The removal of legal protection from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.  Learn more here

NEWSPAPER EXTRACTS CONCERNING THE ANNULING OF THE BLACK LINE DECREE

The high court annulled Decree 1500 of 2018, which recognized 348 sacred sites in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.  Santos asks for respect for the “Black Line” of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta after the Council of State annuls it.

Former President Juan Manuel Santos asked the Council of State to preserve the protection of the Black Line after the high court annulled Decree 1500 of 2018, which recognized 348 sacred sites in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta..

Former President Juan Manuel Santos reappeared in a video released on social media to address the State Council's decision to annul Decree 1500 of 2018, the law with which his administration demarcated the so-called Black Line in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. In his statement, the former president defended the scope of the administrative act and requested that guarantees for the Indigenous communities linked to that territory be maintained, according to Blu Radio.

The high court's decision generated reactions among ancestral communities and human rights organizations, which have expressed concern about the implications of the ruling. The annulled decree recognized hundreds of spaces as sacred for the Indigenous peoples of the Sierra and established a special legal framework for their protection within Colombian law in effect since 2018.

Santos maintained that Decree 1500 was the product of years of dialogue with the Arhuaco, Kogui, Wiwa, and Kankuamo peoples, and that its purpose was to provide legal support for a system of sacred sites pre-existing in the indigenous tradition. In his message, the former head of state indicated that the judicial decision represents, in his opinion, a setback in terms of cultural recognition and protection of these spaces.

The Black Line corresponds to a spiritual and territorial demarcation drawn by the indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta over 348 sacred sites that connect the summit with the sea. According to their traditional authorities, these places maintain the environmental and cultural balance of the region. The decree issued in 2018 formally expanded the recognition of these spaces and granted them a special protection scheme within the legal framework.

The Council of State annulled the regulation, considering that the participation of other ethnic communities and stakeholders present in the territory was not fully guaranteed during its enactment. This conclusion opened a new arena for legal and political debate surrounding the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and how decisions impacting different sectors should be made.

In his remarks, Santos insisted that the State must honor the commitments made to indigenous peoples and protect the sacred sites that are part of their worldview. The former president raised the need to find mechanisms to maintain the guarantees granted to the communities of the Sierra, despite the annulment of the decree. His statement echoed the calls from traditional authorities of the region, who have warned about the risks that, in their view, the annulment of the administrative act poses to the preservation of their culture and their historical relationship with the territory. The communities have indicated that protecting the Black Line is fundamental to the continuity of their practices and beliefs.

While the legal discussion unfolds,The government of President Gustavo Petro instructed the National Land Agency to explore legal instruments needed to continue guaranteeing the preservation of the Black Line. Among the alternatives mentioned is the potential purchase of land, as a way to maintain the protection of the areas identified by Indigenous communities. The controversy revolves around one of the country's most representative ancestral territories, whose spiritual and cultural boundaries were formally recognized by Decree 1500. The annulment declared by the Council of State does not eliminate the existence of the Black Line as a traditional reference point, but it does modify the legal framework that has supported it since 2018. The debate continues in various institutional and community settings, amidst positions that seek to reconcile respect for judicial decisions with the need to preserve the sacred sites identified by the Indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

I have received a copy of the following statement on Facebook purporting to be  from the Colombian President Gustavo Petro summoning the indigenous of the SNSM to the beaches of Sant a Marta to address the matter! 

I have called for the unity of the indigenous peoples of the heart of the world. Indigenous people united by land and life. I am waiting for you en masse on the beaches of Santa Marta, to sign the new decree of the black line that expands the sacred territory of the caretakers of the water. Prior consultation is the assembly of the indigenous communities of the territory deciding whether to expand the sacred territory. We are going to vote on the beaches of Santa Marta, where there was a century-long struggle of indigenous resistance against the conquest, we are going to sign in front of the united indigenous communities of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta the new decree of the black line with indigenous consultation in assembly or kurunkúa of our Tayrona ancestors.

In the heart of the world there must be a united indigenous force and not paramilitaries or complicit police. The peasantry of the Sierra Nevada can understand our friendship and the handing over of land on the haciendas of the paramilitaries outside the black line. The sacred is sacred and the water is sacred. No more paracos (slang for paramilitaries) in the mountains, the mountains belong to indigenous power. An ETI must be established in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, magic of the free and diverse Caribbean. Center of the world and center of freedom and the earth. If the heart of the world unites, humanity unites. May the Sierra Nevada breathe freedom.