The denounced events have occurred since last August 20 in the ancestral territory of Kutunsama, in the Malay Arhuaco Kogui Reservation, located between the Don Diego River and the rural area of Santa Marta de Perico Aguado, which has an outlet to the Caribbean Sea.
According to a statement from the National Commission for Indigenous Territories (CNTI), about 200 people invaded the territory and began a process of cutting down trees and dividing the property. The community says that these people have used tape to mark the land and have cut down different trees, damaging the environmental balance of the area. In addition, according to the statement, “they threatened to cut down the large trees after arguing that the State has not relocated them or given land.”
“This is a place where the mamos, leaders and indigenous groups have their exchange of knowledge, traditions and cultural work. In the area called the tongue, which is from the Don Diego River to the Palomino River, several people invaded the territory destroying everything. In principle they were 50 and it was increasing, now there are almost 1,000 people from different places who seek to parcel out and eliminate all the vegetation “, said Jaison Pérez, a member of the Arhuaca community.
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Although the Police and the Personería del Pueblo were present on Friday, August 20, the statement states that: “At dawn on Friday, August 21, the activities were resumed by the settlers, coming from the surrounding areas of Guachaca, Palomino, Marquetalia, Puerto Nuevo and even (it is believed) from Venezuela. However, there was no agreement and the Public Force said they could not do anything because “there are interests of other larger groups,” the statement said.
“Since 1994, this place has been declared an outlet to the sea by Resolution 29 of that year. We have tried to recover this ancestral territory because culturally and environmentally they have a very great importance ”, explained Pérez, for his part.
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For the indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta this is a sacred territory and it is also an environmental conservation area. The CNTI statement in another of its sections assures that “These phenomena are facilitated and promoted by the lack of formalization and the legal insecurity suffered by indigenous territories due to state negligence. Currently, in the National Land Agency (ANT) there are 1,009 requests for the formalization of indigenous territories in reservations. Such is the case of the Malay Arhuaco Kogi Reservation, which is going through its fourth request for expansion, not yet resolved, and which responds to the lack of integrality in the recognition of ancestral territories by the State ”.
The people who entered the territory cut down the vegetation and parceled the land.
For his part, Jaison Pérez warned about the threats present in the area, recalling that: “here the entity of Parks had a headquarters, but they killed an official. The director of Parks in the area ended up leaving due to different threats because he was a person who cared for and conserved the environment. Now people come to destroy everything.
The indigenous communities that live there are concerned that with the quarantine, product of the coronavirus emergency, the presence of groups of people invading and destroying their environment has increased.
Several versions indicate that these people are sent by illegal groups to take over the land, while the indigenous peoples cry out for the presence of the Army and the authorities. In turn, they ask for help from the national and regional government to care for covid-19.
For this reason, Jaison Pérez, a member of the Arhuaco people, made a call that: “we understand the importance of the place, the geological, cultural, geographical and environmental importance that is facing the Caribbean Sea. If we finish our patio or our balcony that we have in the Sierra, we are threatening the balance of the ecosystem. The call to the government and the different entities is to become aware and to be able to solve this situation in the best way possible and to preserve these spaces ”.
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