Droughts, floods and economic uncertainty: Portraits of the Wayuu people in northern Colombia

Independent

21-02-2025

Climate change is rapidly altering the way of life of the Indigenous Wayuu people, a semi-nomadic Indigenous group living in the arid La Guajira region, which spans northern Colombia and Venezuela.
Prolonged droughts, intensified by climate change, have worsened water scarcity, straining the Wayuu's already limited access to drinking water and resources for livestock and agriculture. As rainfall becomes more erratic, food insecurity rises, with crops failing and livestock struggling to survive.
Health risks also escalate, with heat waves increasing dehydration and extreme weather events leading to flooding and waterborne diseases.
Their way of life is also being threatened as companies and the government — who want to capitalize on the region's wind potential — seek to build wind farms.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of a series of on how tribes and Indigenous communities are coping with and combating climate change.
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A lot of the Wayuu population preserve traditional, semi-nomadic ways of living on 'rancherias,' which are thatched-like roofed huts, made from dried cacti and mud and herd cattle and goats. They also have a traditional governance system and laws based on their cultural and spiritual practices.
The worsening conditions have forced many Wayuu to migrate, either to urban centers or across borders, further intensifying their socio-economic struggles. This displacement threatens their traditional livelihoods of farming, fishing and herding. The impacts extend beyond economics, as the Wayuu's cultural identity, rooted in their spiritual connection to the land, is also at risk.
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Luciane Mengual, 22, a mother of two from the Wayuu community, lives with her 47-year-old mother, Nelly, in an informal settlement called Villa del Sur on the outskirts of Riohacha in northern Colombia. The family migrated from Maracaibo, Venezuela, near the border, seeking better opportunities amid economic hardships in Venezuela.
Their home, built from scrap materials like tin, wood, and plastic tarp, lies in an area recently devastated by extreme flooding. The usually dry region of La Guajira has been hit by increasingly frequent and intense floods, submerging makeshift homes that lack basic services like running water or sewage systems. Heavy winds, typical of the area, often tear off their roof, further threatening their fragile living conditions.
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A Wayuu Indigenous family rested in a chinchorro, a traditional woven bed that many prefer over mattresses. Unlike a standard hammock, a chinchorro features an enclosed, elongated design with sides that gently wrap around the body, offering a cocoon-like feel. Wayuu people consider it more comfortable for sleeping than a hammock.
This family, also made up of Wayuu migrants from Venezuela, lives in an informal settlement, right beside Riohacha's airport. Their house, with no running water, is prone to the severe floods and extreme heat that has ravished the La Guajira region in recent years.
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Rosa Elena González, 45, is a Wayuu woman from Maracaibo, Venezuela. She has been living in the Somos Unidos informal neighborhood in Maicao, Colombia, for the past seven years, after migrating from Venezuela.
'When there are big weather events like huge downpours, the young and elderly get sick … most of them don't have health insurance,' she said.
'Some families have roofs made out of plastic bags which break. In January, the wind got so strong that almost all of us lost our roofs.'
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Alfredo Atencio, 69, is from the Wayuu community on the Colombian side of the border who lives in the Amanecer de la Paz neighborhood in Maicao with his daughter and her three children. His home, constructed from recycled materials and covered with zinc, lacks internal divisions and he says the strong wind and flooding has impacted him.
'It hits really hard, and when it's really hot and there's lots of sun, it's tough too,' he told the Associated Press.
With support from a kit provided by the Danish Refugee Council, Atencio was able to expand his home using the wood and cement boards supplied, making significant improvements to his living space.
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Kelmis Maria Gonzalez, 45, a Wayuu woman and teacher from Mayapo along the La Guajira coast, lives with her son, David. She is also trained in teaching about 'Mother Earth.' Gonzalez says climate change, driven by multinational activities, is severely impacting the Wayuu people, particularly the traditional fishermen known as Apalaanchi. Coastal erosion is rapidly destroying the shoreline and the mangroves in her community, and she points to offshore gas production, visible in the distance, as a major culprit.
'It is a territorial and environmental crisis that deeply affects us as a people, especially from a spiritual perspective,' she told AP. 'Our connection with nature is integral to our identity as Wayuu. We view the sea as our ancestral grandmother, who provides us with sustenance. But she also sends us a warning — our actions are harming her.'
Gonzalez blames 'cultures that pursue what they call progress,' especially through the exploitation of natural resources.
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In the remote Cabo de la Vela, the heartland of the Wayuu people, Luis Arturo Barliza, 48, represents the small community of Casa Eléctrica, where a wind farm has been proposed.
Several wind farm projects in La Guajira are currently on hold as the Wayuu communities struggle to reach a consensus on how these projects should proceed and what benefits they will receive. While Barliza does not oppose the wind farms himself and has signed agreements to allow turbines on his land, many in his community, and even his family, vehemently reject the companies behind the projects.
'It's going to be very difficult to reach an agreement, it's very complex,' Barliza says, acknowledging that the Wayuu communities have differing leaders and perspectives on the issue. Over 50 wind farm projects remain on hold due to resistance from the Wayuu people, according to Indepaz, a Bogota-based think tank.
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