Displaced indigenous people camp in Bogotá to protest against local government

More than 300 indigenous colombians They have camped for three nights in a central park in Bogotá to protest the withdrawal of a subsidy that paid for their accommodation expenses in the city, where they arrived displaced by the violence.

The indigenous people settled in the National Park on September 29, when according to them the mayor’s office of the capital stopped financing their stay in posadas. They say they have neither housing nor resources to pay for lodging.

“The population that is here today is from the Katío (Embera) people, they were in a lease measure that has already been completed and the district does not want to expand ”, María Violet Medina, a spokeswoman for the group, told AFP.

The natives improvised a dozen tents with black plastic in the center of the park and cook on bonfires. According to the state Ombudsman’s Office (ombudsman) there are between 300 and 400 people including dozens of children and babies.

Medina assured that the majority were displaced by clashes between armed groups that have been fighting for several years the income from drug trafficking and illegal mining in the jungle department of Chocó (west), where the Emberá Katío people originate.

“The armed conflict has brought us to this territory”Emphasized the spokeswoman, adding that indigenous people from 12 other towns have joined the protest. Colombia is experiencing a six-decade armed conflict that leaves 9 million victims, most of them displaced.

According to Medina, ending the housing subsidy is one of the defaults of the mayor’s office compared to 62 agreements signed a year ago with indigenous people living in Bogota.

There are also breaches in “health and education, they are basic issues,” he claimed.

4.4% of the 50 million inhabitants of Colombia identify themselves as indigenous, according to the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE).

Officials from the Mayor’s Office are present at the site and agreed to sit at a dialogue table with spokesmen from the camp starting Sunday. They also warned of the possibility of the police evicting them from the area.

Members of the so-called Indigenous Guard, a self-defense organization that does not use firearms, guard the camp.

“Our guard is going to be circulating (…) we also have arrows and we are going to defend ourselves”, Medina anticipated during his conversation with officials.

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