Colombian indigenous leader Lisandro Tenoria was killed in Caucas Province on Sunday. The leader of the Nasa tribe was shot dead by unidentified gunmen amid mounting tension between the Nasa and the Farc.

Tenoria’s wife claims the leader was murdered on Sunday by three men who came to his house, shook his hand and then shot him three times in the head. He had been calling for an exit of Farc and security forces from the Caucus Province.

The province is a Farc stronghold and the area has been home to violent clashes between Colombian security forces and the rebel group as well as the Nasa.

The representative of the Organización Nacional Indígenas de Colombia (ONIC), James Yatacue condemnded the crime and claimed the conflict between guerrillas and armed forces has “cornered the native community.”

Tenoria has been the spiritual leader for the Nasa indigenous community of Lopez Adentro for more than thirty years. He had been consistently threatened by members of the Farc, according to relatives and close sources.

Last month Tenoria re-iterated calls for rebels, paramilitaries and police to exit Nasa land in the Caucus province and the Nasa publicly punished three men who had moved across to the Farc. The men were publicly whipped, in accordance with Nasa law.

Since these events, tensions between the Nasa and the Farc have been running high. Earlier this month the ONIC released a document estimating 9,000 people have been forced from their homes and a total of 54 native peoples killed throughout the country since January 2012.

About 15,000 members of the Nasa and other indigenous groups from the region are currently gathered in La Maria, in Cauca province, for a tribal meeting but no conclusion has yet been reached. Interior Minister Federico Renjifo has said that talks are still taking place.

As indigenous groups seek to demilitarize the Cauca region in Colombia, the Organización Nacional Indígenas de Colombia (ONIC) has released a document that estimates 9,000 people have been forced from their homes and a total of 54 native peoples killed throughout the country since January 2012.

The ONIC released the public document in commemoration of International Indigenous Day. The organisation said that the areas most affected were Paez with 17 killed, 15 in the Embera region and the Awa region with five.

The document also showed that between January and July 2012, there were 24 registered events of mass displacement that affected approximately 1,890 families, nearly 9,000 people.

Colombia has experienced internal conflict between its aboriginals, guerrilla groups, military and government. Within the past months, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), military and police forces have been fighting in the Cauca region to the south of the country.

The recent violence in this region has risen causing concern over human rights violations, especially of the indigenous population.

Since releasing the document, the ONIC has asked for immediate intervention on part of the international courts and has appealed to the United Nations on the basis of preventing genocide.

Last Thursday, an indigenous rights specialist for the United Nations, James Anaya, has asked the Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, to act quickly and to consult the native people before establishing a military presence on their territory.

“What are we asking for?” repeats Eulogio Frites. “Respect for the rights of the indigenous communities. One. Second, also, we do not want them to deprioritise the law of indigenous communities…that we have a pre-existing right, pre-dating the creation of the Argentine state, to the territory.”

Eulogio Frites at his home office. (Photo: Jo Castillo)

Frites is the first indigenous lawyer in Argentina and an instrumental figure in the on-going struggle for the recognition of the rights of indigenous communities in the country.

Amongst Latin American countries, Argentina is known for having a relatively small indigenous population. Still, 35 indigenous communities were recognised in the 2010 national census, and a 2005 study at the University of Buenos Aires estimated that up to 56% of Argentines may have traces of indigenous blood.

Pending Concerns

Frites outlines the most important concerns for the indigenous communities today as the respect of the rights of “legal personhood [of the indigenous communities], territoriality, biodiversity and multiculturalism”.

The activist observes that representatives of the indigenous communities have been vocally advocating for these rights on the global level for more than 40 years.

Frites remembers the first world conference on indigenous rights, which took place in 1974 in Mexico. He recalls that the representatives of the indigenous communities “for the first time proposed that we want to practise our own culture with the support of universal science, within a reciprocal framework of respect for the cultures of other peoples, that we should recover territory as is due to us, that we should teach and learn in our own languages, without neglecting the official languages in each country”.

While many of these rights are now formally codified in law, Frites states, “we are toiling so that they might fulfil the requirements of the law, the laws and the constitution.”

The lawyer comments that another important topic of concern continues to be a lack of understanding about indigenous rights. “Therefore,” he states, “we have to seek greater awareness. This awareness will exist if we disseminate the law.”

