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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Colombia-Indigenous-Communities-Denounce-Lack-of-Guarantees-Vow-to-Remain-in-Bogota-20181114-0016.html">https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Colombia-Indigenous-Communities-Denounce-Lack-of-Guarantees-Vow-to-Remain-in-Bogota-20181114-0016.html</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Colombia: Indigenous Communities
Denounce Lack of Guarantees, Vow to Remain in Bogota</h1>
Published 14 November 2018</div>
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<p>The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, or
ONIC, denounced Tuesday night the lack of guarantees for
the over 450 Indigenous people who traveled to Bogota to
remain in the capital city. Via Twitter, they questioned
the government of President Ivan Duque. </p>
<p>"These are the guarantees of the government of
@IvanDuque for the people who flee Choco due to the
conflict? Volunteers woke up inside @ONIC_Colombia and
those who couldn't fit in the hall's floors had to sleep
in streets 12b and 4th," they tweeted Wednesday morning.</p>
<p>Indigenous peoples of the Embera, Wounaan, and Zenu
nationalities of the Choco region in the Colombian
Pacific reached Bogota Monday to demand the fulfillment
of a set of agreements reached in August 2017, which
according to Indigenous communities have been
unilaterally broken by Colombian authorities.</p>
<p>The agreements include safety guarantees in their
territories, which have witnessed several incidents
of violence. ONIC has reported that since late 2016
-when the peace agreement between the Colombia state and
the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
was signed- violence has forcibly displaced 5,730
Indigenous while 8,245 are suffering from involuntary
confinement. </p>
<p>They have also denounced that 10 Indigenous leaders
have been tortured, 25 recruited by illegal armed
forces, 65 have been murdered, and 161 are currently
under threat. </p>
<p>On Tuesday they resumed talks with government
representatives but failed to reach a solution. At 11
p.m. the talks were suspended due to lack of guarantees
for their permanence in Bogota. The ONIC announced they
will resume talks Wednesday to discuss security, lack of
health services in their communities, the need for
education, energy, and transport infrastructure, and
land restitution. </p>
<p>In the streets next to the ONIC headquarters, where
many had to spend the night, men, women, and children
shared music and dance as part of the resistance. "In
our #MingaPorLife (minga is a form of collective work)
we dance to live, we dance to not die, we dance because
we exist and resist in the face of oblivion.
#IAmIndigenous, #IAmChoco." </p>
<p>Members of the Minga are also defending popular
consultations as a mechanism to stop extractive
industries when the communities oppose them. In October,
Colombia's <a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/english/news/Democracy-is-Over-Colombian-Court-Rules-Community-Referendums-Cannot-Block-Mining-Oil-Projects-20181013-0005.html">Constitutional
Court</a> ruled that Indigenous communities cannot use
popular consultations as a mechanism to stop extractive
projects arguing the state is the owner of all the
resources in the countries subsurface. </p>
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San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
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