- Mongabay interviewed José Homero Mutumbajoy, an experienced Indigenous rights defender in Colombia, to hear his take on some of the latest and biggest events affecting Indigenous communities and forests in the country’s Amazon.
- Events include protests against Libero Cobre’s copper mine, the impacts of armed groups, protections of forests for isolated peoples and plans for the upcoming U.N. climate conference.
- Homero Mutumbajoy and other Indigenous delegates came to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City to spotlight issues they face in their country.
- Homero Mutumbajoy is the human rights and peace coordinator for OPIAC, the national organization for Colombia’s Amazon peoples.
This is the second of three interviews with Indigenous representatives at the United Nations about the latest issues in their country’s Amazon forests. Read the interview about the Peruvian Amazon here and Brazilian Amazon here.
NEW YORK CITY — Mongabay caught up with José Homero Mutumbajoy, an Indigenous rights defender in Colombia, to get his view on some of the latest and biggest issues affecting Indigenous communities and forests in the country’s Amazon as well as the solutions he believes are needed.
Homero Mutumbajoy spoke with us at one of the world’s largest gatherings of Indigenous peoples, the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City. There, representatives from across the globe came to spotlight issues they face in their country — often in front of their country’s government officials.
Our conversation touched on Libero Cobre (Libero Copper), a Canadian mining company that is on the minds of Indigenous rights organizations in the region. We also discussed ongoing conflicts with armed groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the creation of a territory for the isolated Yuri-Passé, solutions to protect forests for isolated peoples and plans for the upcoming U.N. climate conference. About 30% of Colombia is covered by the Amazon Rainforest, and the region of Caquetá, home to several Indigenous peoples, leads the nation in tree cover loss, with more than 521,000 hectares (1.3 million acres) of primary forest lost since 2001.
“While many illegal armed actors are trying to take control of our territories and leaving Indigenous peoples at a high risk of vulnerability, we are exercising our own government,” Homero Mutumbajoy said. “We are strengthening our ancestral and spiritual knowledge systems and implementing our own legal instruments to try to protect our lands.”
An Inga leader from the Yunguillo reserve, José Homero Mutumbajoy is the human rights and peace coordinator for OPIAC, the national organization for Colombia’s Amazon peoples. He has held positions as secretary of his community, political authority and governor and president of OZIP, an Indigenous organization in Putumayo.
This interview was translated from Portuguese and edited for clarity. This is the second of three interviews with Amazon Indigenous leaders attending the U.N. forum.
Mongabay: What are your main objectives with your assistance here at the forum?
José Homero Mutumbajoy: One of the main objectives for participating in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is precisely to highlight to states, Indigenous peoples and civil society the importance of recognizing the rights of the Indigenous peoples in South America, especially in Colombia and the Colombian Amazon.
We also want to highlight that we have special rights that protect isolated Indigenous peoples and Indigenous peoples who were initially contacted. We have fundamental rights that must be recognized by the states, such as the right to exist, the right to live and the right to free self-determination.
Mongabay: Can you share with us the latest events on the ground regarding the Libero Cobre copper mine in Colombia? According to our latest articles, there were protests by communities in the region against the mine due to concerns over impacts on deforestation, water and landslides. What’s going on at the moment?
José Homero Mutumbajoy: We have a particular problem in the Colombian Amazon in the face of these extractive multinationals that have been plundering the territory, that have been destroying our territory and generating environmental, social, territorial and cultural impacts. This is not only an issue with oil companies and illegal mining, but legal mining as well. This is the particular issue we have with the company Libero Cobre that is affecting the territory of the department of Putumayo, more precisely in the municipality of Mocoa. Mocoa is not only an area where Indigenous communities live, but also local communities. We are being directly affected by practices of Libero Cobre.
For the last 25 days, we have been doing an ongoing peaceful protest. We are letting all locals move around freely, but we are preventing machinery, workers and officials from entering. Women and men are raising their voices to safeguard the land from the risks such a large-scale project can have on a land like Mocoa, a center of hydrological importance for the Andean-Amazonian region.
We are doing an urgent call for the general community to take part in this fight so that national officials hear us and that Libero Cobre leaves the area.