Indigenous Community Property Rights

One of the most highly contested topics with regards to indigenous rights in recent years has been property rights pertaining to lands occupied by indigenous communities.

Few indigenous communities in Argentina hold community-based titles to the land that they currently occupy, although they have been living on this land for centuries. Instead, communities may occupy land that is public territory or that is the private property of an individual or business.

The Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) observes in ‘La lucha por el derecho’, “Despite the progressive recognition of the rights of indigenous communities in the legislation, land rights continue to be subject to violations.”

In its 2012 Report on Human Rights in Argentina, the same organisation stressed, “the grave effects on the indigenous community and small farmers that come with the expansion of the industrial agricultural frontier, the lack of recognition of the peasant farming communities’ rights to the land that they occupy…and the institutional obstacles to advance the implementation of the rights specific to indigenous communities, particularly the right to land and territory.”

The conflict over territory is also closely intertwined with natural resources in Argentina. Frites observes, “they constantly come…to mine gold, to mine silver, to drill oil, to harvest the wood…and they leave us tossed to the side, with whatever pretext. This cannot be allowed.”

CELS also observed in its 2012 report that this “indiscriminate extraction” of natural resources has raised concerns both for the environment and for the health of surrounding communities, including concerns about communities’ access to potable water and adequate nutrition.

Frites questions, “this mentality…that you must make money in whatever way possible, what does it cost?”

He argues: “You do not have to treat the small farmers like animals” and insists that if a move is necessary, “they have to pay us and not run us off the land as if we were not people”.

Current Instruments Regulating Indigenous Rights

Frites argues that in many ways, “that all the laws exist”; that the necessary framework is present. Normatively, “it is a task that has already been completed,” he states.

Indigenous rights are recognised at several levels in Argentina. The most important instruments on the federal level are the 1994 revision of the constitution, the Law 23.302, and the Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization (ILO) to which Argentina is a party.

On the provincial level, constitutions also recognise indigenous rights, and many provinces have separate legislation to address the concerns of indigenous communities.

Indigenous rights are encoded in the constitution under Article 75, but only recently. Frites observes that in the 1994 revision of the constitution, “the Argentine state…recognises the pre-existing cultural and ethnic right of the indigenous communities in Argentina.”

He underscores, “This means that in the constitution, the right that we have pre-dates the creation of the Argentine state.”

The Law 23.302, Indigenous Policy and Support to the Aboriginal Communities, is also significant. The law was passed in 1985, but the chief concerns in its creation were similar to those Frites echoes today, “legal personhood, land rights, biodiversity and multiculturalism.”

Frites observes that the creation of the law was not easy, and had to be done largely by an “indirect route”.

Finally, Argentina is a party to the ILO Convention 169, which is particularly significant with regards to debates about property rights. The convention requires that when a state seeks to seize land for public works, it must have the “prior, free and informed consent of indigenous communities.”

This convention has been in effect since 3rd July 2001. Frites notes that the law was very difficult to pass in Argentina and grants the indigenous communities some rights that “Argentina has to respect”.

With regards to the debate about property ownership, Frites emphasises that in the ILO Convention 169, indigenous property rights are seen “as a recognition, not as a positive prescription.”

‘Positive prescription’ is the legal process by which a person acquires the title to a property on the basis of uninterrupted possession of that property.

Frites argues that ‘positive prescription’ is not appropriate for the case of community land rights because the indigenous communities “cannot request that they transfer a property to us when the property is ours, they have to recognise what they have taken from us.”

Still, in ‘La lucha por el derecho’, CELS observes that there is still, “no federal regulation that permits the communities to access their territorial rights.”

Indigenous Communities in Argentina

From 2004 to 2005, the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) launched the Complementary Survey of Indigenous Communities (ECPI). The survey was extended to those households who in the 2001 national census had registered at least one member pertaining to or descending from an indigenous community.

This survey – the first attempt by the government to survey the ethnic background of the population in over a century – estimated that 600,329 people in Argentina self-identify as indigenous or first-generation descendants of members of the indigenous community. This figure represented about 1.5% of the national population in 2005.

A 2005 study conducted by the UBA Service of Digital Genetic Fingertips suggested that the true percentage could be even higher. The study, which lasted more than a decade, analysed samples from more than 12,000 people across eleven provinces. The results showed that more than half of the subjects – a full 56% – carried traces of indigenous genes in their DNA. What’s more, 10% of the sample was found to have pure indigenous ancestry, without evidence of European heritage.

