PERMANENT PEOPLES' TRIBUNAL, SESSION ON COLOMBIA ...

VIOLATION OF THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
The oil exploration and exploitation has meant internal displacement, expulsion,
or near extinction for a large portion of indigenous communities (U’wa, Sikuane,
Macaguan, Cuiba, Guahibo, Betoye, Bari, Cofan, Nasa, Inga, Embera Chamí,
Siona, Awá, Pasto, Camsá, Yanacona, and Camentzá) through the invasion and
subsequent destruction of their ancestral territories. Likewise, since oil
exploration and exploitation began in these different regions, indigenous persons
have been the victims of murder, massacres, detentions, and torture at the hands
of State or para-State agents, as these enterprises and the State consider these
communities to be an obstacle to oil extraction.
Frequently, these peoples are accused of being terrorists, guerrilla members,
rebels, or subversives, which is meant to weaken indigenous resistance and
encourage them to abandon their land. Paradoxically, these cultures are
traditionally peaceful and have lived and worked the land for thousands of years.
The process of the gradual abandonment of indigenous lands has been carried
out in violation of the ILO Convention No. 169 on indigenous and tribal peoples,
which expressly establishes the right to consultation on the transfer of their lands
and prescribes said peoples should not be removed from the lands they occupy.
This was recently recognised by Constitutional Court ruling T-880 in relation to
the Barí people, but also extending to all indigenous peoples.
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERIORATION
Petroleum exploration and exploitation activities carried out by transnational
companies and the Colombian government have required a significant amount of
infrastructure, including communication routes, buildings, crude oil transport
systems, oil wells, water treatment facilities, stabilisation ponds, military bases,
and airports and heliports. These projects have destroyed vast expanses of forest