00:05Sometimes he blames it on cocaine, doesn't he?
00:08The plant itself is not the poison that, let's say, affects people.
00:16This plant is sacred, it is a treasure, but medicinal.
00:23There has been job creation, but likewise, just as there is money, there are problems.
00:30Henry, 65.
00:39One of the aspects that has had an impact, that has influenced the dynamics of the disappearance
00:47It is, let's say, associated in some way with everything related to illicit crops.
00:58Something that marked the lives of many of us who grew up in this territory is that as a result
01:03There was a lot of death from the violence, and also death by disappearance.
01:08So, perhaps for what is not so natural in an external context,
01:14For us here, seeing a dead or injured person was a daily, everyday occurrence.
01:41If I ever visit a dead person, I have to bring plenty of cheap wine or soda.
01:48Or some juice. And I say, well, then I'm going to offer this liquor to the spirits.
01:58who died in this territory. They are suffering.
02:04For my brother Omar Moriano in Azacuata, may he rest in peace.
02:09May their souls rest in peace. I also have a brother who disappeared 21 years ago, but stay strong.
02:18To all the spirits who rest in peace, sir. Take up the watch.
02:36If someone goes missing, it affects the community, because we always speak from the perspective of the collective.
02:43We are not speaking individually, but collectively.
02:45So, regardless of the cases we have, it damages, it damages that process of harmony in our communities.
02:59When we started in 2021, we found ourselves facing a very bleak situation.
03:06We were experiencing it, but individually.
03:09Each one wept for their dead, for their missing loved ones.
03:12Forced disappearance, at an individual level, at a family level, is very difficult to heal from.
03:22But the support of our traditional doctors gives us some peace of mind.
03:28of calm to wait for that whole long search process.
03:40Many lives have been saved through medicine.
03:44I, as a traditional doctor, have cured many diseases, many lives.
03:49And the violence has also subsided, because we had gathered with many traditional healers.
03:56to heal, to harmonize the territory so that there are no such conflicts.
04:02When an Indian, an elder, is killed, it's like the people, the community, kind of take notice.
04:10It's like half the territory is lost.
04:13Because we Indians all work in groups, in caravans,
04:17As the elder said, look, right now we're working in Minga, look.
04:19From all the reservations, they came from many reservations, 10, 20, they worked in Minga.
04:25And so one works happily, content with the people.
04:29But what if he arrives here, and tomorrow he doesn't arrive, his comrades kill him or make him disappear?
04:33It has been, so to speak, a void for the territory.
04:41It's my father's ID card.
04:44In the case of my father's death, he was disappeared in '99.
04:48And that void left by his death, we were left with, or rather, very, very, as I was saying, that sadness.
04:57He has been greatly missed because he was a doctor, a traditionalist, a midwife, a healer, a healer, a healer, many things.
05:04The community still misses him.
05:07When we started this ORIPAP process, we began to recover bodies,
05:14to be able to get some of our comrades back alive.
05:19Talk to the different armed actors present in the area.
05:25A specific route was developed for the search for people reported missing.
05:32Because this is an issue that, until today, in the Agua region, has not been addressed.
05:39accomplished
05:39And there are no guarantees that we can speak with that certainty about how many people have been affected.
05:46Or perhaps many colleagues, even knowing that there are bodies in the territory,
05:53but there are no guarantees yet.
05:54Or they don't feel that guarantee to be able to speak calmly.
05:59And so, it begins with harmonization.
06:02To be able to enter the territories, the elders say, first you have to harmonize.
06:06Because bodies deserve respect.
06:08The dead, as they say, deserve respect.
06:11Regardless of who is in the territory.
06:15Because there are indigenous people there, but there are also people who do not belong to the territory,
06:23who came to work, who came from other places looking for a way of life,
06:27But perhaps what they found was death.
06:33Tumaco is one of the 12 municipalities on the Pacific coast of Nariño and the coastal foothills,
06:39with a higher number of missing persons.
06:42One of the aspects that has affected or influenced the dynamics of the disappearance
06:49It is, let's say, associated in some way with everything related to illicit crops, of
06:57coca.
07:22People are into cocaine, and every day I have to make money, every day I have
07:28that being on cocaine.