The vast majority of the indigenous population is concentrated in provinces to the north and south of the country. The north-western province of Jujuy and the southern provinces of Neuquén and Chubut have the highest proportions of indigenous persons.

Today at 11am Chilean president Sebastián Piñera announced plans to address the challenges faced by the indigenous Mapuche. He was speaking after the social conference held in the capital Santiago which addressed development ideas for the region of Araucanía in the south of the country.

With help of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Social Development, the Plan Araucanía hopes to address various challenges that the indigenous group faces, over the span of the next 30 days, with the long-term goal of ameliorating economic and employment issues.

The plan will address education by adding a new technical, multicultural school in Ercilla. The president also announced that there will be more scholarships for Mapuche students and will provide more incentives for the students to complete their studies.

Additionally, five new hospitals are to be built to address healthcare issues.

Piñera also confirmed that proper compensation will be made for those who were assaulted over a week ago.

On 23rd July, an on-going conflict escalated to violent proportions when an estimated 200 Carabinero police from La Romana and Montenegro forestry plantations attempted to evict 60 indigenous people from a plot of land in Ercilla. Accounts say that the Carabineros used tear gas and fired buckshot into the Temucuicui community’s peaceful protest. Ultimately, the police took 12 people into custody, of whom three were said to be minors. Of the total reported injured, five were said to be minors.

Although President Piñera reported to have fully supported the police attacks, he said there would be further investigations into the incident.

The Mapuche are Chile’s largest indigenous group with nearly one million members. There is a history of conflict between the Mapuche and police forces, including those based on “extractive” industries or logging companies. The indigenous groups have been battling for their rights to the land, which they consider ancestral property that was taken from them in the late 19th century.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have announced that they will withdraw from the area of Cauca if the Colombian armed forces and police leave. The FARC have also revealed that they have in their custody two pilots that have been missing for two weeks.

FARC leader Rodrigo Londóno Echeverry – commonly known by his alias ‘Timochenko’ – stated yesterday on Caracol radio, “if the army, the police, and the paramilitaries leave Cauca, if they end their war against the indigenous people, the farmers, the miners, and the people in general, we will not have any problem with leaving also.”

He further stated, “if in Colombia military operations were to cease, the bombings and the machine gunning, the forced displacement, the clearing of the earth, the crimes against the people and the impunity, with all security, there would be no reason for the existence of guerrillas.”

Colombian Minister of Defence Juan Carlos Pinzón responded to FARC’s statement by reiterating that government forces would not withdraw from the region. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has made similar statements in recent weeks.

Pinzón remarked, “That is like living in a film. Our aircraft will continue flying [in the region]”.

Echeverry’s statement responded to a 17th July communication from the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca (Acín) calling for removal of armed forces in the Cauca area. After neither government forces nor the paramilitary groups heeded repeated requests for their removal from indigenous communities in the region, conflict increased in the week following 17th July when indigenous forces near the town of Toribío began to dismantle army and police bases.

In yesterday’s speech, Minister of Defense Pinzón implored the indigenous communities not to be tricked by the FARC, stating that “the only thing [the FARC] do is consistently lie to Colombia all the time”.

He further suggested that the FARC are behind the indigenous insurgent movement in the region, stating, “they call on the communities, they pressure them, they organise mobilisations; to those communities, please denounce the insurgents so that they can be captured”,

Pinzón’s allegations of links between the FARC and indigenous forces echoed earlier statements by President Santos. On Tuesday, indigenous communities in Cauca requested that the government retract earlier statements to this effect.

A representative of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), Jesús Chávez, stated, “in reunions between the government and the indigenous communities, respect should be paramount and for this reason we continue asking that the government clarify and explain the subject of the alleged links with the FARC”

He further declared, “It is not true that the indigenous communities are infiltrated by the guerrilla forces. We are requesting the withdrawal from our territory of both the FARC and the military, which demonstrates that we are neither on one side nor the other.”

In its 17th July statement, the Acín stated that the “the guerrilla forces do not bring peace”.

The confrontation in Cauca, which began after the FARC increased violent attacks in the region, has escalated severely since early July. An estimated 3,000 people have been displaced because of the violence in the area around Toribío alone. Five people have died in the confrontation, including two members of the indigenous community and three members of the police.

