Autonomy, Indigenous Peoples, and Afro-Descendants in Colombia (original) (raw)
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This text aims at showing the history of indigenous peoples' mobilization in Colombia, the effects that it has brought about on Colombian democracy and political system, and the state's reactions to their claims and actions. It will show how they have moved from class-based claims to a politics where identity claims have been central in their agenda and part of their strategies to negotiate with the state. It will also show the existing constitutional and legal framework that recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples, despite the context of persecution, murder, and forced displacement.
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This article shows a novel facet in the complex relation between multiculturalism, the state and the market. Contrary to conventional theories in political science, sociology and anthropology, it shows that it is not just the success, but also the failure of the state and the market to commoditise nature and turn it into property that can actually help to foster ethnic identity. While state-driven market incentives to expand the agricultural frontier in Colombia during the 1960s and 1970s failed, they did help to foster differentiated indigenous identities and organisations, which converged around the revival of long-forgotten nineteenth century indigenous laws and other political opportunities to reclaim lands that had been taken away from them. Moreover, this article also shows that during a period of institutional openness in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the political emergence of indigenous identities became an important component of Colombia's state-building processes by helping this country to maintain its territorial integrity through a model of delegated indigenous governance.
Journal of Latin American Studies
In the 1990s, Colombia decentralised politics and passed multicultural reforms as part of wider strategies to strengthen the state. Multiculturalism produced a complex institutional environment marked by jurisdictional overlap and legal plurality. The literature on Colombia's multiculturalism confirms that violence, indigenous rights abuses and the lack of enabling legislation on indigenous territorial entities limited ethno-political autonomy and instead enhanced the capacity of the state to transform indigenous identity and bureaucratise local decision-making practices. However, some indigenous authorities used the new institutions to take control of communal matters, changing local governments along the way. The better-known case of indigenous self-government is that of the Nasa people in Cauca, characterised by the capture of local institutions to advance ethnic rights. In my study of the Embera Chamí of Karmata Rúa (Antioquia) I argue that they represent an alternative appr...
The indigenous participation as a pathway to decoloniality in a developing world: a reading from the constitutional jurisprudence in Colombia, 2021
Although development is a complex economic, social, cultural, and political process aimed at the constant improvement and well-being of the entire population, in many cases, it is equated with economic growth only. Focusing exclusively on this type of development, contributes to the strengthening of the economic growth of dominant economies and dismisses the local needs and knowledge of the indigenous peoples in the territory where these development projects are implemented. Based on this perspective, the concept of development becomes a discursive instrument that reflects the evolution from physical colonialism to the coloniality of power. This paper illustrates how in dominant judgments of the Constitutional Court of Colombia, indigenous participation might be a pathway to decoloniality. To reach this conclusion, this paper is divided into three sections: the first examines the concept of good living1 as one of the most significant development expressions of indigenous identity; the second analyzes the notion of good living regarding the concepts of coloniality and development; the third discusses prior consultation and free, prior, and informed consent as fundamental rights and social processes that play a decolonial role in indigenous communities in Colombia.
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El movimiento indígena de Colombia es uno de los movimientos pioneros en el continente Latinoamericano. Si bien los pueblos indígenas desde la época de la colonización se enfrentaron a la dominación y explotación económica, las movilizaciones indígenas recientes comenzaron a partir de la década de los años setenta y se concentraron en la recuperación de las tierras ancestrales. Con el tiempo, se extendió el campo de la lucha indígena hacia el control y protección del medio ambiente, hacia la búsqueda de alternativas para disminuir la dependencia de la economía capitalista; así mismo, la cuestión de la cultura y de la identidad, de los derechos humanos y del logro de una verdadera constitución pluriétnica, fueron aspectos fundamentales de sus reivindicaciones. En este sentido, se formaron grupos y organizaciones a nivel comunal, regional, nacional e internacional.
The Afro-Colombian Movement’s Institutional Activism and Political Impact (1991–2018)
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In this chapter, the author analyzes the political negotiations that preceded the declaration of the 1991 Constitution, the subsequent debates within the Special Commission for Black Communities (responsible for elaborating Law 70 of 1993 which replaced AT55), the organizational reconfiguring of the Afro-Colombian movement after Law 70, and the eventual institutional rapprochement with the state. The chapter demonstrates that there was a strong pluralization and specialization on an organizational level of the Afro-Colombian movement throughout the 1990s. Furthermore, the chapter discusses how the multi-cultural turn of the Colombian state, the peace accords established between the Colombian government, the guerrillas and paramilitary groups, the increase in forced displacement of rural Black communities, and the political-economic relations between Colombia and the United States played an influential role on the way Afro-Colombian movements organized.
This paper focuses on the demands for autonomy of the Kogui, Arhuaco, Wiwa and Kankwamo peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta with regard to control over their territories, self-determination, indigenous legal jurisdiction, management of the environment, food sovereignty, and political control through their own authorities. The main argument is that the autonomy of indigenous peoples is being influenced by the current context of local, national and international conflicts and other specific circumstances in the region in such a way as to require viewing autonomy as a complex process that transcends national and supranational legal frameworks. Indigenous autonomy is articulated within local, national and international dynamics and within processes of recognition of, and disregard for, indigenous rights – obliging us to understand it as a relational indigenous autonomy. It is relational because it is expressed in different ways depending on the interactions among different social actors and the specificities of the historical contexts.
R e s u m e n La participación del estado en la simultánea marginalización, atención y cuidado de las poblacionesétnicas invita a re-examinar las condiciones, formas e implicaciones de las ciudadanías indígenas contemporáneas, caracterizadas por Postero , para el caso de Bolivia, como "post-multiculturales." Este artículo se centra en cómo la reciente reparación de "víctimas indígenas," resultado principalmente de violencia paramilitar en el norte de Colombia, fue el escenario de una radicalización del discurso sobre la ciudadanía indígena entre las personas y organizaciones implicadas. El artículo presta atención a las preocupaciones expresadas por personas directamente involucradas en la creciente articulación entre reparación, política social y ciudadanía, quienes han visto su "indigenidad" asociada a victimización y vulnerabilidad. Los datos en los cuales se basa este artículo son resultado de trece meses de trabajo de campo etnográfico entre el año 2007 y 2008 con indígenas víctimas de los paramilitares en La Guajira colombiana.