Main content

Land or Death

After the Colombian government and the FARC signed a peace agreement in 2016, there was hope that the five decade-long armed conflict had come to an end, but Colombia has become one of the world’s deadliest places for land rights defenders. Armed criminal gangs, including ex-FARC members, emerged in the power vacuum and fought for control. A tenacious grandmother, Celia, leads an unarmed indigenous civilian force that fights to defend their land. She is one of the highest-ranking members of an indigenous civilian defense force in the dangerous region. Celia longs to rebuild her troubled relationship with her family, but violence has returned to the area. When a close comrade is assassinated, Celia is forced to mobilize her community. It’s an incredibly perilous task, as the Guards are entirely unarmed, but they are resolute and determined not to give in: “We have to make them understand that the control is ours and the territory is ours - that we, as indigenous guards, will always be in this territory.”