Colombia: Can Colombia’s Displaced Go Home Again?

May 19, 2016 | Camila Osorio, New Republic
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Afranio Solano moved to Bogotá in 2011 after the Urabeños threatened him. Today he is one of Colombia’s nearly six million forcibly displaced people—the second-highest such number in the world, after Syria. Most displaced people, or desplazados, have moved to vast shantytowns in the main cities of Colombia. They were forced to abandon their homes and livelihoods as paramilitary groups, guerrilla fighters, and the military fought for control over their land. Very few desplazados try to return to their homes. Solano is not even considering it. “No way, not if I want to remain alive,” he told me.