Expat Community > Colombia

huepucha
Joined 2022
Posts: 464

Cali's Torched Hillsides

9 months ago

I was about to respond to Vikingo's post and link on the subject but I can;t find it now. Probably a glitch on my computer.

Anyway yes Vikingo it is a phenomena that occurs every around this time, even worse in August when the high winds spread the flames. There are mafias that include local polititions like consejals that pay street types to torch city owned and even private land on the hillsides west of Cali so they can be divided into tiny lots and sold with fake papers to both unsuspecting desplazados and complices who have residences in Cali but plan to rent out their lots. As I say it happens every year and seems unstoppable despite there being a special police unit tasked with stopping the invasions. The environmental damage is extreme. Virtually all life that can't fly away fast enough or burry deep enough is burned to a crisp. This includes guatines, a mammal the size of a house cat, other smaller mammals like voles, ground nesting birds and cuantities of iguanas not to mention the insects responsible for pollinating food crops. The area around Christo Rey has been repeatedly targeted as well as Golandrinas a vereda above the shopping center Chipichapi. Untouched so far are the hills used for cattle grazing on the way up to Dapa where many foreigners including gringos own fincas but that could change.

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