News · 30 January 2023
Oil company withdraws from project in Indigenous Ancestral Territory while the National Authority for Prior Consultation continues to violate the fundamental rights of the Inga People
Gran Tierra withdraws from APE La Cabaña; ACIMVIP asks the Government to guarantee prior consultation in view of the DANCP's refusal (Caracol Radio, January 2023).
Carlos López Descanse, president of ACIMVIP, told Caracol Radio that after strategic litigation it was achieved that Gran Tierra Energy withdraw from the APE-La Cabaña oil project, in Indigenous Ancestral territory.
However, the Directorate of the National Authority for Prior Consultation (DANCP) continues to disregard the direct harm to the Inga People and the rights to Free and Informed Prior Consultation. The DANCP recently notified the Inga People that consultation is not applicable in the affected communities.
The Association of Indigenous Cabildos (Indigenous traditional authority) of Villagarzón in Putumayo called on the National Government led by President Gustavo Petro to guarantee the right to Free and Informed Prior Consultation.
The Inga People of the municipality of Villagarzón, Putumayo, regarded as a victory the decision of the company Gran Tierra Energy Colombia LLC to withdraw from the APE - La Cabaña oil project, under the PUT-1 block contract.
They consider that for Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon progress is being made in the recognition of the rights to life and to prior consultation, in contexts of hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation in ancestral territory. But they draw attention to the fact that, despite judicial decisions, the differential harm suffered by Indigenous Peoples from the armed conflict and its impact on displacement or confinement and the abandonment of their ancestral territory is ignored.
The Ombudsman's Office, has accompanied the three verification visits on the presence of and harm to the Inga People, producing various reports documenting the direct harm to the people in relation to the APE la Cabaña project.
The serious territorial harm, environmental, cultural and spiritual, had been identified in relation to the activities carried out and those intended to be carried out under that project.
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