control. We have already seen, in our first year of research and production, that the security in the region is very fragile. Several armed groups have appeared in the region after the demobilization of FARC-EP, and local leaders are currently under threat by some of these groups that have turned against the effort of implementing the peace agreement, and substituting the economy based on the cultivation of coca.
So, despite the peace agreement being signed in 2016, this documentary aims to show that in the case of this community of coca-peasants the conflict changes, and takes a different form, making it difficult to talk of peace, or ‘post-conflict’. Rather, it seems that the state and its central government in Bogotá are not really interested in addressing the issues of these local, impoverished and marginalized communities. To be able to listen to the people that live these situations first-hand is important, we believe, as it has the potential to visualize and humanize the harsh realities that impoverished and marginalized communities in Colombia continue to live today.