Peace with Nature is not just words, it requires action', Vice president of the special jurisdiction for peace

For the vice president of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), the indigenous Arhuaca judge Belkis Florentina Izquierdo Torres, the slogan of this year's COP16, "Peace with Nature," could not be more in line with the investigation her office is conducting in Case 02, which is investigating crimes committed in Tumaco, Ricaurte and Barbacoas (Nariño).

In this case, the first transitional justice indictment was issued last year, accusing, among other crimes, the destruction of nature and ancestral territories. It is also the first JEP case in which the territory itself is recognized as a victim. In an interview with EL TIEMPO, he talks about the damage caused by the conflict, not only to the environment, but also to the sustainability of life itself for all species.

(Lea también: ‘El país tiene que sentir que pasó la página y no que los procesos se eternizan, sería como dejar abierta la herida de la guerra’).

What is being studied are crimes against nature, because in the context of the conflict there have been oil spills that have affected the life of fish, of medicinal plants, that have affected the life of the territories, of the rural and peasant population. Damage has also been documented due to the planting of anti-personnel mines, the spraying of glyphosate, and the criminal mining of mercury, which contaminates rivers. These damages are so serious that they cannot be considered amnestyable.

Nature is life itself, and for communities like those who live in these areas, who have an inseparable relationship with the territory, the contamination of a river or the land is an enormous damage, because that river represents life. All of this environmental damage has had a direct impact on the lives of the people who live in this area of the country. This led us to make the first accreditations of territory and nature as victims and subjects of rights.

For ethnic peoples, territory has been an integral part of their world view, territory is more than a geographical space, it is a living entity endowed with dignity, spirituality, strength, there is an inseparable relationship between the community and nature. The territories are alive and all this had to be brought to transitional justice from an intercultural dialogue to advance in the integral protection of fragile territories and ecosystems as a guarantee of continuity of life, because human beings are part of nature, but there are other systems of life and not only ours must be guaranteed; to guarantee nature is to guarantee the life of all that exists. That is why we take an approach based on decolonial ecocentrism when we talk about the care of territory and life.

The recognition of the territory as a victim and as a subject of rights in the framework of environmental and transitional justice also allows us to make visible the structural causes of the conflict, to make visible the impunity, what happened with the violence against sacred sites.

It is an opportunity to advance in the repair and development of what we have proposed as legal pluralism, to materialize the ecological constitution that Colombia says it has, to advance toward a multiethnic and multicultural country. We are facing a justice that must be prospective in nature, many of the changes we are working for we will not be able to live, but our sons and daughters will.

(Puede interesarle: ‘La trata de personas no solo es un crimen, es una violación de derechos humanos y las víctimas deben ser reparadas’).

The territory expresses itself, not with the same language as ours, but there are elders who are willing to translate this expression. The authorized voice of this territory are the elders who communicate with it from a very young age, who have their guardian spirits. They participate in the judicial process to say the serious damages, so that they can speak for the territory, which is life itself. All this invites us to move away from anthropocentric thinking and to understand that the territory is alive.

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The armed actors present in the territory are many and the damages have been caused by many actors. At the moment we are preparing the hearings of responsibility for the accused peace signatories, it is necessary to do a lot of pedagogy, because many think that the crimes generated in the territory are secondary. In addition, this year we want to obtain the indictment of the public forces for the damages to the territory and nature in case 02. Peace with nature is not only words, it requires actions.

Perhaps in a city like Bogotá, the people who live there have no relationship with the Bogotá River, but in Tumaco, for the Awá, life revolves around the river, oil is poured into it, and criminal exploitation has serious, differentiated and disproportionate effects. It is not possible to make progress with crimes against people, apart from crimes against territory, when this is life itself.

(Le sugerimos consultar: Tensión entre Gobierno y Poder Judicial escala: JEP pide respetar su jurisdicción ante propuesta del comisionado de paz de cerrarla).

It is necessary to resort to a consensual construction, that is, that the peoples bring their ideas from a spiritual, cultural and physical dimension. Around the healing of the territory, we begin to exchange relationships, understanding of the damage, a lot of generosity, openness of all parties. It is necessary to begin to understand that for the peoples the territory is sacred, ancestral, collective, has dignity, and it is necessary to contribute to the healing. Perhaps no project can repair everything, but the most important thing is the awareness, the understanding of the damage.

In the south of Nariño, we are developing a work or action with a restorative content (Toar) called 'Harmonizing ourselves: harmonizing territories and weaving paths for the collective restoration of the Awá people'.

The project has three phases, we have just completed the first, which was an access to the House of Wisdom, which is a sacred site, in crews that brought together former FARC and the community we built a road to the site, we also worked with Ecopetrol to move an oil pipeline that ed through this site. The second phase, which will begin in the coming months and last 18 months, is the reconstruction of the House of Wisdom "Marcos Pai" and nursery work for the socio-environmental restoration of the area; and the third phase is to contribute to the protection and restoration with the creation of an intercultural reserve.

In the first phase, 13 peace signatories participated, together with the community and the indigenous guard. In the second phase, we will have about 30 participants, including peace signatories and ex-military personnel. We have also asked for the of international cooperation and the national government. It is a matter of uniting the will to heal with the territory.

MARÍA ISABEL ORTIZ FONNEGRA

En X: @MIOF_