This article traces the history of a region, Urabá, through the responses and projects offered as a reaction to the problems identified by different development programs. From the development projects of the 1970s to others that attempted to alleviate the suffering of thousands of displaced people during the 1990s, this article traces the continuities and discontinuities of such initiatives. It concludes arguing for the need to undertake critical ethnographies of the same practices that were meant to alleviate and protect the victims.