Declaration on the mass forced displacement of the Wiwa People from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

We joined from the CLACSO Working Group Bodies, Territories, Resistances We are issuing an URGENT ALERT regarding the serious situation of forced displacement affecting more than 300 people of the Wiwa community in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. This displacement is caused by fighting between the paramilitary groups Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia and Conquistadores de la Sierra Nevada in Wiwa territory.

This statement aims to call for solidarity and visibility of an ongoing displacement situation that is replicated in different parts of Améfrica/Abya Yala, in the escalation of genocides, which ensure themselves in the context of multiple wars, to perpetrate violence, from the expectation of silence and injustice.

It is worrying to see this strategy of displacement and dispossession, which comes hand in hand with the major economic interests of national and transnational capital. What are these paramilitary groups fighting over? In short, drug trafficking routes and control of natural resources such as water. Adding to this situation on the northern slopes of the Sierra Nevada, throughout the Ancestral Territory of the Black Line, are the large-scale businesses of African palm, bananas, tourism, teak plantations, extensive cattle ranching, mining, large-scale infrastructure projects, roads and ports, and illegal looting. We can see on the map of the human footprint a
This map illustrates the scale of the disaster. The areas in red are the most impacted, and those in green are the most preserved. As we can see, the Wiwa territory on the northern face of the Sierra is one of the most concerning.

_{Map of human spatial footprint taken from the Management Plan of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Tayrona National Parks (2020). https://old.parquesnacionales.gov.co/portal/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/plan-de-manejo-del-pnn-sierra-nevada-de-santa-marta-y-tayrona.pdf}

This also applies to mining titles and applications for materials such as: gravel, sand, aggregate, limestone, coal, marble, feldspar, mica, magnesite, talc, vermiculite, precious metals, fluorite, barite, fill material, ballast, magnetite, iron, copper, fluorite, precious metals, uranium, and gold. In 2018, there were 132 active mining titles (122, according to the ANM response - 2018) and 244 active mining title applications (254 applications, according to the ANM response - 2018). The map shows the major mining titles of Cerrejón. 

_{Map of mining applications and titles. Taken from the Management Plan. https://old.parquesnacionales.gov.co/portal/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/plan-de-manejo-del-pnn-sierra-nevada-de-santa-marta-y-tayrona.pdf}

Who benefits? Economic interests in the region encompass all kinds of businesses and criminal organizations, from the Ranchería River Dam to the maintenance of the world's largest open-pit coal mine – El Cerrejón – oil palm monoculture, and cattle ranching. In addition to these, as the communities themselves have denounced, there is also tourism to the snow-capped peaks, large-scale tourism, which is a cancer for these communities.

The ancestral territory of the Black Line (Dark Thread) has been inhabited and cared for for millennia by the Wiwa, Arhuaco, Kogui, and Kankuamo peoples. This line is the thread of life, a system of sacred spaces that includes mangroves, hills, ancient trees, and more. These Indigenous peoples have cared for and defended the territory against various attempts at dispossession. As the world's highest coastal mountain range, stretching from sea level to snow-capped peaks, it boasts immense biodiversity. In the practices and philosophies of these peoples, the Black Line is linked to the care of Mother Earth and the weaving of life. As a way to protect Decree 1500, the Black Line has been protected through the "1500 Heartbeats" campaign, a major mobilization in its defense.

In this sense, the reasons for forced displacement go far beyond this concept; they stem from the expulsion and dispossession of communities to maintain economic interests over their territories. As we have stated in various communiqués, the war against the land is the war against the people.

It should be recalled how on February 4, 2005, the IACHR granted precautionary measures in favor of the Wiwa indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta due to situations of extreme violence and stated: i) to adopt the necessary measures to protect the life and personal integrity of the members of the Wiwa People of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, respecting their cultural identity and protecting the special relationship they have with their territory, in accordance with the obligations assumed by the State; ii) to provide humanitarian assistance to the victims of displacement and the food crisis, in particular to the girls and boys of the indigenous people; iii) to agree on collective protection measures, including the presence of a community defender, with the beneficiaries, through their representative organizations Wiwa Yugumaiun Bukuanarúa Tayrona (OBYBT) and the Gonabindua Tayrona Organization, and the petitioners; and v) to adopt the necessary measures in order to put an end to the acts of violence and the threats made against the beneficiary community.

From different territories of Latin America we join the following requests made in the ALERT.

To the international community: 

1. Humanitarian support from the International Red Cross. 
2. A fact-finding mission is required in the communities where the fighting took place. 
3. Within the framework of the precautionary measures granted on February 4, 2005, we request that the IACHR conduct an extraordinary visit to the territory to verify the situation of people in a condition of displacement and confinement. 
4. We request that the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, within the framework of his Mission to Colombia, take this situation into account and recommend that the Colombian State adopt immediate, concerted and comprehensive actions to guarantee the survival, life and integrity of the Wiwa People, and of the peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

We also require:

1. Verify the guarantees of return to the territory or analyze the conditions and make decisions about temporary places according to the situation
2. Immediately provide adequate conditions to the displaced people in the city of Riohacha, as these are not adequate, especially in the case of sanitation services.

Follow the link to the alert disseminated by organized communities against these displacement processes, for additional information to complement all the information presented here: https://justiciaambientalcolombia.org/alerta-urgente-desplazamiento-forzado-masivo-del-pueblo-wiwa-de-la-sierra-nevada-de-santa-marta/

This declaration is also signed by the CLACSO Working Group on Bodies, Territories, Resistances, and the Protection Line for Indigenous Peoples and Culturally Diverse Communities of the Socio-Legal Clinic of Public Interest of the University of Caldas.

March 4th 2024
CLACSO Working Group
Bodies, territories, resistances

This text expresses the position of the CLACSO Working Group Bodies, territories, resistances and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.