History of the Ancestral Territory Nukanchipa Alpa Amukunapa: titling since 1994, GPS surveys in 2009 and establishment of the reservation in 2020

Let us defend Life, for the safeguarding of AMUKUNAPA WASI, foundation and sustenance of the traditional knowledge systems of the Inga People of the Colombian Amazon.

The Inga People of Villagarzón, native to Putumayo and the Colombian Amazon, has as its premise, and has conceived in its organisational processes as a principle of life, the steadfast Defence of its Territory, in the clear understanding that the territory has guaranteed the physical and cultural survival of its culture; as a people settled near the banks of the Chaluayaco, Vides iaku, alguacer iaku, San Juan Iaku, Putumayo, Mocoa, San Juan, Conejo, Blasiaku and San Vicente Rivers, these have guaranteed its subsistence as a native people of the Amazon, making use of the variety of fish and, throughout the territory, a variety of species for its sustenance in traditional medicine and its connection with the spirituality at the base of its worldview.

Since its origin and existence, everything it has needed has been found in its territory; however, as a consequence of colonisation, this sustainable way of life was destroyed with the arrival of Colonisation, which invaded the territories we have inhabited. The Inga People has been dispossessed of its territories; previously there was no established legal framework in Colombia guaranteeing access to, and legal certainty over, the territories of Indigenous Peoples; only with the Constitution of 1991 was recognition achieved of some of the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Colombia; before 1991 the State did not recognise these rights.

Through participation in the Constitution of 1991 some rights were recognised to us; however, today, in 2020, the implementation of our traditional knowledge systems has not been able to be developed, because they have not been duly regulated with full guarantees by successive governments. Likewise, public and development policies have been focused on extractivist economic models; over several hundred years, many of the booms and the armed conflict have been factors that today have the Inga People on the verge of physical and cultural extermination, as the honourable Constitutional Court has stated on repeated occasions.

Fighting against an entire system, without real and conscious support, in which even Indigenous organisations themselves have been permeated by corruption, has not been easy; however, the constant attacks, threats and phenomena of violence did not make the Inga People waver in its purpose of defending its rights.

We highlight the role of women in the defence of our territory, such as mama Fidelina Muchavisoy, governor of the Inga Indigenous Reserve of Chaluayaco, a leader who with full conviction has given her life to the defence of her territory, a wise and tireless Inga authority in the defence of the Ancestral Territory Nukanchipa Alpa Amukunapa Wasi; she had to face death threats, persecution and discrimination, and to defend the convictions and mandates of her community, the Inga Indigenous Reserve of Chaluayaco; as an Inga visionary, she has always been concerned about the invasion of the territory by non-Indigenous people, who have a different way of using the resources the land provides and who, as a rule, and as can be seen in the population centres, indiscriminately destroy everything in their path.

Another wise woman is governor Elvia Descanse Muchavisoy, who recounts that at 7 years of age she walked barefoot for 6 days from Mocoa to Nukanchipa Alpa Amukunapa Wasi in search of a safer habitat, because where they had been living they were being harassed by the settler population, and they decided to come to the lower part beside the Chaluayaco River in the Ancestral Territory Nukanchipa Alpa Amukunapa so that the Muchavisoy Buesaquillo clan could preserve its legacy.

Our territory has always been at risk, and traditional medicine is what protects it. The elders Mesías Muchavisoy and Artemio Chicunque and the young Inga leader Fidelina Muchavisoy, through counsel and traditional medicine, were able to identify the risk to which they were exposed; there was a warning about oil exploration in the Ancestral Territory Nukanchipa Alpa Amukunapa, and despite their economic limitations the authorities began in 1994 the administrative procedure to title the Ancestral Territory Nukanchipa Alpa; however, this process was not easy. One of the great threats to the constitution was the interest of the Colombian government of the time and of all the institutions in exploiting oil in the territory of Amukunapa. With the arrival of this kind of extractivist economy in the Department, some actors outside the law and institutions backed the oil company CANADIAN PETROLEUM in 1999; the armed groups outside the law of that time, some settlers who arrived with the exploration, and the local and national government supported this oil company so that it could intervene in the territory. In this way they largely denied the territorial aspiration of the Inga Indigenous Reserve of Chaluayaco, leaving out the extent of the territory of amukunapa and its sacred sites, because it was going to be explored by this oil company. In the Resolution constituting the Inga Indigenous Reserve of Chaluayaco in 2000, the ancestral territory was not included in its entirety, causing harm to the community and to the people whose scale was not yet understood at that time.