Yesterday, the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights expressed its concern for the effects of the conflict on the civilian population. The organisation noted “the situation of the indigenous communities in Northern Cauca has gotten worse recently, as a result of the increase in armed conflicts”.

The FARC also announced yesterday that they had in their custody two helicopter pilots who had been missing for two weeks. Carlos Alvarez and Alejandro de Jesús were kidnapped on 10th July in the city of Argelia, which is near Cauca. They had executed an emergency landing in the area.

The FARC requested the formation of a committee with representatives from the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Human Rights Network Isaías Cifuentes to coordinate the release of the prisoners. They also specifically requested the suspension of air operations to facilitate the release.

The paramilitary group revealed that they had mistaken the pilots, who were privately contracted, for members of the military.

The FARC further stated that anyone hoping to “carry out a flyover, study or other work in the regions where the revolutionary guerrilla forces of the FARC-EP maintain a presence should first have the approval of the community that lives in the area and second inform the revolutionary insurgency of his activities”.

Last night at midnight the deadline set by indigenous populations in the Colombian department of Cauca for the withdrawal of all armed forces from the region expired.

The Association of Indigenous Councils of the North of Cauca (Acín), a local NGO, issued the ultimatum, which called for the removal of both the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian army and police.Violence has been increasing in the area since 5th July, as the FARC has mounted several attacks on civilian populations in the area.

As of today, however, both legal and illegal armed forced remain in the area.

Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos and his Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón have stated that the government has no intention of demilitarizing the area. Indeed, the government sent an additional 2,000 troops to the zone.

At present it is unclear whether the FARC has withdrawn. The paramilitary force says that they have left the area, but indigenous groups remain skeptical that they have fully withdrawn.

Carlos Andrés Alfonso, legal council for the Acín, stated that today “there is tension, there is a very tense environment” in the region, which is home to over 100,000 indigenous people.

Alfonso stated that the Indigenous Guard, a security force made up of approximately 3,000 members that carries only sticks, did not have any action planned for today aside from maintaining positions they gained earlier in the conflict.

Thus far, the Indigenous Gaurd has dismantled three police barricades in the city of Toribío and two FARC highway controls. What’s more, the group has taken over a hill called Berlín, home to a civil telecommunications center and a host to a military campsite. More than a hundred members of the indigenous community continue to occupy the hill alongside the military.

This morning, indigenous community leader Feliciano Valencia stated in an interview with Caracol Radio that “if over the course of the day [the army does] not remove the few things that remain, the Indigenous Guard will take control and it will do so in an undefined manner”. For now, however, Valencia stressed that the goal was to avoid conflict and engage in dialogue with the Colombian army.

Nevertheless, this morning, conflict broke out at one of the military bases near Toribío. More than 1,000 indigenous persons attempted to take over the Torre military base. The Colombian military responded with tear gas, and reports say that shots were fired in an attempt to control the civilians.

Today, the Colombian National Public Prosecutor announced the creation of a special commission to asses the security situation and human rights conditions of farmers and indigenous communities in the three municipalities of Toribío, Jambaló and Argenlia. These three are the most effected by the nine northern provinces involved in the conflict.

Indigenous Panamanians of the Ngäbe Buglé region have reinvigorated their opposition to the Barro Blanco hydroelectric dam project, set to be constructed on the Tabasará River in western Panama.

Over the past year, the Ngäbes have mobilised against broad-based mining and hydroelectric dam projects proposed by the government, despite previous commitments not to construct on indigenous territory.

In February, the protests became violent, with reports of demonstrators burning buildings and blocking commercially significant roads. One man was killed, dozens have been injured, and more than 100 people were arrested.

Though talks between the government and indigenous representatives arrived at the San Lorenzo Accord—freeing prisoners, removing riot police, and restoring illegally cut cell phone service—the government has shown little inclination to meet demands to cancel the projects.

The indigenous population opposes the various projects on the grounds that construction and daily operation will harm local environments. The Tabasará River is one of Panama’s major sources of water.

About 30 indigenous protesters, grouped under the heading of the 18th May Movement, have again set up camp in order to specifically oppose the Barro Blanco project.

The Panamanian government has hopes of completing 31 hydroelectric dam projects by the end of 2013, in an effort to reduce national energy costs and increase exports. The indigenous population, meanwhile, contends that the projects, particularly those planned for indigenous lands, will cause displacement due to flooding, increased mosquito breeding, and the submersion of trees, vegetation, and farmland.

