In the complex scenario surrounding the crisis of the coffee-centered development model in the province of Risaralda, we analyze the role of 1997-2007 development plans in relation to the right to life, and interpret the emerging model that gradually replaced the one in crisis. The qualitative profile of the study, defined through the construction of test cases, focus groups and semi-structured interviews, was accompanied by quantitative data that helped us understand the construction of the social realities analyzed in the study. This exercise brought to light serious acts and omissions that have resulted in violations of human rights. The priorization of development showed the axes of the emerging model transformation, while obscuring the impacts of these changes, including the emerging illegal elites that concentrated regional power and contributed to the reinvention of the territory in the context of a hegemonic and one-dimensional development discourse.