The Wayúu Indigenous Community in Colombia and Venezuela Is Dying of Thirst · Global Voices
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“The River That They Stole”. Screen capture from the documentary that exposes the Wayuu community's situation and their need for water.
After many years of exclusion and poverty, the Wayúu community in Colombia and Venezuela has been fighting for their voices to be heard.
The people of this community, located on the desert peninsula of La Guajira at the northern tip of Colombia and the territory shared with Venezuela, is faced with a combination of hunger, malnutrition, and thirst. The main reason? The river that runs through the region was dammed and its water privatized for surface coal mining and industrial scale agriculture.
Children are especially vulnerable to this deadly situation. The community filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in an effort to force the Colombian government to free up the flow of water. Their petition shines a light once again on a subject that has appeared in the news on and off since mid-2014. Defenders of the community have made many calls for humanitarian assistance programs, grants and projects to help these indigenous people, but few have become reality.
The Wayúu are the largest indigenous group of Venezuela and Colombia. They represent about 11% of the population of the Venezuelan Zulia state and close to 45% of the department of La Guajira.
Writing for Canarias-Semanal.org website, Juan Andrés Pérez Rodríguez argued that mainstream media has not paid enough attention to the urgent issues of this community:
Como los medios de comunicación corporativos tienen sus prioridades informativas bien definidas y orientadas, especialmente contra Cuba, Venezuela u otros países que no se subordinan a Occidente; usted no sabrá que la nación indígena Wayúu, la mayor de Colombia, se muere de hambre y sed porque el río madre de la región donde radican fue represado y su agua privatizada para el servicio de la industria agrícola y la explotación de la mina de carbón -a cielo abierto- más grande del mundo. Por esa misma razón, ignorará, seguramente, la denuncia que esta comunidad ha presentado ante la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos -CIDH-, de la OEA, con sede en Washington, por la violación de sus derechos vitales fundamentales
As the corporate media have their well-defined and targeted information priorities (especially against Cuba, Venezuela and other countries that do not align with the West), you will not know that the indigenous nation Wayúu, the largest of Colombia, is dying of hunger and thirst because the mother river of the region has been laid with a dam and its water privatized for the agricultural industry and the exploitation of the coal mine Cielo Abierto, the largest in the world. For the same reason, you surely will ignore the complaint that this community has filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights as part of Organization of American States, headquartered in Washington, for the violation of their fundamental vital rights.
The post ends with the trailer of a documentary produced by Colombian journalist Gonzalo Guillén, entitled The River That They Stole. The film, which the indigenous community presented as legal evidence in that complaint, paints a disturbing piccture of the situation in the region using testimonies from both victims and perpetrators.
Some media outlets have recently taken up the issue, such as El Tiempo, which published a text written by María del Pilar Camargo explaining the grave situation faced by the children living in La Guajira. The columnist highlighted something even more serious: not all children are recorded; which means that the figures may be higher:
En el 2012, fallecieron 43 niños indígenas por cada 100.000 niños menores de 5 años en el país. Esta cifra podría ser mucho mayor, así lo constatan la guajira, Unicef Colombia y el líder wayúu.
“Aquí hay muchos niños que mueren, pero en el monte. Los entierran y no los reportan al hospital”, dice la mujer.
El problema del subregistro también lo señala la experta de Unicef Colombia. “El porcentaje de la población indígena está en 5,4 %, no representa mucho, pero es el que suma la mayoría de las muertes de los niños en este país. Y eso que hay muchas muertes infantiles que no se registran. Estoy casi segura de que en La Guajira hay muchas más muertes de las que están registradas en las estadísticas y eso lo digo por la experiencia que hemos tenido con un proyecto, en el que, para el indígena wayúu, el niño no tiene valor hasta cuando cumple cierta edad, porque ese niño tiene la posibilidad de morirse, entonces en sus valores sociales hay que esperar a que crezca y una vez crezca empieza a hacer parte de la familia”.
