A resident of San Miguel looks down on two dolls, her daughters having died in the landslide on 1 April, 2017. Photo by Aitor Sáez/¡PACIFISTA!
This article is published as part of the partnership between democraciaAbierta and ¡PACIFISTA! You can read the original here.
In early April, heavy rains led to landslides and floods in the region of Mocoa, Colombia. Over 300 have been killed, 92 of which were children. Yet this is not only an incident of a destructive natural disaster, but rather a more common story of the Colombian government not providing sufficient support to the country’s outlying regions, many of which are still ravaged by decades of violent conflict. You cannot understand what has happened in Mocoa without seeing its link to violence, corruption and inequality. And what is far worse, the inhabitants of these regions themselves seem, to a large extent, acceptant of such tragedies – they have become tolerant of this endless cycle of brutality and abandonment.
