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For over 15 years, Luis Fernando Sánchez Caicedo dedicated himself to human rights in Colombia, aiding young people and championing Afro-descendant and campesino – small farmer – communities in the Pacific region. A prominent local leader and consultant to the area’s administration in Nariño, he was also a long-standing partner with the Institute for Development and Peace Studies, working to promote dialogue in a country divided by decades of war.

That all ended in September when the boat carrying him and the mayor of Mosquera, Karen Lizeth Pineda, was attacked, reportedly by the Colombian navy. Sánchez was killed and the mayor’s bodyguard was seriously injured in the attack.

The incident, which is being probed by the Colombian authorities, has added to the concern within the local community about a project to turn adjacent Gorgona island into a military base.

Creatures such as the marbled poison frog comprise the island’s highly diverse fauna.

Gorgona’s marine protected area (MPA) is at a crossroads, with the construction of a coastal guard post, supported by the Colombian navy and backed by the US government, that opponents say could threaten 40 years of hard-won environmental progress.

The multi-million dollar project, which is being funded by the United States, includes a pier, radar and facilities for navy personnel. It is expected to produce 587kg of debris during construction, a significant portion of which is considered dangerous.

Campaigners say Gorgona has one of the most pristine MPAs in the region. It is a haven for biodiversity, as its natural reserve covers more than 60,000 hectares (150,000 acres), a third of the area of Greater London.

Before becoming a national park in 1984, it was an high-security prison. Now, it is habitat to several marine species and provides food security for coastal communities.

The high-security prison that was on Gorgona Island until 1984

Prof Alan Giraldo, a biologist at Valle University in Cali, who first visited the island in 1989, says: “The purpose of this area is protection – and having military personnel beside researchers and tourists contradicts this idea.”

Marine parks such as Gorgona support the “30x30” global agreement to protect 30% of land, water and ocean by 2030, as outlined in the Convention on Biological Diversity.

According to the Protected Planet database, a collaborative effort of the UN Environment Programme and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Colombia is formally conserving 41% of its marine territory, achieving the 30% target years ahead of schedule.

However, according to the more detailed Marine Protection Atlas complied by the Marine Conservation Institute (MCI), only 6.7% of those waters are “completely” or “strongly” protected.

Gorgona’s MPA falls into this much limited category due to the ecological restoration it has experienced in recent years. Nature has reasserted itself: large trees dominate an unused prison compound, whales are regularly seen gliding along the coast, and the surrounding coral reef is the most widespread and biodiverse in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

Humpback whales off Gorgona. They travel from the Antarctic to the warm seas around the island to reproduce between June and October

Its achievement is not coincidental. Strict conservation measures, such as a prohibition on fishing, a ban on tourist boats chasing whales, and the complete restriction of terrestrial and marine areas to human activity, have led organisations such as the MCI to grant Gorgona a Blue Park award in June.

Local people say the choice to base a coastguard station on the island was made without informing them, which has heightened a sense of marginalisation from the decision-making process and fuelled opposition.

Mercedes Colorado, government secretary of El Charco, a municipality on the mainland near Gorgona, says: “This project to set up a military base was not consulted with any of the municipal authorities, Indigenous territories or the [Afro-descendant] community councils.”

The radar mast, part of the coastguard project, seen at the top of Trinidad Hill on Gorgona. The Colombian army is also building a pier and barracks on the island

The Colombian government says the coastguard station and its radar are essential for fighting drug trafficking and illegal fishing. However, scientists and activists fear the base could make Gorgona a military target in an area already associated with armed conflict.

Attacks on Colombian military infrastructure have become increasingly frequent in recent years. In August, 18 people were killed in two separate attacks, including a car bomb at a military aviation school in Cali and a unmanned aerial strike on a police helicopter in Medellín.

US naval forces have built up in the southern Caribbean Sea off Colombia and Venezuela, and President Trump has authorised the non-judicial use of military force against drug cartels in the region. Since early September, US attacks on boats reportedly carrying drugs have killed more than 80 people, according to Pentagon figures.

Strains between the two countries are growing, as the US has enforced penalties on Colombia, alleging President Gustavo Petro of allowing drug cartels to flourish. Petro sees the US move as an attempt to influence Colombia’s forthcoming elections.

Back in El Charco, Colorado says: “We know that Trump’s policy involves deploying military forces to other countries to take control of territories that aren’t theirs.”

A memorial service held after the Cali attack, which killed six people and injured more than 60

Whether the US will eventually place military personnel on the island is uncertain. Yet its involvement is evident as the Bureau of International Narcotics & Law Enforcement, a branch of the US state department, was in charge of the pier’s design and the vessels designated for the Colombian coastguard.

Experts concern the new construction could also affect the island’s recently restored ecosystem, as the pier could raise sedimentation and change water flows, potentially damaging the coral reef and jeopardising the health of the seabed.

The Colombian navy’s environmental impact assessment has recognised possible effects, including the loss of soil structure, fertility and stability, as well as potential damage to fish, turtles and marine mammals. The project also includes a 20,000-litre fuel tank that must be transported by boat from the mainland and could leak fuel into the ocean.

For a biologist such as Giraldo, the project “puts at risk ecosystems that have developed over hundreds of years and could be destroyed in a second”.

Blue-and-gold snappers and a sergeant major in the reef off Gorgona. Thanks to conservation efforts in recent decades, the coral is the eastern tropical Pacific’s most extensive and ecologically rich

Although the navy has stated that the pier construction will consider the whale season to avoid disturbances, it is unknown how this will be enforced, as the environmental assessment suggests that the pier construction would take more than nine months. That allows only 76 days of the year undisturbed, while the whale reproductive season takes place between June and October, amounting to more than 100 days.

Fishers, as well as scientists, also are concerned about the navy’s new restrictions on their movements and apprehend being mistaken for the military by armed groups when fishing at night. They worry that the navy will limit when they can fish or even whether they can enter the island at all.

A fishing boat from Bazán village. Some are anxious that as Gorgona becomes militarised, the waters around the island will be prohibited. ‘This base could mean the death of fishers,’ says one man

Although local communities are not permitted to fish within the MPA, they are allowed to use an approved shelter to stay on the island periodically.

“That all creates a risk now,” says Espaciano Aguirre, a veteran fisherman. “This base could mean the demise of fishers.”

Besides the security risk highlighted by the killing of Sánchez, the coastguard project could endanger the island’s Blue Park recognition. According to Dr Sarah Hameed, director of Blue Parks at the MCI, the organisation was completely unaware of the coastguard project.

“Any project that poses a threat to biodiversity conservation … can trigger the early review of the five-year review,” Hameed says.

If the MCI were to decide that the coastguard station clashes with the conservation criteria of the Blue Parks initiative, this could mean that the Gorgona marine protected area loses its international recognition, weakening Colombia’s 30x30 ambitions.