(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA, PUTUMAYO PROVINCE, MUNICIPALITY OF SANTIAGO
Inga Indigenous Council of San Andrés Nit. 814 000 348 0
San Andrés Colonial Reservation, Alto Putumayo, March 30, 2014
Dr. ALVARO ECHEVERRY LONDOÑO
Prior Consultation Department, Interior Ministry, Colombia
Ref: In the matter of the notice of the prior consultation meeting in the workshop stage on impacts and management measures for the San Andrés colonial reservation regarding the exploratory drilling project of four adamantine wells.
We have gathered for the meeting called by His Honor the Governor of the Inga Council of San Andrés to take up the issue of a response to official letter No. 14 2000009137DCP 2500 of March 10, 2014, relative to the prior consultation referenced by Anglo American dated March 20, 2014. The letter, for various reasons, requests that the required procedure with respect to the continuation of the corresponding phases of prior consultation with the Anglo American Company not be followed.
With respect to that, the colonial reservation of the Inga People of San Andrés, having met with the authorities of that People and in support of the authorities of the Ancestral reservation of the Inga and Kamentsá indigenous people and the Territory inherited under the will of His Honor Carlos Tamabioy of the Sibundoy Valley, UNITED, and based on the natural and original law, in view of the MINING efforts by the ANGLO AMERICAN Company, S.A., we have determined, UNITED, to state that DEFINITELY THERE WILL BE NO DRILLING OF FOUR ADAMANTINE WELLS AND NO MINING IN OUR Sacred Territory by the Anglo American Company or any mining efforts by multinationals or transnationals in our Carlos Tamabioy of the Sibundoy Valley ancestral territory.
We have decided on that because our Territory is Sacred. Our lives and the lives of the next generations of the high, medium and low Putumayo and the Colombian Amazon depend on it. We reaffirm the Mandate of June 26 and of July 26, 2010, in which we formalized the defense of and respect for our Territory. Because of the foregoing, we have decided that:
1. With respect to our greater Right and our autonomy, we Invalidate those permits that have been issued to Anglo American or any other company by prior authorities based on their lack of knowledge and because of pressure, because those permits violated our collective rights, and that is the reason why we meet today as an ancestral people in our Carlos Tamabioy Territory of the Sibundoy Valley.
2. We invalidate the “prior Consultation” process for procedural errors and because there was no free, informed, prior consent. And, most importantly, because we are not disposed to waste the time of the Anglo American mining interests or of any other company when the only thing that mining leaves for the territories is the destruction of Mother Earth, known as Nukamchipa Alpa by the Ingas and as Tsbatsana Mama (mother earth) by the Kamentsas.
3. We have definitely decided, unilaterally, NO TO THE DRILLING OF THE FOUR WELLS, AND NO TO MINING BY ANGLO AMERICAN OR ANY OTHER COMPANY IN OUR TERRITORY.
4. No INGA and CAMENTSA authority in the future will be able to contravene our decision. That would put the collective rights of our Peoples to the integrity and equilibrium of our ancestral territories at risk for the sake of mining efforts.
We rely on our principles: Natural law, the autonomy that belongs to us, the treaties and universal rights that support the protection necessary for our Ancestral Territories and their Sacred places.
We attach the following documents:
Abstract of Order Number 02 of the general Assembly of the Inga People of San Andrés with appropriate signatures, ten pages of signatures of the Inga People of San Andrés who attended.
Publish this and comply with it. Signed at the San Andrés Town Hall at 1:49 p.m. on March 30, 2014.
SIGNED:
HON. ANTONIO CUATINDIOY
GOVERNOR OF THE INGA PEOPLE OF SAN ANDRÉS
HON. ALEX TISOY
GOVERNOR OF THE INGAL PEOPLE OF SANTIAGO
HON. JOSÉ GETIAL TISOY
GOVERNOR OF THE INGA PEOPLE OF COLON
MAMA GOVERNOR: ANUNCIACION JAJOY MUJANAJINSOY
GOVERNOR OF THE INGA PEOPLE OF SAN PEDRO
HON. JUAN BAUTISTA AGREDA CHINDOY
GOVERNOR OF THE KAMENTSA PEOPLE OF SIBUNDO
Attached are the signatures of Inga and Kamentsa authorities, leaders and supporters at the meeting.
Copies to:
Doctor Santiago Posada
Director of Ethnic Affairs and ROM (the official name for Gypsies)
Public Defender
Inspector General
National Comptroller
Human Rights NGO’s
(This translation may be reprinted as long as its content remains unaltered and the source, author and translator are cited.)