From 2000 onwards, the period in which the armed conflict reached its greatest intensity and affected the Inga People and Indigenous communities without distinction. Throughout this context, the community of Chaluayaco continued its process in defence of the territory, demanding free, prior and informed consent and non-intervention in the territory.

The elders identified that one of the threats was the planned Villagarzón–Orito road corridor, which posed a great risk; by mandate of the community, led by former governor Fidelina Muchavisoy, it was stated that the opening of the road was not consented to, because intervening in the territory would affect the life of the community, as had happened since the incursion of the oil company and, with it, the settler population.

Colonisation has caused great harm to the territory and culture of the Inga People. The settlers have transformed the territory; discrimination and ignorance of history, together with ambition for the conquest of land, have led them to coordinate actions from the community action boards (juntas de acción comunal), opposing the territorial protection processes led by the Inga authorities; they have even carried out unlawful actions that have endangered the lives of public officials in the process of titling the ancestral territory. At present the lives of the Inga authorities of Villagarzón, and of those of us who are part of the process and defence of the Territory Nukanchipa Alpa Amukunapa Wasi, are at risk.

The Inga People of Villagarzón has the sole purpose of preventing the intervention and destruction of the only reserve of life that the municipality of Villagarzón has, which is in a high state of conservation as primary forest, and is the habitat, the house of all the sacred sites and places of cultural importance of the Inga People of Villagarzón, being a legacy of its ancestors that has been preserved from generation to generation.

Despite the opposition and persecution by settlers, and the context of armed conflict, in 2009 a working group led by the Inga engineer Jairo Fernando Muchavisoy and Pablo Cúchala Tisoy carried out a technical survey of the territory, using GPS, to produce the basic cartography of the territory and to reference in general terms the sacred sites to which the wise Iachas of the Inga People had authorised entry; among the Indigenous authorities, spaces were created to recognise the territorial boundaries. A second trip into the territory was then scheduled to survey the boundary along the Putumayo River, closing at the sacred site known as the salt lick of the parrots (ATUN URITO SALADO); prepared with their own medicine and guided by the wise Iachas Sinchis, they marked the boundary over a period of 15 days. The trip was authorised by the traditional doctors, the Indigenous commission was duly harmonised, and the GPS points of the boundary travelled were taken; it was also confirmed that the interior of the territory is still preserved in its natural primary state and that there was no presence of settlers, plots or interventions. The trip is documented with video footage, a trip report and a photographic record.

Once the information had been processed with the technical support of engineer Jairo Muchavisoy, ACIMVIP and the Inga authorities resumed the procedure before INCODER, and a route was agreed with INCODER to comply with Decree 1071 of 2015, which required updated information and certain guidelines to begin the process of Constitution of the Reserve; however, once the coordination and scheduling had been done, the INCODER team was turned back with threats and unlawful actions, and INCODER Territorial Putumayo thereupon withdrew from the process. It was then, by mandate of the authorities, that Robinson López Descanse (R.I.P.) took up the process again and carried out the necessary steps for its continuity, positioning the process in the various local, regional and national bodies so that it would be prioritised by the institutions, its recognition could advance and the legal certainty of the Ancestral Territory Nukanchipa Alpa Amukunapa would be guaranteed. Amid uncertainty as to whether the process would be prioritised, thanks to the traceability of the process, which has its own file kept at ACIMVIP, the administrative work was resumed, the process was prioritised in the La María minga, the resistance minga of Putumayo, and a direct government-to-government dialogue began between the Inga authorities of Villagarzón and the national government, led at that time by Robinson López Descanse, a leader who died as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, but who left the path open and a legacy that is part of the lived history of struggle and resistance.

