The Ombudsman’s Office held a day to receive statements regarding mass displacement events suffered by the Nükak people from 2022 to 2021, a space to reach out to communities that had not been possible due to various government barriers, taking into account takes into account the adverse implications in terms of guaranteeing rights that this indigenous people is going through.
During the two-day activity, eleven statements were received in which the presence of various victimizing events in addition to forced displacement was identified. Among these events were threats and intimidation, attacks on property and infrastructure, armed confrontations involving civilians, forced recruitment of minors and their involvement in activities related to armed groups, as well as acts of cruelty, prolonged detentions, presence of antipersonnel mines, sexual crimes and violations of territorial rights.
These statements were distributed between the Ombudsman’s Office, with a team made up of professional delegates for Guidance for Victims of the Armed Conflict, Ethnic Groups and Human Mobility, and the Guaviare Regional Office, together with the Attorney General’s Office and the Person’s Office. Municipal of San José del Guaviare.
This day of taking statements was the result of the agreements reached by the Ombudsman’s Office after meetings held between the Victims Unit and the Public Ministry since 2023 and so far in 2024.
After the day of receiving statements, the Ombudsman participated in the extraordinary session of the Municipal Committee of Transitional Justice, in which it recommended the need to advance in an agile manner in the immediate, comprehensive and specialized attention to the Nükak people who continue to go through a difficult humanitarian situation. This attention must be carried out within the framework of an expanded technical table for the design, planning and implementation of a differential strategy for the restoration of rights and the work to guarantee them to this indigenous community.
In the same space, the Ombudsman’s Office reiterated its call to the national entities competent in this issue, especially the Directorate of Indigenous Affairs, Roma and Ethnic Minorities of the Ministry of the Interior, so that within the framework of its constitutional and legal functions serve the Nükak indigenous people in the territory, in the face of the unconstitutional state of affairs in which this population finds itself as a subject of special protection.
