Young Indigenous leaders in Colombia's violent Cauca gather to resist violence and elect new voices

Los Angeles Times

10 hours ago

LAS DELICIAS, Colombia — Adriana Pazu wiped away tears as she remembered a colleague who was shot dead earlier this year by an armed dissident group for defending their land.
Pazu, an Indigenous authority from the Nasa territory of San Francisco, Toribío, was attending an Indigenous youth assembly this week in Las Delicias, Cauca, a region long affected by conflict. Despite years of threats and an official security detail, Pazu's colleague Edgar Tumiña was killed — months after one of his bodyguards was killed in an earlier attack.
'He gave everything to protect this land and our youth,' Pazu said, her voice breaking. 'Now, there are only a few of us left, holding onto this responsibility.'
She said she's prepared to carry on, even at great personal risk.
'I've told my family — I'm willing to give my life for this fight. Not with weapons, but by guiding, by speaking, by defending life and territory,' she told The Associated Press during the assembly. 'If death comes, it won't scare me. What scares me is leaving these young people unprotected.'
In a region where natural resources are often exploited for illegal mining, deforestation and logging, confronting that illegal activity can be dangerous. It's especially so in regions like Cauca, where violent groups frequently target Indigenous children and teenagers for recruitment.
Pazu's journey began years ago as a semillero leader — part of a weekend school where Indigenous youth are nurtured like seeds to grow into future leaders and defenders of their communities.
These semilleros offer a sanctuary — teaching traditional Nasa culture, nonviolent resistance, community rituals, arts, and self-defense — empowering youth with identity, skills, and solidarity to protect their lands and heritage.
High in the mountains of northern Cauca, the Indigenous reserve of Las Delicias sits in a region long scarred by violence. Its cemetery holds the body of Breiner David Cucuñame, a 14-year-old community member killed three years ago in a confrontation with dissidents from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the leftist guerilla group that signed a peace agreement with the government almost a decade ago.
Although one of many, Cucuñame's death became a symbol of the risks facing Indigenous youth and their deep commitment to defending their land. That legacy is one reason Las Delicias was chosen to host this year's Indigenous youth assembly, the event's 39th session.
Brightly painted chiva buses — traditional, open-sided vehicles common in rural Colombia — carried hundreds of young people from across Cauca's Nasa territories up narrow mountain roads to the reserve. They gathered to elect new leaders, share ancestral knowledge, and strategize how to protect their lives, culture, and land amid growing threats.
'We chose Las Delicias because it's been hard-hit … a young person was murdered. We want to show that there's still a youth process there,' said Jhoiner Medina, 30, the outgoing leader of the Cauca youth movement.
Violence in Cauca, and many other regions, intensified after Colombia's 2016 peace deal, as criminal groups and dissident factions moved to claim territory and control drug trafficking routes once held by demobilized FARC rebels.
Medina said children and teens have been the most affected.
'Armed groups have continued to recruit children and adolescents, and we are trying to offer alternatives through art, culture, and political training,' he said.
The violence was evident in Las Delicias. Just below the cemetery where Cucuñame is buried, three burned-out military and police vehicles sit where residents set fire to them last year after a government operation that destroyed a drug lab. Authorities say residents were pressured by armed groups. But some in the community say distrust of official forces runs deep in this conflict-ridden region.
According to Elizabeth Dickinson, senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, Indigenous communities in Cauca are among Colombia's most organized and socially cohesive — a strength that has made them a direct target of armed and criminal groups since the 2016 peace deal.
These groups, vying for control over trafficking routes and illicit economies, have sought to fracture the communities' social fabric through targeted assassinations of traditional leaders, economic coercion, and infiltration of youth culture, Dickinson told AP.
Dickinson described youth movements as 'crucial' to resisting recruitment and preserving cultural autonomy.
Held every two years, the youth assembly draws as many as 600 youth from across the region to elect new leaders, evaluate progress, and develop strategies to protect their communities from violence.
It also serves as a space to celebrate cultural identity through dance, music, and traditional practices — which organizers say are increasingly threatened by globalization and displacement.
Jhony Baicue Camago, 14, from the López Adentro Indigenous reserve in Cauca, spent four years in a semillero and now serves in the Indigenous Guard. He said the assembly is a vital space for young people to speak out, especially amid threats such as forced recruitment, sexual violence and extortion by armed groups.
Camago, who hopes to become a nurse, said cultural traditions like dance and music help unify and empower his community.
'When we play the drums, when we dance, there's a strength. It brings us together,' he said.
But the dangers are real. Camago said he knows young people who have been recruited — and raped — by armed groups.
'They use us as mere bait,' he said. 'They send us to the front lines of the war.'
Grattan writes for the Associated Press.