The Yukpa are an indigenous community located in the Sierra de Perija , on both sides of the border between Colombia and Venezuela. The former territory of the Yukpa stretched from the valley of the Cesar River to Lake Maracaibo; however, the soils of the land were reduced by the practice of industrial mining, resulting in wisespread malnutrition among the Yukpa during the twentieth century.
The majority of the Yukpa, who number nearly 10,000, live in Venezuela although some communities are still located in the mountains across the border in Colombia.