Reconstructive cartography in cases of territorial conflict: An approximation to the territorial dynamic of "Las Pavas"

Abstract

The case of Las Pavas is one of the most controversial land conflicts in Colombia. This is a scenario that involves the agroindustrial expansion of oil palm in areas that are related to rural populations that have been displaced by violence. The main controversy is associated with statements by agribusiness entrepreneurs who say that never existed abandonment of fields involved in the case by his former owner and that there was no occupation or peasant use in them, that is the reason that there was also no abandonment or dispossession due to the forced displacement by violence. In this paper we show how reconstructive mapping can clarify uncertainties about the abandonment and land occupation and their concordance with the action of armed groups. Therefore, spatial analysis we use represents a way to achieve a recovery and re-appropriation of territory.