The Realities of Environmental Defenders in Putumayo, Colombia

Latin American environmental defenders, especially in Colombia, are ensnared in a deadly environment marked by assassinations, forced recruitment, land mines, and cultural violations on a daily basis. In 2023, Latin America was responsible for a staggering 85% of global murders of environmental defenders. Colombia, with its long history of conflict, remains one of the deadliest places for those protecting the land. In Putumayo – a biodiverse region between the Andes and the Amazon rainforest – Indigenous leaders such as Soraida Chindoy are risking their lives to protect their territories from an ongoing encroachment. Despite Colombia’s 2016 Peace Agreement, violence has intensified, driven by armed groups and land grabs, often supported by international capital and corporate interests.

The 2016 Peace Agreement marked a historic moment, officially ending a 50-year civil war between the Colombian state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP). While it promised to address deep land inequalities – one of the primary drivers of the conflict – its slow and flawed implementation has left communities in resource-rich regions, like Putumayo, facing worsening violence.

Putumayo was once controlled by the FARC guerilla group, but even after the peace agreement and being designated as a priority area for territorial development violence has surged. According to InfoAmazonia, with FARC’s exit, other groups including dissident factions and criminal gangs like the Carolina Ramirez Front and Los Sinaloa moved in, fighting for control over the territory. These groups have openly targeted anyone who opposes them, creating a climate of fear. Putumayo’s natural resources and strategic location on the border of Ecuador and Peru make it a desirable location for many criminal networks, corporations, and political actors.

Putumayo is home to fourteen recognized indigenous ethnic groups divided into 126 Cabildos (a social-political organization of territory) with 39 Resguardos (land reserves). These communities have deep cultural ties to their land, which is not only a source of sustenance but also central to their cultural identity. Indigenous leaders and environmental defenders are particularly vulnerable, as they embody the voices and resistance of their communities, severely heightening their risk.

In 2009, “the Highest Court of Colombia declared that the Siona (an ethnic group in Putumayo), along with 33 other indigenous people at risk of physical and cultural extinction due to the armed conflict”. The court required the state government to implement immediate measures to guarantee their survival”. Yet, the Siona and other indigenous groups continue to face what has been described by some scholars as a “silent Genocide”. Johan Galtung, a scholar of peace studies, refers to this as a form of “systemic violence” embedded in economic and political structures that shape the distribution of power and resources. A silent genocide is occurring hidden in various regions deep in the Amazon.

Alongside violence from armed groups, pressure for economic development in Colombia has continued to be a threat to the communities living in Putumayo. According to research conducted by the World Resources Institute (2020), banks and international funds have financed hydrocarbon extraction projects with great economic profit, in 450,000 square kilometers of indigenous land, impacting over 20% of indigenous territories.

Putumayo, an area rich in oil reserves, has been particularly affected. When the British oil company Amerisur sold its stake in Putumayo to Chilean company GeoPark in 2020, the deal was financed with $350 million in bonds from international banks. This enabled “GeoPark to obtain Amerisur’s main assets of 11 oil fields located across Putumayo”. According to an investigation by The Guardian, GeoPark allegedly dumped poorly treated wastewater into the Putumayo River, leading to significant pollution and health risks for local communities. Despite repeated complaints from indigenous groups, Colombian authorities have continued to grant GeoPark new permits (once in 2009 and 2011) for waste dumping (rivers and the ground), contributing to the community’s ongoing deterioration of health. The Siona people, who live along the Putumayo River, suffer from severe contamination that affects their water supply, food sources and health. Their leaders have spoken out against oil contamination, asserting that it violates their rights and disrupts their cultural practices, such as their use of yagé (ayahuasca) for spiritual and community rituals. As one elder stated to Amazon Frontlines:

“Yet with our very existence at risk, the Colombian government has sold extraction rights over the only rainforest territory we have left to the British oil company Amerisur. In 2014, when Amerisur first arrived, we told them no. Today, after Amerisur sold their interest in the oil underneath our land to the Chilean company GeoPark. We say no again”.

“Even though the Colombian Peace Accords were signed in 2016 the violence along the Putumayo River continues. The oil operations nearby are already inflaming that violence, causing division amongst our neighbors, and putting the lives of our leaders at grave risk. Instead of protecting us, the Colombian government has abandoned us”.

The financial backing of environmentally destructive projects by major banks exposes the complicity of international institutions in the ongoing destruction of indigenous land. Although banks like Citibank, Unibanco, and the Bank of New York make public claims about their commitments to environmental and social responsibility, their funding of oil extraction in sensitive ecosystems is a direct juxtaposition. Furthermore, according to “The Independent News”, in 2021, US and European financial institutions (Bank of America, JPMorgan and Credit Suisse) helped GeoPark restructure its debts, and issued a further $150 million in bonds. This case, like too many others, shows how despite the 2009 threat of extinction by the Highest Court of Colombia (which was reinstated in 2017) and various forms of resistance, the company Amerisur still found a buyer.

In what world when communities stand at the brink of extinction, do we allow economic interests to prevail? The struggle faced by environmental defenders in Putumayo and across the whole world portrays how wider neoliberal and capitalistic factors interplay and reinforce each other. As armed groups and corporations continue to encroach on Indigenous Peoples’s land we must defend nature by holding the international community, including banks and corporations, accountable for their role in supporting these practices.