had been a sector largely underdeveloped. He has taught environmental policy in Colombia’s top universities. Governorship In 1998, a coalition of the Afro-Colombian National Movement Party, the Liberal Party, and Afro-Colombian leaders drafted Murillo as their gubernatorial candidate for the state of Chocó, five months before the election. Riding the wave of democratic optimism generated by the new 1991 Colombian Constitution and other encouraging developments in Latin America, Murillo, as an independent political figure, defeated the competitors of major traditional movements in Chocó and was elected governor – as one of the youngest people (age 31) elected to this office in Colombia’s history. Follow his platform of reform, Governor Murillo proposed a reorganization of the institutional structure of the state government. He pioneered the creation of a Secretariat of Ethnic Affairs and the Office of Environmental Development. He also designed and implemented the state plan for ethnic development. During Murillo’s tenure, Colombian government formalized the biggest collective land title to Afro-Colombians rural communities, under the umbrella of the Asociacion Campesina del Bajo Atrato (ACIA). However, the intimidation and massacres against Afro-Colombian communities and their subsequent displacement from their ancestral lands had already begun. All armed groups, paramilitaries and guerrillas, committed atrocities against rural communities. Given the seriousness and difficulty of the situation of Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities of Chocó, Governor Murillo declared the state of Chocó a territory of peace. At this point, Murillo favored the creation of forces under the United Nations’ leadership and authority. At the time of this proposal, Murillo was the subject of an illegal harassment. He and his family were threatened. In January 1999, Murillo was stripped of his office by a controversial court ruling, which has been described in editorials of Colombia’s newspaper El Espectador as unjust. The Colombian newsmagazine Revista Semana wrote that because of a legal technicality, the political career of one of the most influential leaders in Colombia was about to end. Murillo’s removal from his office had several negative ramifications for the people of Chocó. First, public confidence in the democratic process suffered. Second, state government policies that protected the environment, the rainforest and other needed reforms were abandoned. Third, issues of concern for people of Chocó lost prominence in the national political debate. Exile After leaving the Governor’s Office, Murillo continued being an outspoken leader on issues of environment, democracy, security, and development. In 2000, Murillo was kidnapped by