A Dilemma Between the Use of the Land and the Right of Prior Consultation in Colombia: The Dispute for the Land of the resguardos

Abstract

This article constitutes one contribution to the analysis of the conflict between theindigenous people and the governments through history in Colombia over the landsof resguardos or native indigenous reservation areas, focusing the attention in thelegal and political framework that rules these ethnic minorities' rights andespecially the right of prior consultation; understood as one of the reasons whichhas intensified the conflict between both parties in time specifically from thedecade of the 1990s. This study considers that this dispute between these bothparties is not only caused due to the contrary visions and perspectives over the land–and over the natural resources present in it– but also due to the presence ofcontradictions in the laws, policies, norms, decrees, etc., as the factors which havenot only extended for more than 400 years but also intensified the dispute amidthese two parties to the present day.