Gustavo Petro’s government and the ELN guerrillas have struck a series of humanitarian agreements at the negotiating table in Caracas, which they will implement in a few weeks. One of them is to drive the Embera Indians, who have been displaced across the country, to the Alto de Andágueda, their place of origin, according to negotiating circles. The indigenous people were forced to flee this area due to the violence that began in the 1970s, and since then it has been common to see them wandering the streets of cities such as Bogotá, Medellín or Cali.
The agreement is ready from the first day the parties met for the first time, October 4th. It remains only to carry it out. Petro is the seventh president trying to persuade guerrilla leaders to lay down their arms and get involved in politics. Unlike the FARC, which became a party with presidential ambitions in 2016, the ELN intends to maintain its influence in the areas where it currently has a social base. His eyes are not on the big cities. His intention at the negotiating table is to resolve some historic problems facing the country’s most vulnerable.
A group of Emberá indigenous women meet for a secret talk at a camp in Bogotá National Park, Colombia. April 20, 2022. Ivan Valencia
Undoubtedly there are the Emberas. Jairo Montañez, coordinator of a region’s indigenous authorities, claims that they have been informed that this could happen from December 20. “We are okay with the returns, but we need guarantees. We don’t know the real guarantees given to those who return. That was our constant complaint,” adds Montañez.
The tragedy of the Emberas was very visible in Bogotá. Displaced people from across the country settled in one of the city’s main parks to denounce the threats and violence they face from armed groups. They were there for months in very precarious conditions. A child died from a cold. The then government of Iván Duque signed an agreement with them to guarantee safe conditions for their return to their cities, but this was not fully realized. 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 officers with sticks and stones before police showed up. Petro condemned the violence, but days later he reassured that it was important to find a solution for a community that had been forgotten for half a century.
Newsletter
Current affairs analysis and the best stories from Colombia, delivered to your inbox every week
GET THE
The new director of the Unit for Victims, Patricia Tobón Yagarí, said two weeks ago that her plan was to resolve compliance with the dozens of judgments, guardianships and pronouncements of the Constitutional Court and countless judicial orders ordering the state to intervene funds the Problems faced by these Embera communities, according to the newspaper El Espectador.
The matter has ended up in the hands of the Caracas negotiators. Achieving a peace with the guerrillas, culminating in the surrender of their armies, requires agreements like these that radically improve the lives of displaced and abused tribal people.
Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS newsletter on Colombia and receive all the latest information about the country.