Making a stand for memory and place. The role of social leaders in the defense of the territory in the Putumayo (Colombia) and the implications of the violence against them

Abstract: Five years into the present peacebuilding cycle in Colombia, violence is increasing again. In the Putumayo department, social-ecological conflicts between the state, armed groups and local communities persist. Social leaders, often representing local communities, are targets of violent actions and represent an extremely vulnerable group. In the Putumayo, at least 67 social leaders defending human and indigenous rights, their community’s territory and the environment have been murdered since 2016. Via an ethnographic study I inquire what the defense of the territory is, who these social leaders are, their role in the defense of the territory, and the implications of these social leaders being silenced. I find that social leaders play key roles in both the discourse and practice of defending the territory. The silencing of social leaders is interpreted as the production of oblivion and detachment. This erasure of local communities from time and space places them back into a position of invisibility and historical irrelevance, jeopardizing the goal of a stable and durable peace.