Indigenous peoples in Colombia’s south western Cauca department invited
the FARC for a public dialogue to seek a political solution for the
country’s violent conflict.
The Association of Northern Cauca Indigenous (ACIN) and the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) published a letter on their websites that calls on FARC leader ‘Alfonso Cano’ to talk to them.
“We don’t just simply want to be excluded from the war and its atrocities, while it continues to ravage the country and the other peoples. We don’t want to hide in a shell while other people are being slaughtered. No. We want the war to end,” the indigenous state.
The indigenous ask to peacefully be included in seeking a solution for the war. “We are no strangers to the conflict, we are in the middle of it as victims, but we want to be in the middle of it like those who help to end it.”
“We don’t want to be an armed group, we don’t want that our communities turn into fighters against any army, because we have found that the direct demobilization of people, the popular government and an organization that is conscious of all are more powerful than whatever armed group,” the indigenous organizations added.
The organizations call on the FARC leaders to talk to the indigenous “directly and transparantly, to help solve the problems and move forward on the way to peace, and to not worsen the situation.”