Indigenous Groups

The armed conflict in Colombia threatens the basic survival of the country’s over 80 different indigenous communities. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported in 2004 that the situation of indigenous groups grows progressively and systematically worse as the conflict wears on. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on the state of human rights and the fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples reports that 12 Colombian indigenous groups are “on the brink of extinction as a result of the murder of their leaders, massacres, threats and the forced dispersal of their members.” Indigenous Colombians endure violations of freedom of movement and the right to independence from armed groups, in addition to inadequate levels of support from government administered social service, health and educational institutions. The Colombian National Indigenous Organization (ONIC) maintains that since President Alvaro Uribe took office in 2002, indigenous communities have encountered rising rates of assassination, detention, kidnapping and displacement, even as the number of massacres has declined. These trends in violence prompted the UN Special Rapporteur, to call for urgent international support for Colombian indigenous communities.

The confluence of disparate interests in the regions inhabited by indigenous peoples provokes death threats, disappearances and extrajudicial executions of indigenous leaders, as well as the forced displacement and confinement of indigenous communities. If the displacement, blockades, violence, and human rights violations continue unabated, the social and cultural identities of Colombia’s indigenous peoples risk being severely impacted—and the survival of some communities hangs in the balance.

Paradoxically Colombia’s indigenous communities represent some of the most hopeful models for peace and economic and cultural prosperity in the country. In the Cauca province, the Nasa have organized the Indigenous Guard—prompting their nomination for a Nobel peace prize—to peacefully protect their community against armed incursion. Other Colombian indigenous groups have established seed banks to protect traditional food crops and others have established Life Plans outlining sustainable development projects that will serve to protect cultural identity as well as nutritional autonomy and economic prosperity.

The U.S. Office on Colombia is an independent non-profit organization, not affiliated with any political party, that seeks to educate U.S. policymakers, the media and the U.S. public about the impact of U.S. policy on Colombia.