This article was a finalist in the competition on indigenous journalism run by Survival International, democraciaAbeirta and El Espectador.
On the banks of the Curilla, a small tributary of the Putumayo river, in the heart of the Colombian Amazon rainforest, a group from the Murui Huitoto indigenous community entered the dense jungle to combat illegal timber trafficking with a single weapon: words.
Seated in 2 boats, a group of 15 Murui stared at the mouth of the Curilla River. Martín Charry, one of their leaders, reminded them of the recommendation made by the highest traditional authority of the Association of Indigenous Communities of Upper and Middle Putumayo (Acilapp), Grandfather Braulio Okainatofe.
