UN warns of 'ongoing tragedy' as Indigenous groups in Colombia face
extinction
[May 21, 2025]
By MANUEL RUEDA
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The United Nations human rights office in
Colombia warned Tuesday that five Indigenous groups in a storied
mountain range face “physical and cultural” extinction, a critical
threat that stems from armed groups fighting over their territory and
insufficient state protection.
Scott Campbell, Colombia’s representative for the UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights, said in a statement that the risk of physical and
cultural extinction of Indigenous People of the Sierra Nevada de Santa
Marta is "an ongoing tragedy that we can and must prevent.”
Campbell urged the Colombian government to protect the Kogui, Wiwa,
Kankuamo, Arhuaco, and Ette Naka Indigenous groups, whose combined
population is approximately 54,700 people.
Campbell's statement followed a visit to the Sierra Nevada region, where
U.N. officials spoke with representatives of these Indigenous tribes.
“These groups are under various forms of cruel attack from non-state
armed groups," Campbell said, highlighting the “devastating
repercussions on their lives, their land, their territory, their self
government...and their spirituality.”
In 2022, UNESCO added the ancestral knowledge of these Indigenous groups
to its Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list. The recognition
highlights the “fundamental role” their traditions play in preserving
the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta — a mountain range that emerges
directly from the Caribbean Sea and boasts snowy peaks reaching nearly
6,000 meters.
But for many years, the Indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada have been
under attack from settlers, and now from rebel groups.
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Campbell said that rebel groups in the area are imposing curfews on
Indigenous communities and interfering with their local assemblies.
He added that hundreds of Indigenous people from the Sierra Nevada
de Santa Marta have been forcibly displaced, while last year an
Arhuaco community leader was murdered and a member of the Kogui
tribe disappeared.
Colombia’s government has struggled to pacify rural areas where
rebel groups and drug trafficking gangs fight for territory
abandoned by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the large
guerilla group that made peace with the government in 2016.
President Gustavo Petro has launched peace talks with most of the
nation’s remaining rebel groups, but the negotiations have yielded
few results so far.
Campbell urged the government to protect Indigenous people in the
Sierra Nevada not only through military force, but by providing
better access to healthcare, education and employment opportunities.
“The violent situation has its roots in disputes over control of
territory, drug trafficking routes and various forms of illicit
economic activity by non-state armed groups.” Campell said.
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