“In 2012, 43 indigenous children died per 100,000 children under age 5 in the country. This figure could be much higher,” the La Guajira Unicef Colombia Wayúu leader responded.
“There are many children who die, but in the mountain. They are buried and are not reported to the hospital,” she said.
The problem of under-reporting is a signal, she said. “The percentage of the indigenous population is 5.4%, which is not much, but it adds to the sum of the majority of deaths of children in this country. And there are many child deaths that go unrecorded. I am almost certain that in La Gaujira there are many more deaths than those registered in the statistics and I say this from the experience we have had on a project, in which, for the indigenous Wayúu, the child has no value until they turn a certain age, because the child could possibly die, so in their social values they have to wait until they grow and once they grow they are made part of the family.”
In alternative online newspaper Las 2 Orillas, Diana López Zuleta explained the community's complaint in further detail:
De acuerdo con el escrito judicial, además de pedir la apertura inmediata de las compuertas de la represa para que el agua llegue cuanto antes a los indígenas, se pide que se ordene suspender de manera inmediata las tomas de agua de La Guajira que (la mina) Cerrejón obtiene de otras fuentes públicas distintas al río, principalmente subterráneas, hasta cuando una evaluación técnica idónea e imparcial determine si después de abastecer satisfactoriamente a los seres humanos en la región, quedan excedentes de agua para destinarlos a la agricultura a gran escala y la explotación de las minas de Cerrejón.
According to the judicial writing, in addition to requesting the immediate opening of the dam's floodgates so that the water can reach the indigenous community as soon as possible, they ask for an immediate suspension order of water taken from La Guajira that (the mine) Cerrejón obtains from other public sources other than from the river, mainly underground, until a suitable technical and impartial evaluation can determine if after successfully supplying the people of the region, there is surplus water to be allocated to large-scale agriculture and exploitation of the Cerrejón mines.
On Twitter, users have lent their support to a #SOSLaGuajira campaign started by Colombia Digna, (@colodigna). UNICEF also started a campaign, #DeseoQueAyuda (I want to help) in order to raise funds for the cause:
Sabe ud q en la Guajira mueren 3 niños Wayuu/día y porque? Por Desnutrición! Necesitan ayuda NO MÁS INDIFERENCIA apoyemos #SOSLaGuajira
— Moreno Lina (@li_mba) abril 9, 2015
Did you know that in Guajira 3 Wayuu kids die per day and why? Due to malnutrition. They need help NO MORE INDIFFERENCE let’s support #SOSLaGuajira
Mucho apoyo hemos recibido con el #SOSLaGuajira por eso continuaremos mañana desde las 7pm. Esperamos nos sigan apoyando
— Colombia Digna (@ColoDigna) abril 1, 2015
We've received a lot of support with #SOSLaGuajira  so we'll continue until tomorrow until 7pm. We hope for your continued support
El petulante ministro de Salud de Colombia (un simple mercachifle) no sabe qué es ni dónde queda La Guajira. #SOSLaGuajira
— Gonzalo Guillén (@HELIODOPTERO) abril 3, 2015
The arrogant Health Minister of Colombia (a simple clown) does not know what or where is La Guajira #SOSLaGuajira
Esto es responsabilidad de todos los colombianos. #SOSLaGuajira pic.twitter.com/sp7lmoErxr
— Cony Camelo (@conycamelo) abril 2, 2015
This is the responsibility of all Colombians #SOSLaGuajira
Sé parte de todas las personas que piden el #DeseoQueAyuda y que están comprometidas con la niñez de la Guajira en http://t.co/BRj2e4pFf4
— UNICEF Colombia (@UNICEFColombia) marzo 27, 2015
Be part of all the people asking for #DeseoQueAyuda and are committed Childhood Guajira in desoqueayuda.com
In December 2014 UNICEF created the campaign #DeseoQueAyuda (Wish that helps) to collect funds for this cause