To Kill a Spiritual Guide Amounts to an Attack against the ‘pervivencia’ of the Nasa People

In the early morning of 18 April 2023, elder (kiwe thë'j) José Isaías Quiguanás was murdered on the road between El Palo and Corinto. We publish a testimony about the importance of ancestral knowledge for the Nasa people.

The indigenous people of the VXU BE KIWE (Toribio) ancestral territory, politically and organizationally represented in the Nasa Project that groups the AMYU KIWE, KWET YU KIWE, VXUU BEH KIWE reservations since 1980, today the ‘plan de vida’ Nasa, since time immemorial has been engaged in actions for the defence of life and the territory. However, day after day, different armed groups have mercilessly inflicted fire and blood on the Community Life Project. The brutes threaten, stigmatize and selectively kill every wise word that arises from born feeling and collective thought.

Today the Nasa VXUU BEH KIWE People in the Municipality of Toribio, in the northern area of the Cauca Department, are once again mourning. Elder and spiritual guide JOSE ISAIAS QUIGUANAS MUSICUE, 49 years old, who had been accompanying the spiritual and cultural work of the ‘plan de vida’ Nasa, was murdered in the early morning of 18 April 2023 in the middle of the road that leads from the area of El Palo to Corinto.

Making practical use of his spiritual gift, since a young age, Thesa Isaías always put his knowledge at the service of the communities to help build, and to seek through alliances between being Nasa and a community coexistence in accordance with the dreams and collective approaches that would lead to the reconstruction of the great harm that has been caused to the social fabric.

Unfortunately, this morning, the bullets fired by murderous hands shortened his desires, and thus affect the harmony of the Nasa people, because it is clear to the indigenous communities that the strategies of spreading terror, instilling fear, intimidating the population and taking advantage of them, have been sown for a while within the territories. That is why they have been killing the elders, because MURDERING A SPIRITUAL GUIDE IS A DIRECT ATTACK AGAINST THE PERVIVENCIA [survival] OF THE NASA PEOPLE.

Given this, we have always said, the fight continues and that is why we forcefully reject today and always this and all acts that go against life, integrity and harmony in families and the community.

(Plan de Vida - Proyecto Nasa de Toribio, translated by Piergiuseppe Parisi)