We are deeply concerned for the safety of Indigenous elders who steward ancestral, regional, and social wisdom. On the morning of June 25, Nasa Indigenous ancestral scholar Luis Eduardo Vivas was shot five times at the Mosoco reservation (Resguardo Indígena Mosoco), north of the municipality of Páez, Cauca Department. A note was found with his body that read "every witch is cleansed."
The assassination of Luis Eduardo Vivas puts the wisdom, worldview, spirituality and territoriality of Indigenous peoples at risk. Ancestral knowers (sabedores ancestrales) are the guardians of this ancestral knowledge; their persecution threatens the disappearance of practices and knowledge that have been transmitted from generation to generation. The targeting of violence against ancestral knowers generates a crisis in the knowledge of biodiversity and medicinal plants. There is a great need for cooperation among the State, Indigenous organizations, and civil society groups to ensure that the rights, customs, and critical knowledge of Indigenous peoples are protected and respected.