Quibdó airport. Source: Diálogo Chino. All rights reserved.
When Ivan Duque, the winner of the first round of the elections in Colombia on May 27, refused to participate in the third presidential debate in the Pacific port city of Buenaventura last month, critics interpreted it as a sign of the Colombian elites’ historic neglect of a desperately impoverished part of the country.
Chinese investors, however, have been looking to make significant investments in the Chocó region. In doing so, they will exacerbate an unequal form of economic development based on the extraction of natural resources that brings little benefit to the local population.
