The Colombian indigenous movement and its relationship with the decolonial turn in Latin America

Abstract

The paradigmatic reality in Colombia has been a great field of analysis and sociopolitical reflection in recent times, marked by the strong presence of a long-term armed conflict, multiple violence practices of hegemonic groups in political power, organizations political-military antisystemic, drug cartels and paramilitary groups of old and new type. Nevertheless, the liberating praxis that emerges inside / outside the Colombian indigenous movement focused on the defense of land, territory, life and culture, responds to a broad articulation with the worldview and critical thinking, horizontal and decolonial in the social sciences of the region. The political actions developed by the indigenous communities and organizations represent a content of aspects / components of thinking from below, with the land and the left (Abya Yala) focused on rethinking their own dynamics, as well as the social sciences through experiences that establish a theoretical, conceptual and methodological weight beyond the colonialism - epistemic of the moment. The methodology used in the development of the article responds to the following processes: 1) theoretical revision on the decolonial studies, the indigenous movement and its link with critical Latin American thinking; 2) the analysis of the processes / mobilizations of the Colombian indigenous movement; and 3) the conceptual and methodological interrelation between the decolonial shift and the praxis of the indigenous movement as subject - collective in the civil society scenario. The most substantial aspect found was the field of opportunity in the study of indigenous movements as sentential, collective and communal subjects. In turn, the epistemic opportunity that constitutes decoloniality as a way of thinking alternately and from below the emerging reality of the indigenous movement with respect to the internal political dynamics of the institutions and sectors hegemonic in Colombia.