The Inga People of Villagarzón win the tutela action on prior consultation in the APE La Cabaña case, Block PUT-1

The Administrative Court of Nariño, through a tutela ruling, protects the Rights to Participation and Autonomy of the Inga People of Villagarzon and Puerto Caicedo – Department of Putumayo.

The Administrative Court of Nariño, through a tutela ruling, protects the Rights to Participation and Autonomy of the Inga People of Villagarzon and Puerto Caicedo – Department of Putumayo.

On July 15, 2015, the Superior Court of Pasto [The judicial body is the Administrative Court of Nariño, case file 52001-23-33-003-2015-00559-00.], through First Instance Judgment No. 2015-00559, granted protection of the fundamental rights to Prior Consultation, due process and autonomy of the Inga community of the Municipalities of Villagarzón and Puerto Caicedo in favor of the Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas Inga de Villagarzón y Puerto Caicedo del Departamento del Putumayo - ACIMVIP. The constitutional principles underlying this decision are Pluriculturalism, Participation and the others of the constitutional block that constitute the essential core of the Right to Free and Informed Prior Consultation, as established by ILO Convention 169.

With the court suspending the legal effects of Resolution 0573 of April 3, 2012, issued by the Directorate of Prior Consultation of the Ministry of the Interior –DCP, which denies the presence of the Inga People in the impact area of the oil extraction project –APE La Cabaña– of the Canadian International Company – Gran Tierra Energy Colombia, the validity of the Colombian Social State under the Rule of Law is confirmed once again.

To understand the context of this ruling, it is necessary to highlight the process of empowerment and political and administrative strengthening of ACIMVIP, which is organized to bring the Inga People together and prevent Indigenous culture from disappearing. Along this path, ACIMVIP has found that the State, through the Directorate of Prior Consultation of the Ministry of the Interior – DCP, favors the interests of the multinationals that exploit the territory and violates the fundamental rights enshrined in the Political Constitution of Colombia.

The challenge after this ruling lies in how it is interpreted and assumed by the Directorate of Prior Consultation of the Ministry of the Interior – DCP and the Canadian multinational Gran Tierra Energy Colombia, an international oil and gas exploration and production company headquartered in Calgary, Canada. The latter two remain bent on denying and violating the rights of the Inga People.

This judicial ruling is the result of the work of –ACIMVIP, but also the beginning of a new process of cultural resistance, since the strategies and dynamics being implemented by the Directorate of Prior Consultation of the Ministry of the Interior – DCP, in its role as coordinator and guarantor of this Right, are the disintegration and fracturing of Indigenous organizations, cultural assimilation and the denial of the political scope of Indigenous Peoples' autonomy. This can be seen by analyzing the modus operandi of the Directorate of Prior Consultation, which acts in complicity with extractive companies.

To support the above, it is enough to analyze the agreements between companies and Indigenous Peoples in the consultation spaces coordinated by the Directorate of Prior Consultation of the Ministry of the Interior – DCP. These agreements consist of livestock projects, construction of schools or infrastructure such as bridges or road improvements, thus taking advantage of the community's needs and the absence of State investment. Moreover, the Directorate of Prior Consultation of the Ministry of the Interior – DCP refuses to consult processes through the authorities of the Inga People, seeking to fragment cultural identity and organizational processes such as the one ACIMVIP leads.

To complete the context of the tutela action, the geographic conditions of the Amazonian foothills must also be highlighted, where water sources, the diversity of flora and fauna and their endemism are considered hotspot zones, or biodiversity hotspots. This is an international designation that protects places with environmental characteristics such as those of the Amazonian Foothills.

As can be established, this tutela ruling captures a reality of Putumayo. On one side are the Indigenous Peoples at risk of disappearing, resisting and confronted for exercising their rights, with a government led by the Directorate of Prior Consultation of the Ministry of the Interior – DCP, complicit with foreign multinationals such as Gran Tierra Energy Colombia, which through oil extraction is leaving irreparable environmental and cultural costs to the Colombian nation. A Colombia without Indigenous culture and the Amazonian ecosystem is a poor Colombia, with an administrative structure that tends toward the systematic extermination of its inhabitants, moving away from any possibility of seeking peace for the Indigenous Peoples of this region of the country.

Inga People of Villagarzón Putumayo! Resist.

http://acimvip.org.co/web/?p=544