Uma historia de luta indígena contra a mineração: a criação do Parque Nacional Natural Yaigojé-Apaporis na Amazônia colombiana

Abstract

The promise of "development" has produced innumerable socio-environmental conflicts in South America, with the Amazon being a propitious territory for this situation, considering its importance in environmental and cultural terms. The current text deals with the process of conformation of the Yaigojé-Apaporis Natural National Park (created in 2009), in an area where there was already an indigenous reservation, in the Colombian Amazon. This mobilization started to occur in 2007, as a way to protect the territory against the initiative of a Canadian multinational with a mining project to be developed in the area. I present an analysis about the forms of political and territorial organization of the indigenous peoples of the lower Apaporis, Northwest Amazon. I also emphasize the participation of multiple actors (governmental and nongovernmental institutions, researchers, indigenous associations, and the mining company, among others) as well as the emergence of conflicts in the process of creation of the national park. The work was done from a bibliographical and documentary survey, interviews and informal conversations with indigenous leaders, managers and researchers.