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The Government and the ELN agree on the return to their territory of the Emberas displaced throughout the country

2022-12-03T14:14:33.919Z


The indigenous community would return to the area from which they had to flee due to the armed conflict


The government of Gustavo Petro and the ELN guerrillas have reached a series of humanitarian agreements at the negotiation table in Caracas that they will execute in a matter of weeks.

One of them is to drive the Embera Indians displaced throughout the country to the Alto de Andágueda, their place of origin, according to negotiating sources.

The natives had to flee that territory due to the violence that began in the 1970s and since then it is common to see them wandering the streets of cities such as Bogotá, Medellín or Cali.

The agreement is ready from the first day that the parties sat down for the first time, on October 4.

It just remains to carry it out.

Petro is the seventh president to try to convince guerrilla leaders to lay down their weapons and engage in politics.

Unlike the FARC, which became a party with presidential aspirations in 2016, the ELN intends to maintain its influence in the territories where it currently has a social base.

His gaze is not set on the big cities.

His intention at the negotiating table is to solve some historical problems of the most vulnerable in the country.

A group of indigenous Emberá women meet to talk in secret, in a camp located in the National Park of Bogotá, Colombia.

April 20, 2022. Iván Valencia

Undoubtedly, there are the Emberas.

Jairo Montañez, coordinator of the indigenous authorities of a region, maintains that they have been informed that this could happen as of December 20.

“We agree with the returns, but we need guarantees.

We do not know the real guarantees that will be given to those who return.

That has been our constant complaint”, adds Montañez.

The tragedy of the Emberas has been very visible in Bogotá.

Displaced people from all over the country settled in one of the most important parks in the city to denounce the threats and violence they suffer from armed groups.

They were there for months, in very precarious conditions.

A child died of cold.

The government of that time, that of Iván Duque, signed an agreement with them to guarantee safe conditions on their return to their towns, something that did not fully materialize.

Now, the authorities want that return to become a reality.

In mid-October, the Embera protested in the streets of Bogotá.

The protest ended in serious riots.

Authorities say some protesters began attacking public officials with sticks and stones before the police showed up.

Petro condemned the violence, but days later he assured that the important thing was to find a solution for a community that had been forgotten for half a century.

The new director of the Unit for Victims, Patricia Tobón Yagarí, said two weeks ago that her plan is to accelerate compliance with the dozens of sentences, guardianships and pronouncements of the Constitutional Court and countless judicial orders that order the State to intervene fund to solve the problems of these Embera communities, according to the newspaper El Espectador.

The matter has ended up in the hands of the Caracas negotiators.

In order to reach peace with the guerrillas, which will culminate in the handing over of their armies, it is necessary to go through agreements like this one, in which it is intended to radically improve the lives of displaced and mistreated indigenous people.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-12-03

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