The double drama of the Calamar-Miraflores Road

Until the 80s of the last century Miraflores, a municipality in the south of Guaviare, located on the eastern bank of the Vaupés River, was a small town practically isolated from the rest of the country. The only way to get there was by plane or boat from Calamar by the Unilla River that downstream, in the current inspection of Barranquillita, joins the Itilla River to form the Vaupés River. The few roads that existed were trails that connected the small hamlet with other towns and small farms that could only be walked on foot or by mule.

The isolation did not matter as it was a town that lived on the various bonanzas, so money abounded, and the extra costs involved in bringing the products by plane or boat was not a problem. For example, some of its inhabitants remember that, during the boom of the coca economy in the 90s, the richest people had the luxury of bringing trucks even if it was just to use them through the few streets of the town.

Around that time, the FARC consolidated its power in the region and began to direct the construction of roads. Every time the guerrillas indicated it, the inhabitants of the region went out to use machetes and saws to convert the bridle paths into trails where a car or a motorcycle could pass. Thus, little by little the road that connects Miraflores with Barranquillita was opened. Later, in the 2000s, the guerrillas coordinated the opening of the trail to Calamar.