Search Results (3)

Colombia has the fourth largest livestock herd on the American continent. Cattle farms are expanding in Colombia, sometimes impacting traditional communities and reserves. This is especially true for the Zenú ethnic group, whose ancestral territory includes the valleys of the Sinú and San Jorge rivers, as well as the Caribbean coast around the Gulf of Morrosquillo, in the departments of Córdoba and Sucre. The present study examined the prevalence of trypanosomatids and Anaplasma spp. in zebu cattle grazing in seven Zenú communities in the Sucre department. Of the 110 cattle sampled, 56 (50.9%) tested positive for trypanosomatids. Forty 18S rRNA gene sequences generated showed >99% identity with Trypanosoma theileri, while one sequence demonstrated 99.6% identity with Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis and Leishmania (Viannia) panamensis; sequencing of the remaining 15 positive samples was unsuccessful. Regarding Anaplasma spp., 96 (87.3%) samples were positive, and the 14 msp4 gene sequences generated displayed >99% identity with Anaplasma marginale. Thus, T. theileri and A. marginale were prevalent in cattle from all Zenú communities, while Leishmania (Viannia) sp. was found in a cow from the community of La Gallera. Our findings indicate that these agents are common in zebu cattle from Zenú communities, underscoring the need for preventive measures to reduce the infection burden and potential implications for cattle production in these areas. Full article

This work aims to reconstruct the historical memory of the armed conflict in the Montes de María coastline, province of Sucre, Colombia, in a moment of military confrontations and responses of defenseless civilians to the repertoire of violence caused by armed groups—specifically against the Unión Camilista–Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP), and the paramilitary groups present in the Gulf of Morrosquillo. The objective of this study was to determine the reasons that led the community of Libertad to rise in arms and repel the abuses of armed groups by testing two hypotheses: (1) the frequency of victimizing acts consisting of sexual violence against the women of the Libertad village provoked the community to take up arms; (2) the presence of social agents, here called provocateurs of the community response, motivated the community’s social cohesion and armed uprising. The research is developed using a qualitative methodology with a narrative approach that involved a sample of 49 informants, including two focus groups. We provide empirical findings which are pivotal to understanding the reasons why defenseless civilians made the decision to defend themselves with arms against illegal armed groups that invaded their territory and harassed their communities, especially when dealing with an ethnic minority such as Afro-descendants. Full article

Historical cartography is increasingly being used for the study of coastal evolution, but less considered are coeval descriptive sources as well as exploration reports that accompany the construction of maps. Herein, these issues are considered when analyzing the chronological model of the Rio Sinú mouth and Cispatá bay evolution before the Tinajones delta formed (around 1942–1943) as it is established in the literature. This study is based on the examination of about 500 manuscripts or printed maps produced from the 16th century to 1937 (the last one before the Tinajones delta was formed) in which the Morrosquillo Gulf, the Rio Sinú terminal course, the Mestizos headland and Cispatá bay are represented. These maps were compared with coeval descriptive sources. Several maps are not based on new topographic surveys but are more recent elaborations of the original documents, while others include updates of only limited portions of the area and simply replicate or mix a drawn coastline, at best, tens of years before or, at worst, centuries before. A synchronic and diachronic comparative analysis of these documents was performed, and, out of these maps, only three were found to be reliable for the morphological reconstruction of the area. Many of the remaining maps turned out to be full or partial copies of the originals, so they attribute the wrong date to the described coastlines and water depths. These findings led to a new model for Cispatá bay evolution with respect to that proposed by previous scholars using some of these maps. In particular, some river mouths and coastal morphologies were backdated, and bay infilling proved to be far faster than described before. Written documents demonstrate that this process was triggered by inland slope deforestation. Full article