Baja Guajira
More actions
| Baja Guajira | |
|---|---|
| Lower Guajira | |
| ActiveGrown here in 2000 or later | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Growing Region | Northern Colombia |
| Geography | |
| Country | Colombia |
| Province/State | La Guajira Department |
| Coordinates | 10.98, -72.74 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 1,400 km² |
| Terrain | Valley floor of the Ranchería and the upper Cesar between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía del Perijá; approximately ten municipalities of southern La Guajira below 200 m |
| Growing history | |
| Dated accessions | 1980 |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 5 |
| Accessions | 1 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Baja Guajira (Lower Guajira) is a cannabis growing area in the south of the department of La Guajira, in northern Colombia, part of the Northern Colombia growing region. The area covers the floor of the valleys between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía del Perijá. During the bonanza marimbera of the 1970s, farmers and ranchers of the Baja Guajira gave their land over to marijuana, at a time when a crisis in cotton growing had left much farmland free.[1]: 53–54
Geography
The area lies on the floor of the valleys of the Ranchería and the upper Cesar, with the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta to the west and the Serranía del Perijá to the east. The area takes in the land below 200 m in ten municipalities, from La Jagua del Pilar in the south to Albania in the north. The slopes of the two ranges belong to their own growing areas, and so do the towns of San Juan del Cesar, Villanueva and Urumita, which stand above 200 m. Five appellations cover the valley-floor parts of the municipalities of San Juan del Cesar, Villanueva, Urumita, Fonseca and Barrancas; the towns of Fonseca and Barrancas stand on the floor, within their appellations.
History
In their social history of the Colombian mafia, Darío Betancourt and Martha Luz García write that while marijuana spread, farmers and cattle ranchers of the Baja Guajira, and of Cesar and Magdalena too, came to devote their land wholly to the crop. The boom came during a deep crisis in cotton growing, caused by the smuggling of cloth made from synthetic fibres, which had left a great deal of land available for planting.[1]: 53–54 Among the growing zones they list San Juan del Cesar, Villanueva, Urumita, Los Zanjones, San Pedro, Fonseca and Barrancas in the Baja Guajira, together with the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.[1]: 54
A male plant gathered at Piedras de Amolar on 13 March 1980 by Ramiro Fonnegra, and filed by the herbarium of the University of Antioquia under the municipality of Albania, is labelled Cultivado (cultivated). The sheets are the accession Fonnegra 1597 (1980).[2][3]
Since 2000
Marijuana was eradicated between 2009 and 2019 in nine of the area's ten municipalities: about 70 hectares in 42 entries of the Ministry of Defence's open data, almost two-thirds of the total in Barrancas.[4]
Appellations
| Appellation | Status |
|---|---|
| Barrancas (appellation) | Active |
| Fonseca (appellation) | Active |
| San Juan del Cesar (appellation) | Active |
| Urumita (appellation) | Historical |
| Villanueva (appellation) | Active |
Accessions
| Accession ID | Name | Collected |
|---|---|---|
| Fonnegra 1597 (1980) | Fonnegra 1597 herbarium specimen, Piedras de Amolar, La Guajira (1980) |
Recent news
No recent news items.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Betancourt, Darío; García, Martha Luz (1994). Contrabandistas, marimberos y mafiosos: historia social de la mafia colombiana (1965–1992) (in español). Bogotá: TM Editores. ISBN 958-601-481-9.
- ↑ "Occurrence 930982053: Cannabis sativa L." GBIF. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
- ↑ "Photograph of herbarium sheet HUA 54831". landrace.wiki (Photograph). Herbario Universidad de Antioquia. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
- ↑ Ministerio de Defensa Nacional. "Erradicación". Portal de Datos Abiertos de Colombia (dataset) (in español). Retrieved 20 October 2026.