Santos Alberto Domínguez was killed on Tuesday, allegedly by police officers, in the Honduran town of San Isidro. The Civic Council of Indigenous Populations and Organisations of Honduras (COPINH) today condemned the crime.

In a statement, the COPINH condemned the murder of the 24 year old activist. In the text, the organisation stated it would not permit the crime to go unpunished.

According to the organisation, Santos Alberto Domínguez was assassinated by members of the national police force assigned to the Honduran town of San Isidro, located in the southern department of Intibucá.

The Council of Indigenous Populations and Organisations blamed the secretary of the Honduran Police, Pompello Bonilla, for the murder of Domínguez.

In addition, the COPINH demanded that the public prosecutor of Honduras carried out “a thorough and impartial investigation to punish the murderers.”

The organisation will accompany the Domínguez’s family in the judicial process to convict those responsible.

Santos Alberto Domínguez belonged to the community of Lenca de San Bartola. This community are currently mobilised against the construction of dams and the privatisation of the rivers in the region.

The young man killed was a member of COPINH and was concerned with these social demands. He also participated in the struggle against the theft of ancestral land.

The Indigenous Organisation stated that in it’s statement that this crime continues the hostilities against the good of nature and the culture of the Lenca people.

Translated from Pulsar.

A trial that could put ten indigenous Mapuche people behind bars for up to 40 years each on terrorism charges begins Tuesday in the Chilean Court on Constitutional Rights.

Indigenous leaders are describing the trial – set to take place in the municipality of Victoria – as a set-up.

The ten men are charged with “robbery with intimidation of a terrorist nature, terrorist arson attacks and illegal association with terrorist organisations.”

Two of the accused are minors, Patricio Queipul and Luis Marileo. Police have sought Queipul since he was 11. For his part, Marileo participated in two hunger strikes demanding respect for the rights of the Mapuche children.

Lawyers for both minors requested to start a separate process to review their situation. The move is also to prevent the minors to be tried under Anti-Terrorism Law.

The Mapuche members are being tried for acts that occurred in October 2009. It was after an alleged attack in the Chilean commune of Victoria. The local authorities are asking for the accused Mapuche to serve between 25 to 40 years in prison.

This trial has been criticised by indigenous authorities and by lawyers, because the prosecution’s main evidence against the Mapuche is from a “protected witness.”

This legal manoeuvre, which these groups are challenging, is protected by the anti-terrorism law that emerged during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

The spokesman of the Autonomous Community of Temucuicui, Jorge Hunchullán, complained that ”they are still using a law inherited from the Pinochet dictatorship” to try these cases.

The spokesman also described the trial as ”an assembly oriented to criminalise Mapuche people’s struggle,” adding that they are defending their land and ancestral rights.

Amnesty International has called for an investigation into the deaths of two protesters who were killed during clashes between security forces and the Ngäbe-Buglé people in Panama.

Protests began 30^th January against a bill’s amendment that could put hydroelectric projects on traditional Ngäbe-Buglé lands. As part of the protest, members of the indigenous group set up a roadblock on the Pan-American Highway.

The government and Ngäbe-Buglé reached an agreement 7^th February to start talks and stand down riot police and protests, but Amnesty wants to see an investigation into the deaths. It is also calling for the government to honour the UN Declaration on the Rights for Indigenous Peoples, which Panama adopted in 2007.

“The authorities must carry out a full, independent, impartial and prompt investigation into the protesters’ deaths and all those injured and bring those responsible to justice,” said Guadalupe Marengo, Amnesty International deputy director for the Americas. “Development projects and the exploitation of natural resources must not become sources of abuse of Indigenous Peoples.”

The International Federation of Human Rights is also condemning the police brutality, noting that their use of force was “disproportionate” to that used by protesters. The organisation is also calling for an investigation into the two deaths.

According to Amnesty International, Jerónimo Rodríguez Tugrí was shot and killed San Felix, Chiriquí province, on the 5^th February.

Media reported on 7^th February that 16-year-old Mauricio Méndez was found inside a car where there had been an explosion in David, Chiriquí province. Other sources claim that he died when he was struck in the face by a smoke grenade.

Amnesty International also says more than 40 others – including police officers – were wounded during the demonstrations.