GROUNDS FOR CHANGE
Juan David Agudelo clings tightly to the back of a jeep bouncing out of Buenavista, a colourful coffee village situated on the edge of Quindío, western Colombia. In front of him, his customers – backpackers from Europe, North America and Bogotá, the country’s capital – grow animated as the landscape slowly begins to reveal itself. Cameras in hand, they snap away at rows of coffee trees spreading down into the vast valley: a place where clouds hang low in the morning and distant villages twinkle at night.
Juan David, leading the party on one of his celebrated coffee tours, watches on quietly. Although he’s seen this kind of reaction countless times, he can’t help smiling. It’s a scene that few locals would have thought possible a little over 10 years ago. “Colombia was born out of conflict,” he says, matter-of-factly. “Every episode of conflict is because of what came before – not a racial conflict, but an economic one – and Colombians have deep-seated, low self-esteem because of it.”
For half a century, Colombia was pulled into a complicated cycle of violence as left-wing guerrilla groups (‘FARC’ and the National Liberation Army), right-wing paramilitaries and state security forces all battled for control of the country. Murders, kidnappings and terrorism became a daily reality, with over 200,000 people killed and an estimated (or ‘Coffee Zone’) – an area which includes neighbouring Risaralda and Caldas. But there was little they could do as the same deep jungles and high hills where their ancestors first planted coffee trees became corridors for narcos and armed groups.
