Global Courant
Bogota, Colombia – Thousands of indigenous protesters have converged on Tercer Milenio Park in the heart of the Colombian capital, as music plays and smoke from campfires wafts through the air.
Members of the so-called ‘Minga’ – a collective movement of indigenous peoples – have organized protests in Bogota many times, but this is their first demonstration during the government of left-wing President Gustavo Petro.
This week they traveled with a simple — if urgent — demand: an end to an ongoing wave of violence that has disproportionately affected Colombia’s indigenous people, whose communities span nearly every region from Narino to the Amazon.
Ahead of the main protest march on Wednesday, protester Viviana Guerrera, while supporting Petro in last year’s elections, said she felt “extremely disappointed” by a lack of progress in reducing violence in her home region of Cauca, which has long has been a central point. of conflicts.
“Every government must be held accountable,” Guerrera, a member of the indigenous NASA community, told Al Jazeera from the park, where organizers estimated on Tuesday that more than 12,000 people had already gathered.
“This government is no exception.”
Ongoing violence
Petro, who came to power in August 2022, has pledged to pursue what he calls “total peace” in a country still grappling with the consequences of nearly six decades of internal armed conflict.
His plan, which includes both military action and direct negotiations with criminal armed groups, has so far produced mixed results.
A six-month ceasefire with Colombia’s largest remaining rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), which was celebrated as a political victory in August, has held so far.
But a number of informal ceasefires with other armed groups this year have since failed, and violence in rural areas has continued largely unabated.
Advocacy group Global Witness recently designated Colombia last year as the most dangerous country in the world for land defenders and environmentalists — and a disproportionate number of its targeted leaders come from indigenous communities.
According to statistics of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 37,000 people across the country were affected by violence between January and September this year.
More than 43,000 others were also displaced by threats from armed groups or open fighting, the UN agency found. The Colombian human rights watchdog Indepaz estimates the number of displaced people at more than twice as much.
However, both organizations agree that indigenous communities make up roughly half of all those displaced or affected by the violence, despite representing only 3.5 percent of the population.
Advocates from the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) hold a press conference in Bogota, Colombia on September 26, 2023 (Joshua Collins/Al Jazeera)
The Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), one of the groups that organized the Minga, has called for an “indigenous, social and popular struggle” against what it described as a “continued violation of human rights” and the killings of indigenous and social leaders.
“We have come to work in a great assembly to support this government in ‘total peace’ and to make a pact to stop war and bloodshed,” Joe Sauco, a senior representative of the CRIC, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“We want to support a way out of this tragic situation that rejects violence.”
Broken promises
The atmosphere in Tercer Milenio Park is festive, with children running around the area.
Members of the Colombian Indigenous Guard, an unarmed security force that often confronts armed groups operating near indigenous communities, also stood guard at the main entrance in the center of Bogota on Tuesday.
The march on Wednesday will coincide with street demonstrations that Petro has called in support of some of his reform bills, which have largely been stalled in Congress. Some Minga leaders publicly called for support for the president’s government.
But Eduardo Rojas, who traveled 14 hours by bus from Amazonia to participate in the rally, denounced what he said were false promises from Petro.
“We elected this government,” he told Al Jazeera, referring to the overwhelming support Petro’s presidential campaign enjoyed among indigenous voters. “But what we were sold and the reality of what we got are two very different things.”
Rojas said his community in the central Amazon region has made little progress in stopping attacks by criminal armed groups, which he said are forcibly recruiting members and committing extortion and sexual violence.
However, he said the reception of the Minga in the capital this year was different from previous editions. “I have visited dozens of Mingas since my first time as a young man in 1971,” he said. “And we were often seen as intruders by the national government.
“As always, this time we came in peace. I feel like this government knows that.”
‘Logistics and social challenge’
Elizabeth Dickinson, a senior Andean analyst at the think tank International Crisis Group, said Rojas’ frustrations are far from unusual among indigenous people in Colombia.
She attributed this in part to a lack of communication between the federal government and civil society. “The way that ‘total peace’ has been rolled out has been very top-down,” Dickinson told Al Jazeera.
“And in some ways this hasn’t had much of a direct impact on rural communities. Implementing safety programs in these regions is also a huge logistical and social challenge.”
Dickinson also said there have been missteps. “It was a strategic mistake for the government to declare a broad ceasefire earlier this year without serious concessions from armed groups,” she said.
“And criminal organizations took advantage of this by digging in and strengthening their presence instead of disarming.”
Nevertheless, this week’s march is an opportunity for Rojas to draw public attention in Colombia to the violence faced by indigenous communities. “The government must deliver on what it promised,” he said. “And I will continue to visit Mingas until they do.”
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24398651/Product_Shot.png?w=150&resize=150,150&ssl=1 "Artifact is becoming Twitter, too, thanks to the new posts feature")
