An indigenous community is in mourning after 33 huts and a ceremonial house burned down in the northern Magdalena department Saturday.
An army commander reported that a fire caused by “climactic conditions, high winds and intense summer weather” scorched the Kogi indigenous town of Maramongo, located in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park.
The fact that the fire reportedly began at four in the morning last Saturday is suspicious, claims a Kogi leader claims who says that “It [the fire] was not due to nature, we cannot rule out that behind this are the hands of criminals because such a thing had never happened [before].”
Despite claims by the Kogi that they have been threatened in the past by the FARC, the military have refuted that the fire could have been a guerrilla attack since the area is protected by troops. Other motivating factors such as inter-tribal feuds are being investigated.