Protect the land of Indigenous community
On 14 March, individuals violently destroyed a billboard installed by the Aseinpome Indigenous community within its recognised reserve, formally established by the National Lands Agency through Accord 219 of 2023 and publicly delivered by President Gustavo Petro on 6 October 2023. Later that day, armed men carrying long guns intimidated one of the community’s settlements. The billboard marked the existence of the reserve. Its destruction, together with the intimidation, is a threat to the lives and territorial rights of the Indigenous community, long contested by individuals claiming ownership of disputed lands in Puerto Gaitán (Meta). We urge the National Lands Agency (ANT) to visit the area and guarantee Aseinpome’s land and territorial rights.
The Orinoquian plains comprise vast territories with abundant water resources, enormous agricultural and livestock potential, and significant oil reserves. These lands, traditionally inhabited by Indigenous peoples, have for decades been subjected to violent occupation by actors seeking to seize the land, formalise ownership through fraudulent means, and then sell it to those interested in developing agro-industrial or oil projects.
At the same time, Indigenous communities and peasant communities, often created by people forcibly displaced from other parts of Colombia, have built settlements and maintained peasant practices that frequently clash with the interests of those who have seized the lands, or even those who have purchased it alleging good faith and the search for economic development. The State has long had the responsibility of clarifying land ownership, taking into account the rights of victims of dispossession and forced displacement. Despite the existence of a Land Restitution System and efforts to advance a rural reform, many conflicts remain, and peasant and Indigenous communities continue to face threats and attacks for defending their land and territorial rights.
The «Asentamiento Indígena del Porvenir Meta» (Indigenous Settlement of El Porvenir, Meta), or Aseinpome Indigenous community, is made up of 54 Sikuani and Kubeo families, with around 230 members. Their Sikuani ancestors were forcibly displaced from this territory in the mid-20th century by settlers who seized their lands through threats and violence, including «hunting» them. They fled south into the Amazon forest, where they encountered Kubeo families who were also victims of violence, even slavery. Together, they formed a community and spent decades moving across southern and eastern Colombia, enduring further violence and forced displacement, until they finally resettled in their ancestral lands in El Porvenir in 2015.
Their return was made possible after the State revoked fraudulent property titles held for decades by landowners linked to paramilitary groups, as part of the broader pattern of violent land accumulation during the Colombian armed conflict in the 20th and early 21st centuries. However, ownership of land in El Porvenir remains disputed between indigenous and peasant communities, and other individuals claiming they purchased the land in good faith or because they are part of the historical cycle of land accumulation. This situation is documented by Amnesty International in its 2014 report A land title is not enough: Ensuring sustainable land restitution in Colombia. Despite high-level judicial decisions aimed at resolving the dispute, tensions remain. In 2016, Constitutional Court ruling SU-426 ordered the National Lands Agency (ANT) to allocate the El Porvenir territory to its «historical inhabitants», but almost a decade later this order remains unimplemented.
Land disputes have led to repeated violence. The Aseinpome community has faced threats and attacks, including land invasions and the burning of indigenous homes, as highlighted in an urgent action in May 2020, and in general has been prevented from living peacefully, as documented in Amnesty International reports from 2020 and 2023 on violence against those defending land, territory and environmental rights in Colombia. Nearby peasant communities, including El Porvenir and Matarratón, have also been subjected to violence, as warned by Amnesty International’s urgent actions in 2015 and 2019. Luz Marina Arteaga, a historic leader and spokesperson for the land restitution process in Matarratón and El Porvenir, faced numerous threats for her work and was forcibly disappeared in January 2022. Her body was later found on the banks of the Meta River in Orocué, Casanare. More recently, Amnesty International issued an urgent action in December 2025 calling on Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office to investigate serious threats against community leaders.
In 2023, Aseinpome was formally recognised as an Indigenous reserve by the National Government through ANT Accord 219 of 2023, a milestone that should have helped resolve land disputes and end violent incidents. The decision was delivered in person by the President of the Republic to Aseinpome’s governor during a ceremony near El Porvenir. However, the community still lacks physical access to two-thirds of the land collectively titled to them, and the State has yet to guarantee effective control over their territory. Parts of the land remain occupied by other claimants, sustaining tensions and the risk of further violence.
On 2 and 3 March, the Aseinpome community installed billboards marking the existence of the Indigenous reserve and the ANT decision formalising it. On 14 March, one of the billboards was violently destroyed, and later on the night, armed men carrying long guns appeared near one of the community’s settlements and withdrew only when the Indigenous Guard arrived. These events were publicly denounced by the Corporación Claretiana Norman Pérez Bello, a human rights organisation that has long supported the territorial claims of Aseinpome and other Indigenous and peasant communities in the area.
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Please take action before 16 July 2026.
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