Ombudsman's Office evidenced environmental damage in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

The Office of the Ombudsman reported that a team from the entity corroborated the environmental damage that would be occurring in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, especially in the vicinity of the Windiwa reservation, which has been repeatedly denounced by the Arhuaco people.

This was announced by the Ombudsman, Carlos Camargo, who came to this territory located in the municipality of Fundación, Magdalena, to talk with the mamos, spiritual leaders of this community, and the indigenous council, which expressed concern about the effects on nature by people outside the community.

“Our team in the territory has been able to corroborate the environmental impacts that have been recorded due to the indiscriminate cutting of native trees, the burning of forests and the illegal opening of roads within the reservation,” stressed the Ombudsman.

He also noted that according to a follow-up report that the entity carried out last November to Early Warning 044 of 2019, the Arhuaco people, which is one of the four indigenous communities that inhabit the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, continue to be physically and culturally threatened by illegal armed groups that are present in this territory. strategically on a permanent basis.

For his part, one of the indigenous authorities of the Fundación and Aracataca river basin, Luis Salcedo, acknowledged that the strength of the community is unity and stressed that for the first time an Ombudsman has reached these territories, but “we need the other institutions to reach the most distant places so that know what the community wants and what it requires.”

“We will maintain the institutional presence with our team from regional Magdalena, La Guajira and Cesar, and we will continue to accompany them to ensure the guarantee of their rights. In the Office of the Ombudsman, ethnic communities unite us, their rights unite us,” concluded defender Carlos Camargo.

The native communities that inhabit the Sierra Nevada de Santamarta have been victims of the different armed groups that have wanted to control this strategic sector in the middle of the Colombian Caribbean, who have been denouncing the violation of their rights for decades, which is why it is surprising that it is the first time that a defender visits this territory marked by the armed conflict, which shows an integral institutional presence.

Last February, the Kogui and Wiwa peoples, who are located in the Dibulla sector, in La Guajira, and reported that fires have been set there that have destroyed bohios and sacred places for their communities.

In dialogue with W Radio, leaders of this indigenous community assured that unknown persons entered these places, whom they point out as the authors of the burning and burning of the sacred places. They assured that the inhabitants fear for their lives and the destruction of bohios in their territory.

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