PARTICIPATION CITIZEN AND PLANNING: CITIZEN UNCONFORMITY IN AIPE, HUILA, COLOMBIA

Unconformity and distrust are the results of the sociopolitical attempt aimed to socially and economically evolve under the Top-Down system, finding that “there is no hell like a small town,” a Colombian expression meaning that despite the small size of a social group, its problems could be as big as those of a metropolis. Aipe is one of the Huila’s municipalities that benefited from the oil bonanza, inversely proportional to the social, economic, and environmental bonanza bounty, produced amid a context of political problems of governance and detriment of the public treasury. This article shows results on the relationship between citizen participation and state planning processes in Aipe, which is incoherent, dysfunctional, and inadequate for Aipe’s society, and breeds a citizen climate of distrust and nonconformity towards the authorities and planning instances. Nonetheless, the hope for a prosperous municipality persists because community experiences motivate them to know and empower their territory.