Tutela ruling orders the ANT to advance the territorial expansion of the Inga Reservation of Calenturas

Indigenous Technical Secretariat – National Commission of Indigenous Territories

On June 27, 2024, the TWENTY-EIGHTH CRIMINAL CIRCUIT COURT OF BOGOTÁ D.C. gave notice of the tutela ruling that protected the fundamental rights to territory, collective property, due process, the exercise of self-government and human dignity, in favor of the Calenturas Inga Indigenous Resguardo, of Puerto Guzmán, Putumayo, ordering the National Land Agency to complete the land acquisition processes for the expansion of the Resguardo and to move forward with the clearing of title to the territory that was taken from them in the context of the armed conflict.

The tutela action was filed by the Indigenous Technical Secretariat of the National Commission of Indigenous Territories, due to the lack of progress by the National Land Agency in the processes of acquiring properties to carry out the expansion of the Resguardo and the relocation of the community displaced from its ancestral territory, as well as to carry out the land-title clearing of the territory, currently occupied by settlers and other actors foreign to the Indigenous Resguardo.

The land acquisition processes for the expansion of the Resguardo and the clearing of title of the territory formalized by the former INCORA were ordered under orders 09 and 22 of Interlocutory Order No. 00108 of 2018, in which precautionary measures were decreed by the FIRST SPECIALIZED CIVIL CIRCUIT COURT FOR LAND RESTITUTION OF MOCOA, in favor of the community, within the Territorial Rights Restitution proceeding.

The Indigenous Technical Secretariat argued non-compliance with the precautionary measures, due to the ANT's inaction in acquiring three properties in order to expand the Resguardo and relocate the community while the land-title clearing and restitution of the Resguardo territory are carried out. In the tutela filing, the STI of the CNTI further warned that, although the property offers were filed more than four years ago, the procedures ordered by the restitution judge have not yet been carried out; it also pointed out non-compliance with the agreements signed during the joint sessions of the National Commission of Indigenous Territories (CNTI), aimed at the material handover of the territories to the Indigenous community.
In light of the above, in the ruling issued, the court stated that the acquisition process has suffered an ostensible delay, and found that the ANT is in default in the three property acquisition processes. The judge stated that this unjustified delay harms the fundamental right to due process, since among the prerogatives that make it up is the principle of expediency, a principle disregarded by the ANT in the present case.

Likewise, the court, in the aforementioned ruling, considered that the ANT is violating the fundamental right to due process in the framework of the clearing of the territory constituted as a Resguardo in the late 1980s, since the scheduling and carrying out of the visits to the territory has been unjustifiably delayed, and it has merely stated that this delay is due to public risk reasons, without demonstrating any effort to advance the agreement of this procedural stage.

In sum, the constitutional judge, in the ruling issued, stated that there was a violation of the fundamental right to due process attributable to the ANT, due to the unjustified delay both in the process of acquiring the three properties for the relocation of the community and in the process of clearing the Resguardo's land title; situations that have resulted in harm to the community's fundamental prerogatives to territory, collective property, the exercise of self-government and human dignity.

In light of the above, the TWENTY-EIGHTH CRIMINAL CIRCUIT COURT WITH TRIAL JURISDICTION OF BOGOTÁ D.C., through the aforementioned ruling, ordered the National Land Agency (ANT), first, to immediately proceed with coordination with the community in order to carry out the visit to the territory to continue the land-title clearing procedure. Second, it ordered the ANT to immediately proceed with the processes of acquiring the properties offered for the expansion of the Resguardo and the relocation of the community.This judicial measure is of vital importance for the Inga Calenturas Indigenous community because it represents progress in the procedures that allow the satisfaction of its territorial and fundamental rights in order to prevent its physical and cultural extinction as subjects of special constitutional protection.

Defending the territories is defending life!

Originally published by Comisión Nacional de Territorios Indígenas (CNTI) on June 28, 2024

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