ACIMVIP: institutional strengthening, self-government and territorial defense in ten Inga communities of Villagarzón

By ACIMVIP Communications

ACIMVIP: An Experience of Institutional Strengthening, self-government and Territorial Defense

From ACIMVIP's leadership, we are convinced that the only way to confront the threat of physical and cultural extermination of our People is to bring to those who remain in the territories useful and effective tools, so that it is from there that the Organization, self-government and territorial defense are strengthened.

With the above clarification, and in response to the commitment assumed upon being elected to lead the Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Municipio de Villagarzon Putumayo – ACIMVIP, the following project was formulated, managed and is currently being implemented

"Institutional strengthening of the Inga Cabildos of the municipality of villagarzon putumayo with a territorial approach" covers 10 communities of Cabildos (Indigenous traditional authority) and Resguardos (Cabildo Alpa Rumiyaco, Resguardo Chaluayaco, Albania, Saladillo Yaco, Musu – Waira Sacha, Wasipungo, Taita Kausadero, Cachiyaco, Blasyaco, San Miguel de la Castellana) with which workshops are planned to strengthen the identity of the Inga People, consolidate our Organization and jointly build strategies to strengthen self-government and defend the territory.

The main strategy in carrying out this project is that we ourselves design and coordinate the workshops. It is worth highlighting that our Organization has Indigenous members with extensive community experience who are also professionally qualified. It is also important to note that we have had the support of unconditional people who have joined our purposes, with whom we have been consolidating the team.

To date we have carried out Institutional strengthening with the Resguardos Wasipungo, Chaluayaco, Saladillo Yaco and Blasyaco. The community's response has been encouraging and motivating; there is no doubt that all the efforts made are worthwhile and bring joy. Our communities have answered the call. Below is a brief structure of the workshops and the profile of those carrying them out.

The Project coordinator is Carlos López Descanse, governor of the Chaluayaco Resguardo, who leads administrative management in the Organization. Carlos is a young business administrator specialized in Project Formulation and Management, who has given the Indigenous Organization his knowledge and academic professionalism. In the Workshops he is in charge of leading discussions on the functions, results and projections of ACIMVIP. He, together with Mireya Delgado, a Public Administrator who has been the Association's treasurer for the last 9 years, is in charge of the Institutional strengthening component. Both aim to inform and involve the communities in the processes of demanding and claiming rights led by the Association, and they also present a response route for threats against the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The self-government component is led by Oscar Giovany Quinchoa and Luis Jansasoy. The first belongs to the San Miguel de la Castellana Inga community and is currently a council member of the municipality of Villagarzón. The second is a former president of ACIMVIP and has a long track record in the Community. He is currently the coordinator of the territory's Wasikamas, a fundamental pillar for the defense of the ancestral territory, which is also being strengthened in the course of the process. Oscar Giovany Quinchoa and Luis Jansasoy are fulfilling the duty of holding Mingas of analysis and reflection on the Inga's own forms of exercising government and administering justice. The objective is to harmonize the mandates that have been issued by the organization with the Law of Origin of the Inga People. The aim is to consolidate a unified, general mandate for the Inga People of Villagarzón. In this component, the grandfathers and grandmothers of the communities have been playing a fundamental role, since in them lies the active force of traditional medicine and therefore the ancestral knowledge of our culture.

The third component is territory, led by Jairo Fernando Muchavisoy and Pablo Cuchala Tisoy. The first is a Forestry Engineer belonging to the Chaluayaco Inga Resguardo and the second is governor of the Saladillo Yaco Cabildo and an Environmental Engineering student. These young Inga have cultural, cartographic, legislative and environmental clarity about the ancestral territories of the Inga People; they have also identified the threats, needs and challenges that exist over the territory, and they are fulfilling their duty of structuring, together with the communities, a cultural and organizational response plan for the defense of land rights and the rights of the Inga People over their ancestral territory.

As president of ACIMVIP, this experience of institutional strengthening fills me with satisfaction and love for the organizational process, since it is the only path we, the Indigenous Peoples of Colombia, have to reaffirm our identity, Unity and the life of the Inga People in harmony with their territory.