07:30The new youth are a complete little slave.
07:33My person, I, we don't work with coca.
07:36Rather, I have been with the authorities, with the communities, saying, comrades, be careful.
07:44Caution, do not sell land within the reserve.
07:49Here in this community we have resisted, we have endured.
07:53The grandparents always said that coca was medicinal.
08:00This person can drink aromatic waters, but they should not be poisoned.
08:05And that's very important, that little plant.
08:08And above all, it's for healing, not for preparing improper things.
08:14So, that's it, misuse is what's being affected.
08:24Within the territory, faced with a lack of investment by the State,
08:29Therefore, we do not have adequate tertiary routes to be able to export other products.
08:34What would be the point of producing bananas for us?
08:37If transportation costs increase significantly, it will ultimately fail to generate a positive return.
08:47for that family.
08:48We as a community are small farmers
08:51And we are not the ones who benefit on a large scale from coca cultivation.
08:57In the early days, when people didn't know, there was no cocaine at that time, I tell you.
09:04This caused problems.
09:06When the first fumigation came,
09:10Look, they destroyed the environment
09:13And then came the slaughter of the people again.
09:19There were dead people, missing persons.
09:41We know that there are many bodies here in the Campo Santo de la Peña de Maindé,
09:47which we will continue working hard to achieve.
09:51and may they have a dignified burial
09:56and also the peace of mind of the families who are searching.
10:00My brother has been missing for 22 years now, but he has always left a void in our lives as a family.
10:07because it has also been a fundamental pillar for us.
10:10My mother has suffered greatly from this scourge that the war brought us here more than 50 years ago.
10:16As indigenous authorities, we are here united, working to see if, with the effort of all competent entities,
10:23Those of us who are here in this cemetery want to work together to see if we can recover bodies.
10:29to give my brother and his family a Christian burial.
10:33and also people who are currently searching.
10:35This cemetery, which was declared a few years ago, is one of the places that was used for decades.
10:46for the disappearance of bodies, meaning that the bodies were thrown into that precipice.
10:52Even with this statement from Campo Santo, I believe the search cycle has not ended.
10:58The issue of death, finding missing loved ones, is very important
11:05taking into account that for them there are specific sacred places.
11:10The disappearance becomes a rather complex situation for them.
11:15because upon finding that on their farms, that in their ethnic territories
11:19There are bodies placed where they shouldn't be; for them, that means a disharmony in their territory.
11:27The New Year's Eve ritual is fundamental for us so that our loved one...
11:32transcends to the third world according to our worldview water.
11:36But we cannot perform the New Year's Eve ritual for a missing person.
11:42because the New Year's Eve ritual requires knowing where he is buried.
11:46The greatest thing he says is that the spirit leaves each year.
11:49The family is waiting to find his relatives to give him a proper funeral, a good burial.
11:55But the truth, as we say, that spirit is suffering.
12:00And towards the territory it is possible to make harmonizations in one way or another in gratitude to Mother Earth,
12:09spiritually manifest to these pending memories that they seek them out,
12:14that everything possible is being done to find them at some point,
12:20that at some point the institutions can carry out the entire process
12:27so that the bodies can be delivered to family members.
12:58As a young person from this region,
13:02I dream of a different future, perhaps one not so marked by violence,
13:09in which there is no silencing in the communities where it is claimed that nothing has happened here.
13:16First, there needs to be recognition that we, the Agua people, have been victims of this entire conflict.
13:23And we have lost much along the way, not only life, but our territory has also been affected.
13:31our community, our social fabric.
13:33The Agua people are an ancient people, and we don't want that to just be said at some point.
13:43We were the water people; we want our culture to live on, our Guavit language to live on.
13:51Let's strengthen all the uses and customs even more.
13:54So at this moment we have empowered many young people and we have said no.
14:00Be proud to be water, because that allows us to identify ourselves.
14:08If we are different, because we speak another language, because we have other traits that identify us,
14:16But we were the first in this territory.
14:20We have owned all of this.
14:23Our grandparents fought against such a large invasion that occurred at the time of the arrival of the Spanish.
14:34and they managed to survive.
14:37And why can't we do it now?
15:14Our grandparents fought against such a large invasion that occurred with the arrival of the Spanish.
