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The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is in mourning. Danilo Villafañe, the country's best-known Arhuaco leader, died this Monday while trying to rescue two young women swept away by ocean currents near Perico Aguao, an area bordering Santa Marta and Mingueo, in the Colombian Caribbean . In addition to the governor of the Arhuaco Council, Erika Izquierdo, a 15-year-old indigenous teenager, also died. The bodies of the members of this indigenous community were brought to Katanzama, the center of thought of the Arhuacos, to say goodbye. Gunna Chaparro, Danilo's wife, still cannot process what happened. “Danilo went into the sea without thinking about taking care of others. He was like that, that defined him,” he says on the phone. “My husband didn't drown, he died saving other people. The king is gone, the Arhuaco king,” laments Chaparro. Villafañe leaves behind two daughters, ages four and five.
The 49-year-old indigenous leader has been a leader in the fight against climate change and defending the rights of his community and other Sierra Nevada cities. Without caring about the political colors of the governors, presidents or ministers, he was one of the most important interlocutors of those who cared about the ecosystems and the Colombian people. Carlos Eduardo Correa, Colombia's former Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, remembers “how much he learned from him”: “Danilo had a very inclusive vision. He always spoke of “defending what is ours.” And he had the ability to bring into his community all the younger brothers who were not native but white. “He wanted to show us why we need to protect their territories.” Correa also highlights Danilo's “selfless” leadership: “He managed to sit with businessmen, governors and other communities. He sat with everyone because his priority was to defend the rights of his community. His legacy is indelible.”
A clear expression of this integrative vision are the condolences from countless Colombian politicians on social networks. Among them, President Gustavo Petro. “We met several times to discuss the forms of the climate crisis in the region, the installation of clean energies in the heart of the Earth: the Sierra Nevada, which he loved, and the creation of the black line,” the president wrote to the social network X , formerly Twitter. “He died defending his life,” he concluded.
Iván Duque, president between 2018 and 2022, who is in ideological opposition to Petro, also spoke out. “Colombia today loses a great leader and fighter for the protection and preservation of the environment of the Sierra and our country.” Álvaro Uribe, former president of the country and political boss of Duque, also expressed his condolences on social networks: “This news hurts deeply. Danilo was a great leader, a great indigenous person, a great patriot. What a void his departure leaves.” Senators, ministers, activists, journalists and friends also mourned his death. The networks were flooded with memories, farewell greetings and hundreds of pictures of the smiling leader they knew as the “Chancellor of Ecosystems.”
Fabio Arjona, managing director of Conservation International and friend of Danilo, “can’t quite believe his death” either. “We had so many projects together… My partner, my wise friend, spiritual guide and source of inspiration, suddenly left,” he laments. “It has been less than a week since we spoke to congratulate each other on Christmas and to advance the process of consolidating the Arhuaco territory.” Arjona, who knew him for more than 30 years, hides his sadness at the loss one of Colombia's “greatest leaders” does not. “He knew that building a great bridge to the West, to the white people, was a great way for his people to move forward and gain more rights. And he did it without giving up his traditions and always in a peaceful way.”
The Arhuacos are one of four indigenous peoples living in the Sierra Nevada, a sacred territory for these communities. This town of about 40,000 people was driven into the mountains from the coast where they originally lived. And they have spent centuries fighting peacefully to regain access to the sea and their territories, and to ensure that their culture and worldview is recognized and preserved. They were also heavily affected by violence and illegal cultivation in their territories during the Colombian armed conflict. Danilo's activism, those who know him say, was one of the most important in this demand, inside and outside Colombia.
A few weeks ago he was in Dubai to speak about his community during the COP28 sessions. There he was accompanied by his wife and Alicia Montalvo, Climate Action and Positive Biodiversity Manager at CAF Bank for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean. “I always had projects in mind and the desire to improve and move forward. Although he remained very faithful to his traditions, he was a great visionary and someone who was very modern and knew how to captivate by talking about the Sierra Nevada or the Heart of the World as he called it.”
A few minutes before his talk in Dubai began, Montalvo recalls, Danilo performed a ceremony with herbs and asked him to find a pot in which to plant them later. “I smiled and told him I would plant it in the desert a few days later. There are. In the end he was right, in the end everything has to do with the Sierra Nevada.”