Extermination and systematic violation of the human rights of the Sikuani Indigenous People (Barrulia Community) in the municipality of Puerto Gaitán, Meta, Colombia

The Sikuani Indigenous People composed of semi-mobile communities occupying the eastern Colombian plains region in the department of Meta, have been victims of historical dispossession of their lands for decades. Land rights violations have deprived them of their freedom of movement and denied them their rights to occupy and use their land and natural resources. Land theft and enclosures have ruptured their ties with their ancestral territory, on which they depend for their survival and continued existence as Indigenous People. The Sikuani are one of the 36 Indigenous Peoples in Colombia legally declared under Constitutional Court Ruling 004 adopted in 2009 as a population facing imminent risk of physical and cultural disappearance.

As victims of dispossession, confinement and forced displacement Sikuani communities of Iwitsulibo, Tsabilonia, San Rafael Warrojo and Barrulia of the have petitioned the National Land Agency (ANT) since 2016 - as the nation's official land authority, seeking law enforcement actions to guarantee their territorial rights via Decree 2333 of 2014. This legal safeguard is being invoked to achieve effective protection and legal security of the lands and territories occupied or owned ancestrally and/or traditionally by the Sikuani and other Indigenous Peoples of the country, in conformity with Articles 13 and 14 of ILO Convention 169 and related human rights instruments.

After more than five years of delays, on May 17, 2022, the ANT sub-directorate for ethnic affairs addressed only one of the four petitions relating to Barrulia Community. The government land agency decision under Decree 2333 of 2014, failed to recognize Sikuani historical occupation of their ancestral territory as, according to this agency, the Sikuani could not show "continuous occupation over it." This decision failed to respect the semi-mobile nature of Sikuani community customary land use and occupation. The ANT also omitted to conduct a proper assessment of the historical context of violence that has made it difficult for the Sikuani People to move freely and occupy their territory. The agency decision thus overlooked patterns of land occupation driven by forced displacement and confinement. This flawed ANT interpretation of ancestral land rights and the denial of the right to territory threatens to institutionalise flawed land tenure analyses, which now run the risk of derailing the unresolved and pending petitions presented by the communities of Iwitsulibo, Tsabilonia and San Rafael Warrojo.

In a situation where the ANT has denied that Barrulia Community has historically occupied their ancestral territory, and given that the community occupies land which the ANT considers to be the property of a third party, the mayor's office and the Puerto Gaitán Municipality Police Inspectorate (Meta) have once again, and for the seventh time, conducted police operations to evict the community. This forced relocation had been on hold for months pending the official pronouncement of the ANT in relation to Barrulia’s territorial claim and petition for legal recognition and protection.

The forced evictions, being actions involving public law enforcement bodies, have kept the Barrulia Community in a state of anguish and distress. Community members are long term victims of confinement, dispossession and forced displacement. They hence suffer a high degree of social vulnerability and endure abuse of their most basic rights, including rights to life, health, food security, free movement, and a healthy environment. Their collective relationship with their own territory, on which they depend for their survival and their very existence as Sikuani, has also been negated.

In November 2022, four Colombian indigenous organizations and the Indigenous Technical Secretary of the CNTI filed direct legal actions against the ANT Resolution seeking its annulment as the decision unjustly denies the traditional occupation of the Sikuani in their ancestral territory; and withholds territorial protections sought by the Sikuani People. Although this complaint has not yet been resolved in substance by the ANT, the agency continues coordinating with the mayor's office and the Police Inspectorate in planning future evictions. For this reason, on 21st February these institutions arrived at disputed land site and tried to commence a social assessment of Barrulia Community as a prior and necessary measure to advance involuntary relocation.

Although this official assessment was stopped by the community, the Police Inspectorate of Puerto Gaitán is still planning to ‘deliver’ the so-called Los Cocuyos land holding to a third party complainant on 10th March, ignoring the fundamental rights of the indigenous community that have made a legitimate land and territorial claims. In its work accompanying the Sikuani People, the CNTI Technical Secretariat warns that the current procedures and flawed institutionality threaten to exacerbate the violation of fundamental rights of this indigenous community. CNTI thus calls on the ANT, to resolve all the requests seeking protection of the Sikuani ancestral territory that have been filed by the aforementioned communities - without further administrative delays.

Likewise, CNTI demands that the ANT resolves the five outstanding territorial protection requests, and also addresses the complaints seeking revocation of the Land Agency’s Resolution issued last November. CNTI additionally condemns the ambiguous actions of the ANT in relation to Puerto Gaitán Police Inspectorate activities during the social assessment process on February 21, which failed to uphold the current suspension of the eviction process. In short, all relocations plans should be suspended until petitions for annulment of the ANT Resolution have been fairly resolved.

The same CNTI complaint alerts the Regional Ombudsman and Meta’s Attorney General's Office regarding serious threats to Sikuani rights holders. It urges these bodies to fulfil their constitutional functions by taking urgent actions to guarantee the fundamental right to the territory in full recognition of the indigenous communities of the Sikuani People who traditionally occupy the eastern Colombian plains. The same authorities are urged to address the human rights of indigenous Sikuani communities who are in imminent risk of disappearance. The said intervention to uphold and guarantee Sikuani fundamental rights must be made through immediate and speedy measures to ensure protections are put in place before the police, local authorities and officials of the Puerto Gaitán Municipality can proceed with any eviction operations.

Bogota, 24 February, 2023

///

This press release was originally published on the webpage of the National Commission of Indigenous Territories (CNTI) and can be downloaded as a PDF (in Spanish).

More information and contact

For more Information, please see https://www.cntindigena.org/ and contact cnti@cntindigena.org