A political ecology of frontier dynamics in the northern Colombian Amazon

The Amazon is the land of the unknown and untameable, emblem of the wild, the uncontrolled, where life blows up. This natural richness makes the northern Amazon, especially the Caquetá department, a territory of particular interest for different extractive industries. In the last century, neoliberal policies have fostered colonization and the dispossession of local inhabitants. However, these processes are resisted by bottom-up movements and revolts. This research wants to analyze frontier dynamics in Caquetá by describing these contrasting discourses and the imaginaries in dispute. The dominant discourse is studied through the analysis of the national public policy of the last sixteen years. Then, the local imaginary is analyzed by describing the process of resistance of farmers and local movements. This process grows out of the construction of an alternative discourse, based on a relational epistemology and radical interdependency between beings, and challenges the western dualist and hegemonic system and worldview.