EL ESPECTADOR, September 7, 2021
(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
The agency also warns that during its travels there, they could see alarming abandonment by the government in areas like education and humanitarian aid.
Beginning on August 26, a team of officials from Colombia’s Comptroller’s Office, headed by Hitler Rouseau Chaverra, Comptroller’s Delegate for Targeted Populations, undertook a two-day tour of the settlements of Caño Macú, Guanapalo, Filo de Hambre, Capricho, and Aguabonita. More than 400 members of the Nukak community are clustered there, and the officials wanted to observe progress in the plan for preservation and attention to this population.
This Tuesday, September 7, the agency delivered the results of the visit, containing a number of worrisome conclusions in areas such as health care, education, and humanitarian aid. Regarding the first aspect, which the Comptroller’s Office considers the most urgent, “it’s evident that there is no health center near the Nukak communities and, on the contrary, those communities are totally abandoned,” stated the agency.
Besides that, the agency points out, “This indigenous population has no affiliation with the social security system; nor are there any health promoters, rescue squads, or transportation services for patients in the community.” For those reasons the Comptroller’s Office called on authorities, immediately and with a differentiated focus, to undertake urgent actions to attend to the health needs of this community.
The Comptroller’s Office also warns that it’s necessary to guarantee to the children in this indigenous community “an education provided in decent facilities and with adequate resources.” They revealed that during their visit they could see that children were doing their schoolwork on the floor, and that there were no appropriate spaces for them to work.
In that regard, the agency called on the Mayor’s Office in San José de Guaviare, as well as on the provincial Governor’s Office, to get going with the necessary measures that would allow the children to learn in decent and safe surroundings.
The agency’s clear impression, after the visit, is that there is an alarming abandonment by governmental entities in the areas of health, education, and humanitarian aid. Because of that, the Comptroller’s Office requested that the government “overcome the institutional and financial barriers”, so as to be able to guarantee those rights, as they are a vital minimum for the members of this indigenous community.