Printed On 6 Might 2026
With snow-capped peaks tumbling in direction of the turquoise waters of the Caribbean, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Nationwide Park is among the jewels in Colombia’s tourism crown.
However behind the picture-postcard views lies a extra sinister actuality.
Armed teams are holding native companies to ransom and terrorising Indigenous communities.
The signing of a 2016 peace deal between the Colombian state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) ended greater than half a century of battle and helped propel a rustic lengthy related to druglords and rebels onto the worldwide tourism stage.
Since then, 1000’s of holiday makers have poured into the Sierra Nevada every day, trekking by means of pristine jungle to white-sand seashores or climbing in direction of Colombia’s mountaintop Misplaced Metropolis, which predates Peru’s Machu Picchu.
Few discover the lads in camouflage watching from a distance.
They’re members of the Self-Defence Forces of the Sierra Nevada (ACSN), a bunch of former paramilitaries that controls cocaine trafficking routes within the area and can also be concerned in unlawful gold mining.
Extortion has grow to be one other profitable enterprise for the group. The “Conquistadores”, as ACSN members are sometimes known as, demand a lower of the earnings of motels, tour bus corporations and Indigenous communities, whose hand-woven hammocks and luggage are snapped up by guests.
“We’re afraid and anxious in regards to the future,” mentioned Atanasio Moscote, the governor of the Kogui Indigenous individuals, who dwell excessive up within the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Nationwide Park, which the Kogui think about “the guts of the world”.
In February, the federal government closed Tayrona Nationwide Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Web site overlooking the Caribbean, for greater than two weeks following threats towards park rangers, allegedly issued by the ACSN.
Authorities have accused the group of pressuring Indigenous Wayuu residents within the park to withstand a crackdown on unlawful actions resembling logging.
Collectively, Tayrona and the Sierra Nevada nationwide parks obtained greater than 873,000 guests final yr.
The inflow of vacationers marks a dramatic shift from the Nineteen Eighties and 90s, when the area was a battleground for brutal clashes between paramilitaries and FARC rebels.
Ten years after FARC laid down its arms, the ACSN – based by a paramilitary chief who was later extradited to america – holds sway in a lot of the realm.
In latest months, Colombia’s greatest drug cartel, the Gulf Clan, has tried to muscle in, vying for management and prompting clashes with the ACSN.
Caught within the center are Indigenous communities “who don’t converse Spanish, and who dwell off their crops and their conventional data”, mentioned Luis Salcedo, governor of the Arhuaco individuals, who additionally dwell within the Sierra Nevada.
Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president in trendy historical past, included the ACSN in his bid to barter the disarmament of all armed teams within the nation.
However 4 years after he launched his “Paz Complete” (whole peace) marketing campaign, the ACSN nonetheless dominates the Santa Marta space, mentioned researcher Norma Vera.
Extortion has now emerged as a key challenge within the marketing campaign to elect Petro’s successor in polls beginning on Might 31.
The Ministry of Defence says it has obtained greater than 46,000 extortion complaints since 2022.
Omar Garcia, president of the lodge affiliation within the coastal metropolis of Santa Marta, a gateway to the Sierra Nevada, mentioned he fears for Colombia’s fragile tourism increase.
“Any information affecting the picture [of a destination] and customer security makes vacationers suppose twice,” he mentioned.