With an open agenda of dialogue and relations, and with the participation of Robinson Lopez at national level and the support of national institutions and Indigenous organisations in the participation spaces, the path continued to be prepared; likewise, locally, vigilance was not lowered, and by mandate of the authorities Carlos López Descanse of the Inga Indigenous Reserve of Chaluayaco was elected and re-elected for a period of 6 years ending in 2021. With clarity, principles and experience of the process, he led the coordination and accompaniment of each of the activities in the territory and of the procedures to comply with the provisions of Decree 1071 of 2015 at local, regional and national level, with the accompaniment of the Indigenous technical team, from the coordination of territory and environment, always rigorously complying with the Constitution and the law.

There were many threats, setbacks and attacks against the process, to the point of delaying its momentum and the work plan; smokescreens were woven around the Constitution of the Reserve, and acts of bad faith sought to sabotage the process and delegitimise it; nevertheless, there were officials from the institutions that guarantee the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Despite the threats against the life and physical integrity of the Indigenous leaders, the chaskis, guardians of mother earth, and the authorities did not give up and continued to comply with due process so as to guarantee the Constitution of the Inga Indigenous Reserve of Nukanchipa Alpa Amukunapa Wasi; thus, despite the many unlawful actions that arose during the Constitution process, the accompaniment of the Delegate Ombudsman's Office for Ethnic Groups and the Delegate Procurator's Office for Ethnic Groups helped to clarify the working route and ensure compliance with due process within their functions, providing sound accompaniment of the process, which enabled the National Land Agency (ANT) to fulfil its functions and carry out the compilation and the requirements set out in Decree 1071 of 2015.

After the fieldwork, the respective administrative acts were issued by the Ministry of the Interior, giving a favourable opinion on the viability of the constitution of the Reserve; Amukunapa thus had the complete file to be submitted to the board of directors of the ANT, which, after its analysis and review, declared in January 2020, through Agreement 113, the constitution of the Inga Indigenous Reserve of Nukanchipa Alpa Amukunapa Wasi. The reactions of the opponents, who sought to use any irregular action to tarnish and prevent the constitution of the Reserve, were not long in coming: an association of peasant farmers called ADEVESCA filed an appeal, without any valid basis, to which the ANT responded within its functions and competences; they subsequently filed a tutela (constitutional action), which did not succeed, as it was rejected because the Judge considered it inadmissible; and finally, through Agreement 126 of 15 July 2020, the Board of Directors of the ANT resolved the appeal for reconsideration and confirmed in all its parts Agreement 113 of 28 January 2020, which had already declared the Constitution of the Inga Indigenous Reserve of Nukanchipa Alpa Amukunapa Wasi. In this way the struggle for and vindication of this fundamental right, with the effort and support of the institutions, was made final, for the safeguarding and survival of the Inga People of Villagarzón.

Owing to a lack of understanding of the importance of constituting a Reserve in this kind of highly fragile area, whose vocation is conservation, they fail to recognise the importance that the conservation of this territory through the Reserve figure has had to date, since it was constituted for the purpose of being conserved, which translates into a collective benefit that makes no distinction among the population; nevertheless, the tenure and the right of the Inga People of Villagarzón over the Ancestral Territory of Nukanchipa Alpa Amukunapa Wasi are recognised, as it is ancestral and of permanent use and access within the framework of its cosmogony.

In this sense, our final invitation as Inga authorities is for communities, public and private institutions and the majority population to support this process of protecting the territory, which seeks to guarantee the conservation of the rivers that rise in these mountain ranges, the water vital for all the communities settled in Villagarzón, Pto Caicedo and Orito, its flora and fauna for subsistence and repopulation, and the primary forest that is the basis of the harmonious balance in the territory of the Municipality of Villagarzón, the Department of Putumayo and the Colombian Amazon; a process that concluded satisfactorily, with rigorous compliance with the Constitution and the law, thanks to the struggle and resistance of many leaders and authorities who were part of this process.

“Indigenous Peoples are the ones who have conserved the forests. The hope for protecting the forests lies in the ancestral knowledge of the Amazonian Indigenous Peoples”

Robinson López Descanse 1984-2020

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