The 2005 census determined that there were 1,378,884 indigenous individuals (3.4% of the country’s population) belonging to 87 different peoples in Colombia. These peoples live in such contrasting ecosystems as the Andes, the Amazon, the Pacific, the Eastern Plains and the desert peninsula of Guajira. Although home to few different peoples, the Andean departments of Cauca and Nariño, and that of La Guajira, account for approximately 80% of the country’s indigenous population. Regions such as the Amazon and Orinoquia, with a very low demographic density and a high level of settlement dispersion, are home to the greatest number of peoples (70), some of them on the verge of extinction. One particularly sad case is that of the nomadic Nukak Makú people. Displaced and virtually exterminated, there are now less than 500 of them in existence (in 1990 there were 1,400). Settlement, coca, cattle ranching, drugs trafficking and armed actors are all at the root of this ethnocide.

Almost a third of the national territory is formed of Indigenous Reserves, many of them besieged by oil companies, mining companies, banana and palm oil growers, companies wishing to extract resources, build ranches and grow illicit crops.

The 1991 Political Constitution recognised the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples and ratified ILO Convention 169 (now Law 21 of 1991). After abstaining from the vote on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in the UN General Assembly in 2007, Colombia reversed its position and endorsed the UNDRIP in 2009.

International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, The Indigenous World 2011