The story of who the Awá and a little about how the formation of Cabildos came relatively late to the zone and that the ELN managed to get a foothold. This changed in 2002 when the peace process was ended by the then president of Colombia Andrés Pastrana. Leaving the distention zone – coca cultivation followed…
Above: A seven minute multi-media presentation. I was sent by Catholic NGO CAFOD and SNPS to photograph and interview, but as I had just got a camera with video incorporated I decided to throw this together.
Fidelina García Guanga (26) and Porfirio Nastacuas Ortiz (28) with 4 of their 5 children. (l-r front:) Natalie (2), Jainer (5), Diana (10). Back: Niecer (8). The family fled from the Awá reserve of Pialapí.
John Jairo Valenzuela Chirán (27) disappeared with his brother on the 6th September 2006 during combats between the army and FARC guerrillas on the Magüí Awá indigenous reserve. 
María del Carmen Valenzuela Chirán (23) hold photos of her two brothers disappeared on the 6th September 2006 (l) John Jairo & (r.) José Antonio Valenzuela Chirán (29).
About displacement María Teresa
Far from their farms the families must bear the cost of renting a room or house or build improvised shelters
About financial situation of displaced families and how this erodes the social fabric of the Awá.
Many Awá men must work on the plantations to pay costs that they did not have to bear back on their farmsteads. No longer in their own homes they must pay rent and unable to work their farms they must purchase food.
Colombian Army troops in the coca town of Altaquer. Hours previous an IED had exploded on the highway along which we had travelled. 
Awá family, Altaquer
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