Colombia’s Interior Vice Minister, and Wayuu representatives ratified an agreement Thursday to create a body that will seek to address the complex issues faced by the indigenous Wayuu communities.
Interior Vice Minister Aurelio Iragorri Valencia, and delegates of the First Congress of Traditional Authorities of the Wayuu, annouced the “Bureau of Dialogue and Agreement” had come into force, after a meeting which ended at 9pm Thursday night.
The ratification of the treaty also ensures the formation of a Permanent Bureau of Coordination which would deal with the proper handling of issues relating to Colombia’s indigenous populations.
The vice minister affirmed that the government had agreed on the formation of the Bureau of Dialogue and Agreement in March, but that due to internal differences within the Wayuu community they had been unable to advance the project.
At the end of the reunion the spokesperson for the Wayuu and traditional authority for the community expressed his satisfaction with the conclusion of the agreement, saying “the minister is a man of his word, a man who fulfills [his duty.] As the authority and delegate to this table, I can see we have now reached our goal.”
Colombia’s Wayuu population is an indigenous community that live in the north east of Colombia and over the border into Venezuela. They have experienced violence and forced displacement at the hands of both country’s governments.