This paper analyzes the intersection of two parallel developments that have had a curious impact on agrarian politics in Colombia: on the one hand, attempts to appropriate land for ‘green’ ends such as biofuel production, which have become ubiquitous all across Latin America, and on the other, the implementation of multicultural reforms, which in Colombia resulted in the collective titling of more than five million hectares of land for ‘black communities’.
Examines Colombia's adoption of policies for black Colombians in 1993. Argues that Afro-Colombian activists were able to seize upon changes in global policy norms around multiculturalism and state disequilibrium both by deploying traditional social movement strategies and by framing their demands in terms of ethnic difference. This case extends our understanding of how social movements make strategic use of political openings and also illustrates the circumstances under which an ethnic difference framing can be a more effective political strategy for achieving rights for black populations than a racial equality framing.
