In order to clarify the problems that affect the Yukpa community and the peasant families of the Serranía del Perijá, in Cesar, various entities come together to look for possible solutions around the land, territories identified as forgotten, lags and lack of State intervention.
At the Public Hearing called “The Perijá talks”, Held in the town of San José de Oriente, municipality of La Paz, it was attended by representatives of the National Government, NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations), communities settled in the territory and the National University of Colombia (UNAL) Headquarters in La Paz.
At the event, the activities carried out by UNAL were presented, which have contributed to the construction of peace. These activities include diploma courses, meetings, field trips, participatory cartography workshops and formal map reading with leaders from this area of the country. These actions have allowed teachers and students to interact and become aware of what is happening in these territories.
Read also: Internal conflict of the Arhuaco people reached violencea
Regarding the territorial conflicts discussed during the Public Hearing, the interethnic territorial conflict led by the Yukpa indigenous community and the different peasant communities that colonized the area since the beginning of the 20th century was presented. The Yukpa community is the only ethnic group of Caribbean affiliation that lives in the Serranía, and a claim is being made for its ancestral territory, which covers a good part of the north and center of Cesar to the east of the river of the same name.
In addition, the framework of the Judgment was addressed T-375-23, that protects the right to prior consultation, and the need to expand and clean up the reservations of these communities was explained, as well as the peasant territoriality and the colonization that has occurred through various “waves” of refugees in different cycles of violence. Finally, the difficulty of the environmental territoriality of the State was highlighted, which is complicated by the peasant settlement in areas that have the figure of forest reserve or second law of 1959.
All of the above generates a multidimensional problem in the management of the territory, both for the State and for the communities, since, among other things, it prevents the peasantry from consolidating their properties, accessing land titles and restricts state investment in roads. , schools and health.
The meeting culminated with affirmed commitments from some representatives of the State institutions present at the hearing, who committed to managing solutions from the Directorate of Social Planning of Rural Property and the Ministry of Agriculture. This is due to the need to create the Municipal Agrarian Reform Committee as a technical and political decision-making scenario.
BY EDITORIAL/EL PILÓN