Territorial transformations produced by the sugarcane agroindustry in the ethnic communities of López Adentro and El Tiple, Colombia

This article presents a critical analysis of the relationship between the expansion processes of the sugarcane agroindustry and the territorial transformations experienced by an indigenous community and an Afro-descendant community in Colombia. In both cases, these transformations are related to the economic and spatial enlargement of the local industry, leveraged by national macroeconomic policies that harmonize with a transnational economic dynamic; the changes in land use have occurred on the basis of the application of various government mechanisms that have been legitimized under the heading of development. Through an analysis of a varied repertoire of figures, satellite images, and community testimonies, this research helps to understand the process of homogenization of the local landscape and the supremacy of the economic power of the sugar sector to define the ordering of these territories.