The fourth episode of the series opens with beautiful drone shots of Leticia, Colombia. Our main character, Rafaela Moura journeys down the river on a simple canoe. She tells us that Theodore Roosevelt and Brazilian Field Marshall, Candido Rondon went on an expedition down the ‘River of Doubt’ that led to a rubber boom with the emergence of cheaper sources of rubber. Rafaela starts, in the village by interviewing a local leader. The two discuss the environmental crisis that’s facing the BIPOC indigenous population of Colombia. The local leader gives half-hearted and canned answers, which leads Rafaela to dig deeper, to find the truth. 

At a local museum, Rafaela meets with a leading Latin American History scholar who tells Rafaela about the conquest and colonization of the Amazon. This led to Leticia being awarded to Colombia with the Salomon-Lozano Treaty as an outlet to the Amazon River. In 1933 Peru seized Leticia but backed down under international pressure and in 1935 Leticia is reoccupied by Colombia. The indigenous peoples who were the boom’s principal victims and the consequences have been far-reaching. Many tribes were completely wiped out. While others, like Andoke, survive today but the atrocities are deeply entrenched, and now, they’re facing another boom, that could erase their culture and land forever.

Rafaela journeys to the city in search of the local NGOs that are tackling the climate crisis in Colombia. She sits down with the head of this NGO to discuss the humanitarian issues at hand. They tell us that Colombia is currently facing several urgent environmental challenges, including deforestation, coca cultivation, and the degradation of marine habitats. This is in part due to the industrialization and modernization of the area, but also due to the deforestation of the Amazon. Which has led to huge wage disparity between classes and catapulted the cartels into corrupt leadership. The NGO leader recommends Rafaela speak with the members of the Andoke indigenous tribe to further understand the inequity and injustice.

The Predio Putumayo Indigenous Reserve’s mountainous terrain. Rafaela dredges through the forest with a local guide, who warns her of the dangers of entering the region. The guide informs Rafaela, that the cartel has taken over the region to ramp up cocaine production, so violence is almost inevitable. Rafaela suits up in a bulletproof vest and loads up into the all-terrain vehicle to go deep into the jungle to get to the bottom of it. While on the journey, the two see other cars, that are possible cartel members. Rafaela turns to us, and explains how cartels have begun taking over indigenous land to shorten trade routes and hide further under the government’s noses. After a tense journey, we finally arrive in the village. We are met by Chela Umire, a local Ecosystem Services Assessment Technician. 

She and a group of local Indigenous people map their traditional territory working towards demarcating the lands of her people to protect her village’s way of life and resources. In 2010, a cocaine cartel moved into the heart of Predio Putumayo Indigenous Reserve. The gang terrorized the indigenous population into giving up a large portion of their lands and ancestral rainforests. Within two years, the cartel had felled 150 hectares, making it now impossible for the indigenous community to build homes for their people. This is why Chela is working hard to get federal recognition of her tribe’s lands to be able to federally prosecute the cartels that are encroaching on her tribe’s resources, and beliefs.

The next morning, Rafaela journeys deeper into the forest, in search of a cartel member to interview. She finds a masked man and asks if she can interview him if they keep his identity private. He agrees. Rafaela asks, why the cartel is encroaching on the indigenous territory. The cartel member explains that there are a number of factors. From climate change affects the income sources for many middle-class families. When Hurricane Mitch slammed into northern Central America deforested watersheds greatly intensified the floods and mudslides that killed over 11,000 people. Continued forest loss has solidified Central America’s urban and rural poor will bear the brunt of climate extremes. 

This led to lots of rural poor and indigenous young folks joining the cartel. Erasing their own culture and land as a means of survival as the floods, droughts, and hurricanes continue to take away land and opportunities from their families. Rafaela is distraught by this news. She takes it to a politician, to see what they have to say. The politician explains that cartels have been buying land in remote rural areas cheap, to secure land routes from rivals, but also to enhance the efficiency of transshipment. Adding that rural land is a lucrative and convenient way to launder dirty cash. This dismissive response doesn’t please Rafaela.

A montage of the deforested Colombian Amazon. A quote plays, ‘As long as humanity fails to recognize its faults and errors, or fails to respect the differences between people, and as long as greed remains the rule for dominating other people, we are condemned to repeat history.’ Just like the rubber boom enslaved, deforested and assassinated thousands of indigenous people to service the American population, now cocaine production is in turn committing the same atrocities.