Embera indigenous people displaced by violence will soon be able to return to their communities; they demand guarantees

More than 300 indigenous families of the Emberá culture could soon return to their communities, from where They fled because of the violenceafter several years surviving in makeshift houses built with plastic materials and pieces of wood, some of which have been installed since 2021 in a central park in Bogotá.

The shifty glances of the women, some visibly tired as they carry small children on their backs or food they obtain by begging on the streets, is just one of many signs of the precarious conditions in which they have lived these years.

The Emberá Action Plan, an initiative of the Bogotá district administration that has more than 1 million dollars at its disposal, could change the fate of these people as early as next Friday.

“The Victims Unit is leading the return of 280 households that will return to Alto Andágueda, in the vicinity of Risaralda and Chocó. Meanwhile, 39 households will be temporarily relocated and 11 people will be integrated in Bogotá,” the government entity known as Victims Unit.

The Emberá ethnic group is an Amerindian people who live in some areas of the Pacific region and adjacent areas of Colombia, eastern Panama and northwestern Ecuador. They have dedicated themselves especially to ecotourism, crafts and fishing.

“We have been living here in the National Park for 11 months. We demand that the national government respect the rights of the indigenous Emberá populations and we are also seeking to ensure that their return takes place with a guarantee of housing, a project, education and health,” said Fabio Arias, vice-governor of the Association of Indigenous Councils for Colombia.

Embera Action Route

The plan known as the Emberá Action Route is governed by the 24/7 Mobile Strategy and a Unified Command Post (PMU) that works to identify risks and activate care and protection routes for girls, boys and adolescents in this community. Seven entities from the District participate in the initiative in a coordinated manner, including the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare and the Police for Children and Adolescents.

Financial inclusion through the Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) strategy is one of the objectives of this plan, which seeks to guarantee the necessary funds for the return of Aboriginal people to their territories of origin.

According to the plan, funds will be delivered through mobile applications or cash withdrawals at the counter through authorized channels. To register for this system, beneficiaries must present their personal identification to be entered into the payment platform.

“This is the first time that we are going to use this type of payment due to manifest urgency, within the framework of the new regulation of the Guaranteed Minimum Income. We signed a decree that enables us, in this type of circumstances, where there is urgency or force majeure, to use our money transfer platform,” he told the newspaper. VOA Roberto Angulo, district secretary of the Secretariat of Social Integration.

The official assured that this entire exercise of financial inclusion will be available to the population living in the National Park, regardless of an established return date.

“When the financial support is delivered, the children and family members who are without food will benefit, because we have been without food for three months here in the National Park,” said indigenous leader Fabio Arias.

According to the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, indigenous peoples physically occupy 404 million hectares in Latin America, one fifth of the continent’s total surface area.

In different regions, indigenous and tribal populations have fought for collective land rights, including indigenous communities in Brazil who marched in April this year to demand faster regularization of the lands they have occupied for centuries in that country.

“The plan for return, temporary relocation and local integration will begin with a farewell ceremony (…) a spiritual ceremony and a community pot to share among the entities and communities,” said the website of Unidad para las Víctimas, a government entity in charge of the return of Emberá displaced by violence.

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