For Colombia, peace has come with caveats. In 2016, guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) finally laid down their weapons, ending over half a century of conflict. Thousands of fighters had spent decades occupying Colombia’s forests, and most got up and left their secret mountain hideouts. Families who had fled the fighting started to return. Old farms re-opened, and new ones sprang up. Gold and coal miners moved in.

The forests had protected the FARC fighters from attacks and surveillance. In turn, FARC’s presence in the Magdalena River Valley, nestled between the central and eastern Andes, kept the forests intact.…  Seguir leyendo »