Catatumbo Peace Network Tour: Weaving Territory through Collaboration

Accompanied by peace signatories, campesino families, and allied institutions, the tour was successful in learning about the progress of the Catatumbo Peace Network from the field.

From October 17 to 20, the fourth tour of the Catatumbo Peace Network was carried out, in which the 7 associative forms of peasants and peace signatories that make up the Network, and representatives of the Agency for Reincorporation and Normalization (ARN) participated. , the United Nations Verification Mission , the Francisco de Paula Santander University (UFPS) Ocaña section, the Directorate of Substitution of Crops for Illicit Use and PASO Colombia, promoter of the Network. The participants toured Ocaña, San Calixto, El Tarra and Tibú, to see first-hand the transformation of the territory and the reconstruction of the social fabric, achieved by the associations that make up the Network.

Laura Cuellar, advisor to the General Directorate for Strategic Alliances of the ARN, highlighted that:

"This is a very important experience in the face of several challenges of the reincorporation process: first, there is the strengthening of associativity; second, that productive projects can be viable alternatives for the cooperatives of peace signatories; and third, community reincorporation that understands that to be successful it must be woven from the territory".

Jhon Orozco, peace signatory and manager of COOMTARPAZ, emphasized the Network's commitment to the communities “The Catatumbo peace network is demonstrating that we are committed and what we do is for the benefit of peace. “We have always said that as signatories of the agreement, we have a commitment to the communities.”

The Network 's cooperatives have prioritized the construction of biofactories to produce concentrated animal feed with local raw materials. Its commitment seeks to take advantage of its own natural resources, reduce the use of agrochemicals and provide sustainability by lowering the costs of animal breeding projects. Thus, the tour included the delivery of machinery for the operation of two biofactories, which are added to another previously established one. In addition, the UFPS certified 80 people who had been training with PASO Colombia in the production of concentrates, and began new training days on the subject with the cooperatives of the Network.

"The most beautiful thing about this process is everything we are learning. I was telling someone that this makes you feel important, because you were born to provide a service. If we are producers of chicken feed, we can give it to them at low cost so that the farmer also generates more profit from his production; and if we also buy the raw material from the campesinos, we are motivating him", says Orozco about this line of production that has been strengthened with the Network.

Recounting what has been achieved in these years, Catherine, an AGROINCAT associate, stated that “organizing is weaving territory.” AGROINCAT is an association founded with the support of PASO in 2020 by women who participated in the Contingency Plan to Support Eradicating Families. of Coca. Today the members of this association lead the training process of network participants on the issues of fertilizer and animal food production. They share their knowledge and lessons learned with the cooperatives of peace signatories, with the expectation of strengthen other female leaderships so that women are also protagonists in the territorial and economic development of Catatumbo.

Thanks to this leadership Sandrá Durán, legal representative of AGROINCAT, was hired by PASO Colombia to be its extension agent in the territory, technically and socially accompanying all the organizations in the network, as well as helping to articulate their cooperation relationships and strategic alliances with the public and private sector. Regarding the contribution to peace that this networking implies, Sandra reflects that “it has been a transition of understanding and acceptance as well. It is very different to be working together than to go to a reconciliation and forgiveness event, or to a hearing. By working day by day with them we are living together, we are getting to know them. “This has been very, very different.”

“This is a network that is being formed by not thinking only from the cooperative, but thinking collectively with the other cooperatives that are in the territory,” Cuellar mentioned at the close of the tour. And just as the tour allowed us to see the achievements achieved, it also provided a clear message of unity and collaboration to build peace sustainably in Colombia.

Read here the news published by the ARN about the support they provided to the fourth tour of the Catatumbo Peace Network.