At least 161 people belonging to one of the four indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta remain missing as a result of the armed conflict, for which the Unit for the Search for Persons Reported as Missing (UBPD) has determined the construction process joint and concerted with that of the Indigenous Operational Plan for the Search for Persons Deemed Missing from the indigenous community within the framework of the Territorial Council of Cabildos.
For this, a Regional Meeting was held in the community of Makumake, in which the indigenous, cultural and territorial approaches were determined, which will be oriented with the provisions indicated in the Protocol of relationship and coordination between the UBPD and the Indigenous Organizations.
Through the implementation of these measures, it is expected to advance in the humanitarian search strategies and actions prioritized by the authorities and the affected relatives, contribute to healing the deep wounds of the victims and allow the peoples to heal the affectations to material and spiritual level of the ancestral and traditional territory of the Black Line, caused by this phenomenon in the framework of the armed conflict, stated Jaime Luis Arias, Governor Kankuamo council.
He reiterated that with the peoples of the Sierra, under his responsibility to love and protect the ancestral territories against all the effects that occurred during the armed conflict, he is working hand in hand with the UBPD to establish the mechanisms and actions that allow the cultural and spiritual sanitation to sacred spaces and territory.
This exercise is aimed at establishing the search for indigenous brothers and sisters from the Sierra, who disappeared in the context of the conflict. “The goal is to implement actions and an adequate instrument to monitor, and at the same time, achieve the sanitation of the territory. We require that this process be prioritized, a long time has passed, and there are many indigenous people who disappeared between 2000 and 2007,” he stated.