composed of 11 municipalities.90 Meanwhile, the department of Chocó (Urabá or Darién) consists of four municipalities.91 84. The Chocó department (Urabá) is also characterized by its diversity and water resources, and the fact that it is a tropical rainforest.92 The main access route is the Atrato River and its tributaries, the Truandó, Cacarica, Jiguamiandó, Salaquí and Jarapetó Rivers,93 even though, as the State underlined, without this being contested, there is also land access by a highway in poor conditions that communicates Riosucio with the district of Belén de Bajirá and the municipality of Chigorodó.94 In addition, this region, which surrounds the Gulf of Urabá and the border with Panama, is a strategic corridor for access to both the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans.95 A.2. Demographics 85. The Cacarica river basin is inhabited mainly by descendants of Africans originally brought over and subjected to slavery in the Americas during colonial times. These people gradually organized themselves into communities and settled along the rivers, in villages or in settlements dependent on the rivers, creeks and streams.96 As indicated by the representatives and not contested by the State, these people settled the Cacarica river basin in the process of seeking land following the abolition of slavery in the mid-nineteenth century, at which time a process of migration started from the southern Pacific side of Colombia towards the southern part of Chocó,97 then to Medio and Bajo Atrato.98 Thus, by the mid-twentieth century, the settlement of the department by the Afro-descendant people was firmly established.99 90 Namely: Apartadó, Carepa, Chigorodó, Necoclí, San Juan de Urabá, San Pedro de Urabá, Turbo, Arboletes, Murindó, Mutatá and Vigía del Fuerte. 91 Namely: Acandí, Unguía, Riosucio and Carmén del Darién. Cf. Ombudsman’s Office. Decision No. 025 of the Ombudsman on the massive human rights violations and forced displacement in the Bajo Atrato region of Chocó, October 2002 (evidence file, folio 229). 92 Cf. Ombudsman’s Office. Decision No. 025 of the Ombudsman on the massive human rights violations and forced displacement in the Bajo Atrato region of Chocó, October 2002 (evidence file, folio 229). See also: Testimony of Jesús Alfonso Flórez López, expert witness proposed by the representatives of the presumed victims, before the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights during the public hearing on February 12, 2013. 93 Cf. Ombudsman’s Office. Decision No. 025 of the Ombudsman on the massive human rights violations and forced displacement in the Bajo Atrato region of Chocó, October 2002 (evidence file, folio 230). Also, Testimony of Germán Castro, witness proposed by the State, before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights during the public hearing on February 12, 2013. 94 Cf. Answering brief of the State (merits file, folio 500). 95 Cf. Ombudsman’s Office. Decision No. 025 of the Ombudsman on the massive human rights violations and forced displacement in the Bajo Atrato region of Chocó, October 2002 (evidence file, folio 230) and Prosecutor General’s Office, Justice and Peace Unit, Dossier on the Elmer Cárdenas Bloc, Genesis (evidence file, folios 44466 to 44468). See also: Testimony of Jesús Alfonso Flórez López, expert witness proposed by the representatives of the presumed victims, before the Inter-American Court during the hearing on February 12, 2013. 96 Cf. Testimony of Jesús Alfonso Flórez López, expert witness proposed by the representatives of the presumed victims, before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights during the hearing on February 12, 2013. See also, Ombudsman’s Office, Decision No. 39 of the Ombudsman of June 2, 2005 (evidence file, folios 47464 and 47465). 97 Cf. “Operation Genesis Report” cited in the affidavit of January 31, 2013, prepared by María Paulina Leguizamón Zarate, expert witness proposed by the State (evidence file, folio 15412). See also: Anthropological appraisal provided in the testimony of Jesús Alfonso Flórez López, expert witness proposed by the representatives of the presumed victims, before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights during the public hearing on February 12, 2013 (evidence file, folios 16474 and 16475). 98 Bajo Atrato is located in the north of the department of Chocó, and the municipality of Riosucio can also be found here. 99 Cf. Testimony of Jesús Alfonso Flórez López, expert witness proposed by the representatives of the presumed victims, before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights during the hearing on February 12, 2013. Also, Ombudsman’s Office, Decision No. 39 of the Ombudsman of June 2, 2005 (evidence file, folio 47465). 29