Mongabay: The conflict with the FARC armed group has restricted the entry and work of national park rangers in protected areas of the Colombian Amazon. Some, such as Puinawai, La Paya and Chiribiquete, have been inaccessible for more than five years. What role have Indigenous peoples played in the conservation of those protected areas to which the state no longer has access?
José Homero Mutumbajoy: Well, the conflicts caused by armed actors is an additional conflict on top of the presence of extractive activities. It is true that there are many illegal armed actors in Indigenous territories trying to gain control of land and leaving Indigenous peoples at a high risk of vulnerability. We, Indigenous peoples, are exercising our own government, strengthening our ancestral and spiritual knowledge systems and implementing our own legal instruments to continue protecting and shielding the territories.
And for this purpose, we built Indigenous environmental management plans with the communities. We take inspiration from our cosmovision and cosmogony to create actions to continue protecting the territory and our Mother Earth.
Mongabay: How do illegal logging and timber laundering affect Indigenous communities in Colombia?
José Homero Mutumbajoy: In Colombia, this is an issue that has been directly affecting Indigenous peoples and causing deforestation. Logging has expanded so much today and is affecting not only Indigenous peoples who live in the Amazon, but also those who are bordering in countries like Brazil, Peru and Ecuador. It’s also affecting isolated people who, as I mentioned before, are even more vulnerable than us. This risks damaging their health, their integrity and their survival — both physically and culturally.
Mongabay: At the forum, you’ve been putting a lot of emphasis on isolated and recently contacted people (also called uncontacted people). What are the main threats facing isolated peoples in Colombia?
José Homero Mutumbajoy: In Colombia, we have two recognized Indigenous peoples in a situation of isolation or natural state, as we Indigenous peoples call it, which is the Yuri and Passé people, located in the Apure River National Park on the Brazilian border. But there are also indications of 16 more Indigenous peoples that are yet to be recognized.
Mercury contamination, extractivism and armed groups are generating serious direct threats to these Indigenous peoples. At the same time, illegal logging, deforestation and the climate crisis have been increasing in this area of the Amazon.
It is true that in Colombia we have legal instruments that protect the rights of these peoples in isolation, such as Decree 1232 of 2018. But there is limited implementation of it by the government. There is also no realization of monitoring bodies of the national commissions, precisely to control and monitor the implementation of this legal instrument.
Mongabay: In your opinion, what are some solutions?
José Homero Mutumbajoy: Together with NGOs we have tried to build some protection protocols. For example, the construction of an action, prevention and contingency plan in order to continue protecting the fundamental right of no contact of these peoples.
We are living an experience that is really regrettable with the Indigenous brothers of the Nukak people located in the department of Guaviare. Today, their territory and culture are really affected. Practically day by day they are being assassinated. My organization (OPIAC) and many other organizations in Colombia are working so that immediate and urgent attention is given to safeguard the health, integrity and survival of these isolated peoples who today are in a high degree of vulnerability.
Mongabay: What is OPIAC preparing for the upcoming U.N. climate conference in Belém, Brazil (also known as COP30)?
José Homero Mutumbajoy: As Indigenous peoples of the Colombian Amazon we are looking for strategic allies who can unify and raise a voice. We are raising a voice not only as victims of extractivism, but as a source of hope to provide solutions and alternatives to protect the territory and say no more fossil fuels in the Amazon. We invite you to weave this strategic alliance to decide and maintain an Amazon free of fossil fuels.
Banner image: An Inga leader from the Yunguillo reserve, José Homero Mutumbajoy is the human rights and peace coordinator for OPIAC. Image courtesy of José Homero Mutumbajoy.
The latest issues in Peru’s Amazon: Interview with Indigenous leader Julio Cusurichi
‘We can’t talk solutions without understanding complexities: Kari Guajajara on Brazil’s Amazon
Citation:
Ruiz-Agudelo, C. A., Gutiérrez-Bonilla, F. D., Cortes-Gómez, A. M., & Suarez, A. (2022). A first approximation to the Colombian Amazon basin remnant natural capital. Policy and development implications. Trees, Forests and People, 10, 100334. doi:10.1016/j.tfp.2022.100334
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