For more than five decades, Colombian indigenous peoples resisted the power of warfare, refusing to abandon their land. When the peace agreement eventually passed in November 2016 many thought that the this would be the end of the violence. But two years later the threat to their lives and their culture hasn’t gone away.
This be could be read as the introduction to the history of the Siona People, who are found at the entrance of the Colombian Amazon, in the Buenavista and Santa Cruz de Piñuña Blanco shelters. Once the FARC troops left the area, the indigenous guard of the Siona people tried to exercise territorial control, as happened in many regions of the country, in an attempt to ease the pain felt in the community. But as a result of the clashes between armed legal and illegal group intervening on the territory boarding Colombian and Ecuador, the community has been unable to live without fear on their land.
In 2009, the Constitutional Court of Colombia recognised that the Siona people are at risk of disappearing. Since they are now facing new threats, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) issued a precautionary measure in 2018 for the Colombian state to strengthen protections and safeguards.
