Nothing like extreme circumstances to bring out who we really are:

During Colombia's 2021 national strike, the Cauca minga¹ headed to Cali, the department's capital, to show their support for the peaceful protesters who had taken to the streets despite the wave of vandalism financed by actors associated with urban guerrillas and drug trafficking in the region. These were some of the reactions from my country's ruling class:

Omar Yepes Alzate, Director of the Conservative Party:

Pay close attention to the indigenous organizations that leave their natural habitat to disrupt civic life. Cali and Popayán are examples of this. The authorities have a duty to act and prevent the situation from escalating due to the reaction that may come from inaction. 

@omaryepesalzat, 12:27 pm, 9 de mayo, 2021.

Ivan Duque, President of the Republic:

I call on the members of @CRIC_Cauca² to return to their reservations and avoid violent confrontations with citizens.

@IvanDuque, 5:32 pm, 9 de mayo, 2021.

Marta Lucía Ramirez, Vice President of the Republic:

“I am told that it costs approximately $1 billion (colombian pesos) per day to sustain the minga that arrived in Cali. Who is behind its financing? What profitable activity allows for such generosity in spending? The authorities must impose order and protect the peaceful majority of citizens.”

@mluciaramirez, 12:18 am, 10 de mayo, 2021.

From these three tweets—and many others that were shared with the hashtag #mingacriminal by government officials and citizens—several things become clear: first, one of the many incarnations of the “other” in Colombia (in addition to gender minorities) are ethnic minorities such as indigenous peoples and Black people, who after being enslaved for centuries were segregated and marginalized from the country's political and social life until 1991, when Colombia's new constitution gave them political recognition, although many of the guarantees in the charter remain unfulfilled more than thirty years later. 

Secondly, these three tweets share the idea that indigenous people come to “disrupt civic life” and confront it, and that therefore citizens must be protected from this fearsome alterity, as if indigenous people were not, at least nominally, part of it. What better example of the ambiguity implicit in the title of the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen,” in which it is unclear whether man and citizen are two distinct realities or whether the concept of man is contained within that of citizen? (0.19) That ‘man’ is only contained in ‘citizen’ in certain cases is evident in the old expression with which former Colombian president Laureano Gómez used to refer to indigenous peoples: “animals with human form.” Humanity understood as citizenship is only a vessel, a ‘form’ into which certain privileged people fit.

Even more appalling is the mention of a “natural habitat” for indigenous peoples, as if they were animals who should not be covered by the term “citizen,” but rather “locked up in a territory where they can behave as their nature dictates, while citizens look at them as they would look at a wild animal.” This, in practical terms, is the definition of an indigenous reserve or, why not, a ghetto, as implied by the origin of the phrase (7.17).

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1. A coalition of indigenous organizations in southern Colombia formed in the late 20th century. The term “minga” comes from the Quechua word minka, which refers to a pre-Columbian tradition of community and volunteer work aimed at promoting social welfare and common good. ↩︎
2. Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca. (Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca) ↩︎