COLOMBIA:
Murders Down, but Indigenous Group Still Hemmed In
Constanza Vieira - Special to IPS

ATÁNQUEZ, Cesar, Colombia, (IPS) - "It is not only beautiful, but it is rich in livestock, minerals and water," says a man wearing a wide-brimmed hat who looks every bit the tough cowboy, looking out at the spectacular view of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta from the airport at the northern Colombian city of Valledupar.

The southeastern foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain, which are just emerging from behind the fog, are partly the official territory of the Kankuamo indigenous community, one of the four ethnic groups native to the area.

The water in the area supplies Valledupar, the capital of the department (province) of Cesar.

The Colombian constitution, which was rewritten in 1991, recognised the country's multicultural and multiethnic character, and created indigenous territories ("resguardos"), which are defined as inalienable collective property where indigenous communities have the right to self-government and to participate in the administration of natural resources.

The resguardos or reservations, which are governed by the indigenous communities themselves, are entitled to funds from the national budget.

The new constitution and laws strengthened the revival of indigenous cultures, like the Kankuamo, which had almost been lost.

In the early 1980s, the Kankuamo Indians, with the support of elders and spiritual leaders from neighbouring indigenous groups, set out to recuperate their language and culture, which were vanishing. In 1993, the ethnic group began to attempt to regain collective ownership over the territory of their ancestors.

But their efforts have been hindered by Colombia's four-decade armed conflict, in which leftist rebels face off with the armed forces, and with extreme-right paramilitary groups that completed a controversial disarmament process this year.

>From the start of the cultural revival efforts in 1982 to 1998, 108 members of the Kankuamo community were murdered. But once the paramilitary United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) arrived in the area, the killings climbed, to 42 in 1999 alone.

Since 1999, 234 Kankuamo Indians have been killed, and one-third of all Kankuamo families fled the resguardo, mainly to Valledupar and to Bogota, where they have an association.

The United Nations declared that the ethnic group was facing an extreme danger of disappearing completely, as a result of the armed conflict.

Since all 13,000 members of the group were granted binding provisional measures by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in July 2004 to protect their lives, the violence has waned. The number of killings has dropped, from 71 in 2003 to 25 in 2004, six in 2005, and none so far this year.

The Kankuamo are all too keenly aware that their territory is the gateway to the Sierra Nevada. They say mega-projects being developed in areas near the reservation, like dams and irrigation plans making use of the region's abundant water resources, attracted the leftist rebels, who obtain part of their financing through extortion of investors.

Subsequently, the paramilitary groups were called in to protect the hydroelectric companies, as well as the mining companies, which are located farther away from the resguardo.

An indigenous academic who will remain anonymous for security reasons told IPS that the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's second largest insurgent group, moved into Kankuamo territory in the Sierra Nevada shortly after the rebel group was founded in 1964. The main guerrilla organisation, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), arrived in 1985.

The FARC exercised control over most of the mountainous area in the Kankuamo reservation, while the ELN had influence in the lowland area known as La Mina, located 40 km from Valledupar.

As a result of the rebel influence in the area, the police pulled out for 12 years from Atánquez, the main town in the resguardo, only returning in 2003.

Until a few years ago, the Kankuamo used to see mayors and other local authorities holding clandestine meetings in their territory with the guerrillas.

The insurgents also met in public with national government officials, while popular bands came to the area "to perform at parties for the guerrilla chiefs," said the academic.

The locals were used to coexisting with the guerrillas, but everything changed when the paramilitaries arrived.

The indigenous territory became the scenario of armed clashes between the rebels and paramilitaries, several Kankuamo Indians joined the irregular armed groups on both sides, unity began to break down within the community, and rivalries broke out.

A flare-up of the violence targeting the Kankuamo occurred in 2003, when the indigenous group won legal recognition of a 24,600-hectare territory in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and part of the lowlands, near Valledupar. The Kankuamo have also demarcated an additional 14,000 hectares of land, which includes several of their sacred sites.

In late 2002, the paramilitary groups completed a sort of cordon around the Sierra Nevada, driving the guerrillas higher up in the mountains. According to the director of an organisation that works in the region, the strategy was complemented by army operations in the foothills.

The paramilitary advance included armed incursions and murders aimed at sowing terror, as well as paramilitary blockades that kept out medicine and food products not produced in the area, like rice and cooking oil.

The logic behind the blockades is explained in a report titled "recent dynamics of the armed confrontation in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta", published in February by the Observatory of the Presidential Programme for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

According to the report, "the military have forced the guerrillas to retreat to the highest parts of the Sierra and have provoked scarcity of provisions, with the hope that the scarcity of food and ammunition will draw the guerrillas down to the lowlands, where they are more vulnerable."

In Chemesquemena, a Kankuamo village with just one street lined by sheet-metal roofed houses painted in pastel colours, with neat yards, the local store reopened a year ago, after remaining closed for two years because the paramilitaries would not allow more than 400 dollars worth of goods to enter the area per week, in order to keep the guerrillas from obtaining supplies.

The Kankuamo traditionally spend two or three days a week working on their family farms, which form the basis of the local economy. But "the control over food has driven down agricultural production," said Daniel, a local indigenous resident.

Locals must ask permission of the armed forces to travel between Atánquez and villages and fields higher up in the mountains

In Patillal, the highest village in the reservation, and in areas outside of the resguardo, "there are still restrictions and controls on food supplies, for families as well as shops," a Kankuamo shopkeeper told IPS.

Today, according to the report by the Observatory, the paramilitaries exercise influence over regional elections and control over local governments, as part of a strategy aimed at using state structures to their own benefit.

The governor of Cesar, Hernando Molina, was elected in 2003 when he ran as the only candidate, after his two rivals were forced by death threats to back out of the race.

The AUC "exercises heavy control over trade in foodstuffs in the capital of Cesar, imposing restrictions on vendors and purchasersàand regulating transportation of supplies to the higher reaches of the Sierra Nevada, to deprive the insurgents and their supposed support base of provisions," says the Observatory.

The report also says that the guerrillas remain in the region, but only in the highest parts of the Sierra Nevada.

A local indigenous leader who was displaced by the violence and fled to Bogotá, told IPS that in the foothills and lowlands, "the paramilitaries have taken control of the land in the resguardo."

The Sierra Nevada has a total population of 211,000 people, including some 50,000 members of the Kankuamo, Wiwa, Arhuaco and Kogui indigenous groups.