Socialization process of the Cauca River ruling with the communities affected by Hidroituango.
Photo: Fabio Briseño
The Cauca River is still awaiting compliance with the ruling that, five years ago, granted it the rights to recovery, restoration, conservation and maintenance of the basin. This tributary, which was recognized as a victim of the armed conflict by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) in 2023, has been affected by extractive projects that have unleashed conflicts against the territory and nature, and have threatened those who dare to defend and protect it.
Since 2019, the ruling of the Superior Court of Medellín declared the river as a subject of rights, ordering the protection of the rights of the inhabitants of the basin to a dignified life. Fabio Muñoz, guardian of the river and farmer, explains that the sentence “does not bring any real progress in the territory.” Currently, they continue to denounce impacts such as dumping of mercury and cyanide, forest plantations and the ownership and use of land for other extractive activities that have impacted the social fabric of the region and have unleashed political, social and environmental conflicts.
For these reasons, “we sat down with the organizations and communities in the territories to really ask them what the solutions would be to be able to reach this work plan,” says the leader. With the above, he means that the ruling is in the process of building an action plan for the recovery and conservation of the river, that is, to make the court order viable.
Within the framework of this construction, Organizations from the middle, upper and lower basin have met during the last two weeks to demand the rights of the “monkey boss.”“, as the inhabitants of the lower basin call it. Through discussions and tours, which are expected to last until June 28, the indigenous reservations, community councils and fishermen’s associations that inhabit the territory have sought solutions to reduce the effects that exist in this territory and that favor the ruling that exists. on this river.
In the meetings it has been evident that, “the communities are also with their hands tied to generate true solutions to everything that is being experienced, in terms of the pollution and the death of the Cauca River, because at the pace we are going to have to get out of our river. Strong actions must be taken at the moment,” says the guardian. In this regard, Xiomara Mendoza, researcher at the Human Rights and Peace Observatory of the Popular Training Institute, who is part of the advisory body of the guardians of the Cauca River ruling, talks about the importance of advancing this action plan.
“I think that It is essential that the process be built, agreed upon and discussed with the communities that settle around the river. We have always maintained that the river is not only the body of water that flows, but a living being composed of all the life that develops around the basin: of the jobs, of the roles, of all the life that is woven around it. This is how a plan of action should be understood, not only as the running water that is a physical body, but as the life that transcends the water itself. We believe that this is the most urgent thing,” says the researcher.
According to the river’s defenders, two hydroelectric megaprojects have affected its route: La Salvajina, in Cauca, and Hidroituango, in Antioquia. Both projects, they explain, generate environmental, ecosystem and social effects on the communities that inhabit the river basin, which are territories that have suffered the rigor of war in recent decades with the presence of armed groups, massacres, homicides and forced disappearances. that promoted the dispossession of lands.
In addition, the Cauca River runs 1,350 kilometers crossing nine departments, 228 municipalities and seven capital cities, making it the second most important river in the country. In Valle del Cauca, for example, where the sugar industry prevails, the life of the tributary has been transformed around the monoculture of cane. In this regard, Juliana Millán, as one of the spokespersons who accompany workers such as cane cutters, explains that in This area is making visible the need to allocate a good part of the land also to food production and not only to the cultivation of sugar cane.
The consequences of these cultivation systems, according to the expert, are the implications of the use of pesticides and a production model that overexploits the soil. For this reason, in the middle Cauca basin they are promoting a more sustainable development model that includes agroecology, the protection of biodiversity, the recognition of labor rights and the preservation of cultural diversity.
In 2023, for example, defenders of the river in Bajo Cauca came to Bogotá to advocate on a tour with different State entities and diplomatic corps. However, they continue to demand a response. Although spaces for dialogue were opened, they demand concrete actions. “The tour was not enough,” the organizations protest. In the words of the guardian Muñoz: “The indigenous, Afro and peasant communities that we are in, whether in the micro-basins or on the banks of the Cauca River, demand that an action plan truly begin to be made for the river and for the people, because it is that there has not been at the moment.”
This way, What the communities are looking to build is the action plan for the protection, conservation and restoration of the river. The decision regarding the sentence, they say, must be a concerted process and dialogue with the residents of the entire basin. The fundamental thing for them is that the State and other actors also understand that the river is not just a body of water, but a living being made up of all the forms of life that surround it. This comprehensive, community-based approach is crucial to successful sentencing.
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