How Oil, Cocaine and Armed Conflict Threaten the Survival of the Awá People
Publisher: OpenDemocracy
Author(s): Edilma Prada and Vanessa Teteye
Date: 2021
Topics: Conflict Causes, Extractive Resources, Land, Renewable Resources
Countries: Colombia
According to Julio Ricardo Solarte Ascuntar, throughout history the Indigenous Awá have been forced to flee from their ancestral lands of the Pacific coast of Ecuador and Colombia. From colonial times through to the Colombian armed conflict, they have had to move over and over again, leaving them without a territory of their own. Often, their settlements are temporary and very small. The Awá currently live in an area of 610,000 hectares in the Andean-Amazonian border area, of which 480,000 hectares are in Colombia and 116,640 hectares in Ecuador. According to the National Department of Statistics, the Awá number 44,516 in Colombia. Of these, 39,000 are in Nariño and 5,000 in Putumayo.