In FARC's former territory, Colombians live under a precarious peace
When Colombia's government and rebel forces signed a peace deal in 2016, the areas under FARC's control were supposed to see a reprieve from five decades of violence. Instead, human rights activists, and Afro-Colombian and Indigenous leaders, are being targeted for assassination and armed groups are battling for control
Colombian police officers keep watch in Corinto, a town in the Cauca region of Colombia. The nation's homicide rate fell after the peace deal with FARC rebels, but the number of targeted killings of community leaders has risen sharply.Christian EscobarMora/The Globe and Mail
A member of the Indigenous Guard stands in front of the Corinto offices of the CRIC, the governing council for the Cauca region's First Nations people. The Guard is the de facto security force for local Indigenous people.Christian EscobarMora/The Globe and Mail
Students pass snack vendors in the streets of Corinto. Towns in this area were the site of some of the worst fighting of the war and civilians had high hopes for a new era of peace.Christian EscobarMora/The Globe and Mail
Rural areas of Colombia, such as this one near Corinto, have seen deadly disputes over land between plantation owners, the armed guards they hire and the Nasa people, who claim their land has been illegally seized by agro-industry.Christian EscobarMora/The Globe and Mail
Indigenous Colombians in the offices of northern Cauca's Indigenous association in Santander de Quilichao.Christian EscobarMora/The Globe and Mail
Death threats made against leaders of the Nasa people are collected in a binder in a band office in Santander de Quilichao. The threats come from leftist guerrillas, narco-traffickers and other criminal groups, and right-wing paramilitaries.Christian EscobarMora/The Globe and Mail
Farmers gather in the central square of Miranda, another town in the valley. The intense fighting of the war has left this region socio-economically isolated.Christian EscobarMora/The Globe and Mail
A boy plays near his house in Caloto. Few in former FARC territory are nostalgic for the decades-long war between the Colombian government and the FARC, which would sometimes seize children in raids and raise them as soldiers.Christian EscobarMora/The Globe and Mail