Colombia: Encounter for the rights of indigenous people
The Global Embassy of Activists for Peace (GEAP) in Colombia held the 12th Regional Encounter of the Children of Mother Earth, with the objective of promoting a space for dialogue and reflection in order to defend and strengthen the rights of indigenous people.
The encounter was carried out by the GEAP under the Social Program Children of Mother Earth, with the purpose of promoting the restoration and protection of the environment through citizen actions.
The activity was held at Normal San Vicente College, located in Leticia, Amazon, where 170 representatives of the villages: Cocama, Tikuna, Miraña, Yagua, Uitoto, Yucuna, Makuna, Matapi, Bora and Muinane attended.
The members of each indigenous people presented proposals about the vision of the ethnic groups related to the recovery and protection of nature.
In defense of natural spaces
The opening of the event was done by the administrative delegate of the Association of Traditional Doctors Tikuna, Yagua and Cocama (ASOMETYC), René Moreno, who is an ancestral physician with knowledge of the Amazon.
“We will have the access to make known what Mother Earth and Pachamama means to us, the indigenous people”, said Moreno.
Afterward, 11 work tables were formed in different classrooms, where various proposals were written, those will be gathered in an official document that will be socialized in national and international instances.
The coordinator of the territory area of Environment and Production, of the Association of Indigenous Cabildos of the Amazon Trapezium (ACITAN), Alexander Macedo, motivated the representatives to support the objectives of the meeting.
“Dr Soto is a person who has been very concerned about the different international efforts for Mother Earth, and I would like you to give this contribution today, this proposal in every issue in the different tables; and it will be your voice that will cry out for the great respect to nature, to the diversity that we have as indigenous people”, said Macedo.
The Amazon
50 indigenous people live in the Colombian Amazon, most of them live in extensive territories of collective property called reservations; they survive from agriculture, hunting, fishing and harvesting wild products.
This natural area presents a gradual deterioration that is creating an end to their natural resources due to forest fires, wood exploitation, mining and mechanized agriculture, among others.
