News · 13 December 2021
The struggle of Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples to protect a river from oil pollution
The Ambiente y Sociedad Association published this video on 13 December 2021 about the La Cabaña APE project, located in the municipality of Villagarzón, Putumayo. According to its representatives, the project is affecting the survival of 11 Inga communities and two Afro-descendant communities, which are calling for prior consultation to be guaranteed while the case proceeds through a tutela action and awaits a ruling of the Constitutional Court.
The La Cabaña APE, in Gran Tierra Energy Colombia's PUT-1 Block, is one of the territorial defence cases of the Inga People of Villagarzón, which has the legal support of Ambiente y Sociedad. On 15 July 2015 the Administrative Court of Nariño granted a tutela action in favour of ACIMVIP for the violation of the fundamental right to prior consultation. In January 2023 the company abandoned the oil project and, following the announcement of the sale of its business in Colombia on 5 August 2026, ACIMVIP recalled that the prior consultation on the closure of the APE has still not been carried out.
Originally published by Asociación Ambiente y Sociedad on YouTube on December 13, 2021
