Indigenous communities denounce threats and stigmatization of the Black Eagles

The threats against indigenous peoples in Colombia do not stop, as reported by the Association of Indigenous Councils of North Cauca (ACIN), in a statement dated March 27, 2022. In it they announced the serious situation caused by the pamphlets that have been circulating since February and March, by the Black Eagles, in which they mark them as a military objective together with several human rights and trade union organizations.

The indigenous authority maintains that these threats and stigmatizations are due to a hostile strategy to destabilize the organizational political dynamics, identity and self-government of these ancestral communities. To leave the violence in their territories behind, they call for “the immediate departure of illegal armed actors and armed actors of the State, who carry out international crimes within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and violations of human rights protected by the Inter-American System.”

According to Indepaz so far this year, there have been 11 murders of indigenous leaders in Colombia. Of these crimes, five were perpetrated in the department of Cauca, the last one dated March 15, whose fatal victim was Miller Correa.

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In their letter they state that this long chain of threats and systematic acts of violence reflects a serious crisis and disrespect for their Social State as indigenous communities. According to ACIN, illegal groups “are responsible for murders, genocides, kidnappings, among other crimes. They feel strong enough to continue the rigged power in the structures of the State.”

It is important to emphasize that order 004 of 2009 of the Constitutional Court, which determines the protection of the fundamental rights of indigenous individuals and peoples, establishes that the greatest risk for this community is extermination either culturally due to the displacement and dispersion of its members , as from the physical one, due to the natural or violent death of its members.

Faced with the current situation of risk in which the country's 32 indigenous communities have to live, ACIN declared at the Permanent Assembly: “We call on the national Government, the National and International Organizations defending and guarantors of DD. HH, so that as a matter of urgency and priority they follow up violent actions affecting our communities and territories, to avoid systematic, widespread and widespread actions of physical, cultural and spiritual extermination and to take measures to guarantee the survival of Indigenous Peoples in the country” , they pointed out.

For its part, the Office of the Ombudsman issued Early Warning 001 - 22, for the city of Cali, in the official document, the entity highlighted the risk faced by the traditional authorities of the ten indigenous councils and five indigenous communities settled in the capital of Valle del Cauca, which number about 10,682 people.

The Constitutional Court, in its order, declared that the Colombian State has a dual obligation to prevent the causes of forced displacement of indigenous peoples, and to care for the displaced indigenous population with the differential approach required for this. To this end, he ordered the officials of state institutions to design and implement, “within their respective areas of competence, a Program to Guarantee the Rights of Affected Indigenous Peoples.”

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