The Impact of Rising Violence on Indigenous Communities and Indigenous Women in Colombia
Author: Maya Nair
Nov. 1 LAP Paper
Colombia has a long history of violence and conflict, including the well-known period called “La Violencia” between 1948 and 1957. Since then, international actors and the Colombian government have attempted to minimize the level of violence within the country, but fell short of making an effective change. Through the attempts these governments and organizations have made, including the 2016 Peace Deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), they have routinely mismanaged solutions and created more unrest and anger from the public and guerilla groups. In these situations of overwhelming violence, it is essential to recognize that Colombia’s marginalized communities have faced the worst impacts. Despite indigenous people having the right to their lands and to practice their traditions and culture as per the Constitution of 1991, they are still actively discriminated against in Colombia’s exclusive and traditional society. Not only do indigenous people face rampant discrimination in Colombia, but indigenous women are disproportionately impacted by the surges of violence and are ignored by most international communities and the local and federal governments.
Colombia has a substantial indigenous population compared to many other countries in the Americas. Approximately 1,392,623 people were classified as indigenous in Colombia, making up around 3.43% of the total population. Indigenous peoples, specifically women, in Colombia are still experiencing the worst impacts of the active violence of terrorist and militia groups. In 2009, a report by the Trabajo Mujer y Conflicto Armado found that between 1998 and 2009, 70% of human rights violations against indigenous peoples were targeted towards women and children, which can be attributed to the geographic location of the indigenous lands that they reside on. A vast majority of indigenous populations in Colombia remain in isolated mountainous areas where they lack access to regular job opportunities, food, medical attention, and any other outside resources that a city may offer. As a result, indigenous communities are susceptible to pressure from guerilla and drug trafficking groups who reside in the same isolated regions. These communities, physically isolated from resources and suffering from an exclusive and discriminative society, become prime grounds for ill-intentioned groups to take advantage of vulnerable populations.
Pressure from outside groups, including drug cartels, guerrillas, and even Colombian police, can be damaging to indigenous communities with the lack of proper means to defend themselves. This pressure often entails direct violence or forced participation in illegal activities such as drug production and trafficking. Often these illegal activities can be hard to avoid because indigenous people may be physically forced into these activities or see it as their only opportunity to gain a stable income. When these communities begin to work with terrorist groups or drug cartels, they find themselves being targets of the Colombian military and are often food insecure as a result of shifting their priorities to planting drug crops rather than food crops. Even if members of indigenous communities reject terrorist orders, they are often killed in response. In 2021, the National Commission of Indigenous Territories reported that an indigenous person in Colombia is killed every four days. In addition, often indigenous communities become associated with illegal activities despite fighting off their pressure. This was the case when 15 squads of the Colombian National Police organized an attack on the mining operations of the Indigenous Zenú community in Puerto Libertador, claiming that they were members of the Gulf Clan paramilitary group. This misrepresentation ruined the livelihoods of the miners as much of their materials and tools were destroyed. It also served to destroy their reputation in their economic and social communities in an environment when reputations in the community are essential.
In Colombia, indigenous women play unique roles in their communities, impacting how they experience violence and war. More specifically, they often serve as leaders in protecting their natural resources and land by managing agricultural production and cultivation. As a result, when guerilla groups take over agricultural land for drug crop production, indigenous women are specifically targeted because of their role in the upkeep of their agricultural land. Territorial conflict in particular is a significant issue for indigenous women as they face extreme displacement rates that can further subject them to violence and instability. Colombia has one of the highest rates of displacement in the world, with approximately 5,195,620 people being displaced between the years 1985 and 2010. Land rights and resources play a large role in indigenous communities, making the displacement of their people even more detrimental to their cultures and survival. In addition to displacement, without access to proper rights, sufficient internet, language proficiency in Spanish, general education, and a responsive government, indigenous women remain stuck in the cycle of violence. In interviews conducted with indigenous women in Colombia, they discussed their inability to leave their houses and gain access to resources because of threats of violence and invasion from groups moving through their territories. This has marginalized indigenous women further, holding them back from progressing in society and placing them at the forefront of danger and brutality.
Not only have guerilla groups in the country threatened the security of indigenous women, but the government and its militia have also been culprits for endangering this group. The government of Colombia has had significant problems with its implementation of concrete security policies, even more so when it comes to its marginalized communities. One example of this is Colombia’s Law 387 which was created in 1997 to prevent internal displacement and aid those who had already been displaced. Although it addressed an issue that needs immediate attention, the Colombian government did not dedicate proper oversight to ensuring that its departments and local governments properly implemented their assistance programs. As a result, little to no areas found any relief or assistance, and aid unique to indigenous communities was overlooked. There is also currently no effective government oversight system in Colombia and currently no sufficient ways to keep track of human rights violations against the country’s indigenous women. Therefore, there is a significant gap in data and these crimes against indigenous women are often dismissed since there are no accurate numbers regarding the violence perpetrated against these women and communities alike. Another example of a failure of the Colombian government is its inability to protect its indigenous women leaders from violence. This was the case of the Governor of the Laguna Siberia Indigenous Reserve, Sandra Liliana Peña Choqué, who was murdered by an unknown armed group in April of 2021. The dangers to Governor Choqué were supposedly made extremely clear to the government of Colombia through many requests and demands both domestically and internationally, yet the government did nothing to offer her protection. The inability to protect activists and leaders of marginalized communities demonstrates a lack of attention to the safety of advocates and can deter many from standing up for their rights and opinions.
Indigenous people in Colombia, especially women, are continuously being threatened by militia groups in their regions and continue to disappear as the government fails to provide effective protection and solutions. Although not directly providing aid to end violence, one successful project, which has been facilitated by Hombres en Marcha and endorsed by UN Women, UNICEF, UNHRC, and the Peacebuilding Fund, is a training school for indigenous women in Colombia and Ecuador. Their goal is to increase women’s participation in politics, involve men in discussions on gender and gender roles, and prevent gender-based violence. Programs like this uplift women and create spaces where gender-based violence can be discussed openly in a society where this dialogue may not always be welcomed. Despite being effective at supporting indigenous women, these programs are not sufficient enough to counteract the rate at which violence is rising in Colombia. Actors must find solutions to the increase in violence while keeping in mind that an increase in atrocious attacks on indigenous women is directly connected to rising rates of conflict and therefore must be solved concurrently.
Rising violence and uncertainty in Colombia have severe impacts on the safety of indigenous communities, particularly indigenous women. The location of indigenous communities creates additional problems regarding safety including susceptibility to invasion from terrorist groups, pressure from drug cartels, and lack of access to resources and services. Not only do indigenous communities lack resources for well-being and safety, but attacks committed against indigenous women often go unreported and unresearched. Without this data, violence against indigenous communities and women goes unnoticed by popular media and government bodies both in Colombia and around the world. It is imperative to recognize how these indigenous communities may be disproportionately impacted by rising violence and take into account their unique needs and situations when creating well-rounded solutions.
Sources:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24573975
https://www.fmreview.org/latinamerica-caribbean/escobarcuero
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/11/1/colombias-indigenous-population-faces-scourge-of-violence
