While I was listening to the complaints from the leaders of the Inkal Awá people, the words of the president of the Truth Commission, Father Francisco de Roux, came to me in his speech at the presentation of the Final Report of this institution: “…Indifference of large sectors of society who seem unaware of the suffering of millions of compatriots because of the war”.
Like most indigenous peoples, the Awá’s survival is at risk “due to the high presence of armed actors, as well as interests in the exploitation of natural resources, promoted by government policies,” says a statement. , which also considers the environmental impact and imbalance.
Activating the “Humanitarian Minga for the life and dignity of the Awá people” was a measure to try to stop the physical and cultural extermination, to stay in their territory in the departments of Nariño and Putumayo and also across the border with Ecuador, as a binational people.
Since the signing of the Final Peace Agreement in 2016, there have been more than 350 acts of which they have been victims, including 95 murders of Awá indigenous people, 50 threats and 16 forced disappearances. Indifference of society and indifference of the State, while the government presided over by Iván Duque, who will soon leave the Government Palace, deals with tying up millionaire contracts and bureaucratic positions.
They have 16 forced displacements, 4 oil spills, indiscriminate aerial spraying, 11 personal injuries, infamy against a people made up of about 40,500 people, mostly in the south of Colombian territory (25,000 south of Nariño). Paraphrasing the questions from the Truth Commission, where has Congress been? A large majority engaged in corruption and trying not to lower the more than 34 million monthly salary without counting “small expenses.”
Since 2016, the Awá have had four massacres, 28 times the presence of armed actors and 15 attempted homicides, figures that support the systematic nature of the attacks against the “people of the mountains” (Awapit in their language), people who live in villages within the jungle, far from each other, up to two days’ walk between two communities. What have the media spread about this reality? They do not rule in their spaces nor are they news for an anesthetized or indifferent society, which is afraid or has normalized violence.
The Awá affirm that there are 14 illegal armed groups that change their names and whose aim is to control the territory that has access to the sea and the border with Ecuador, which makes it easier to extract coca. Where have the political parties been? Busy in negotiating their soul with the devil, their shares of power and their particular interests. Everything seems to indicate that they are willing to change during this administration. It could be?
The Awá women told the Truth Commission about the violence, about the sexual violence against them, but after the signing of the Agreements with the FARC guerrillas, it continues. They do not want to talk and if they denounce there is no response. Where have the judges and the Prosecutor’s Office been? Impunity dances through the fields and cities while they (with exceptions) are involved in compromises and in processes that adjust like tailors to suit the interested parties.
It is true that there are Orders of the Constitutional Court to defend the interests of the Awá people, 620 signed commitments of which 80% have not been fulfilled, so what for?
We can prevent their physical, cultural and spiritual disappearance as a society that is aware of and committed to the demand for compliance with a social State of law, a society that contributes from its place of work, action, neighborhood, association… in a real democratic construction and of peace.
Our ancestral peoples, our Awá brothers and sisters, call on the new government, presided over by Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez, to address this humanitarian crisis and resume spaces for dialogue. Those who led them to direct the reins of this country have great expectations and this is one of them.
“How dare we let it happen and how can we dare allow it to continue?” It is a question from the Truth Commission that invites you, me, us and us to reflect because some of us were, but we couldn’t.
That the more than eight million victims of the armed conflict, the hundreds of displacements, the million exiled, the 125,000 disappeared, do not continue to pass through our eyes… The figures continue. In this year about 300 reinserted and 33 murdered police officers, children of peasants and families with economic difficulties are counted. No more, no more, let’s stop the war.
Indigenous peoples deserve to enjoy their land, their customs, their spirituality; Colombia with its inhabitants, its seas, mountains, valleys and rivers, deserves a dignified life, it has rights and a wealth that can feed the body and soul of no one. Don’t worry, enough for everyone, enough for everyone.
Let’s not let it continue.