{"id":1422,"date":"2026-06-13T04:49:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T09:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/?p=1422"},"modified":"2026-06-13T10:46:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T15:46:25","slug":"%c2%a7-7-18-habitat-natural","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/2026\/06\/13\/%c2%a7-7-18-habitat-natural\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a7\u00a07.18. Natural habitat"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing like extreme circumstances to bring out who we really are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Colombia's 2021 national strike, the Cauca minga1<\/a><\/sup> 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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Omar Yepes Alzate, Director of the Conservative Party:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Pay close attention to the indigenous organizations that leave their natural habitat to disrupt civic life. Cali and Popay\u00e1n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

@omaryepesalzat, 12:27 pm, 9 de mayo, 2021.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Ivan Duque, President of the Republic:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

I call on the members of @CRIC_Cauca2<\/a><\/sup> to return to their reservations and avoid violent confrontations with citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

@IvanDuque, 5:32 pm, 9 de mayo, 2021.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Marta Luc\u00eda Ramirez, Vice President of the Republic:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

@mluciaramirez, 12:18 am, 10 de mayo, 2021.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

From these three tweets\u2014and many others that were shared with the hashtag #mingacriminal by government officials and citizens\u2014several things become clear: first, one of the many incarnations of the \u201cother\u201d 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, these three tweets share the idea that indigenous people come to \u201cdisrupt civic life\u201d 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 \u201cDeclaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen,\u201d 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<\/a>) That \u2018man\u2019 is only contained in \u2018citizen\u2019 in certain cases is evident in the old expression with which former Colombian president Laureano G\u00f3mez used to refer to indigenous peoples: \u201canimals with human form.\u201d Humanity understood as citizenship is only a vessel, a \u2018form\u2019 into which certain privileged people fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even more appalling is the mention of a \u201cnatural habitat\u201d for indigenous peoples, as if they were animals who should not be covered by the term \u201ccitizen,\u201d but rather \u201clocked 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.\u201d 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<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n
  1. A coalition of indigenous organizations in southern Colombia formed in the late 20th century. The term \u201cminga\u201d comes from the Quechua word minka<\/em>, which refers to a pre-Columbian tradition of community and volunteer work aimed at promoting social welfare and common good. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  2. Consejo Regional Ind\u00edgena del Cauca. (Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca) \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Nada como circunstancias extremas para sacar a la luz lo que realmente somos: Durante el paro nacional de Colombia del 2021, la minga del Cauca se dirigi\u00f3 a Cali, la capital del departamento, para hacer presencia y apoyar a los manifestantes pac\u00edficos que hab\u00edan salido a las protestas en la ciudad a pesar de la […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274836558,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"[{\"content\":\"Colectivo de organizaciones ind\u00edgenas del sur de Colombia formado a finales del siglo XX. El t\u00e9rmino minga viene del quechua minka<\/em> que hace referencia a un tradici\u00f3n precolombina de trabajo comunitario y voluntario que tiene como fin generar utilidad social y bien com\u00fan.\",\"id\":\"cfea2dab-f5c1-42b0-87d7-cba722f31feb\"},{\"content\":\"Consejo Regional Ind\u00edgena del Cauca.\",\"id\":\"8608adfb-5b50-4699-b8c1-414f3177a962\"}]","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYHfz-mW","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/274836558"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1422"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1480,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422\/revisions\/1480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}