Petróleo e indígenas en Colombia. Una mirada desde la seguridad humana

In Colombia, the exploration, exploitation, transport, and processing of hydrocarbons since the beginning of the 20th century have caused great territory transformations and ecosystem degradation. These processes have impacted adversely the indigenous communities security, exposing their culture and, in some cases, their existence itself. Even though, facing oil and, in general, mineral exploitation, the rights of this population have changed historically and their autonomy and integrity is protected by the 1991 Constitution, the communities are still highly vulnerable to the intervention on the ecosystem they inhabit.

The environmental degradation directly arisen from the oil exploitation activities and the colonization they have driven, has become a threat to the security of the communities whose territories and subsistence resources have been reduced. Colonization and the resulting natural resource pressure are mainly caused by the poverty of the country population that seek new lands to occupy and these two facts cause in turn the environmental degradation that impoverish the ethnic communities by affecting their living sources, thereby causing insecurity to the indigenous population. In addition, environmental degradation and territory reduction risk these human groups’ culture by impacting their values, tradition, authorities and, in general, their way of living, and therefore turn into a threat to their security.