Det er omkring et århundrede siden, at gummi-baroner hærgede i regnskoven og dræbte titusinder af indianere – men nu er det tid at række hånden frem, mener regeringen i det sydamerikanske land
Colombia’s president has apologised to indigenous communities in the Amazon for deaths and destruction caused by the rubber boom around 100 years ago, when – backed by Colombia’s government – a Peruvian firm tapped rubber from 1912 to 1929 near La Chorrera in the south,BBC online reports Friday.
More than 80.000 people were killed and communities devastated, according to indigenous leaders. President Juan Manuel Santos asked for forgiveness “for all the dead and their orphans”.
Mr Santos said that in pursuit of progress, the government of the day “failed to understand the importance of safeguarding each indigenous person and culture as an essential part of a society we now understand as multi-ethnic and multicultural.”
The apology was issued on the day Latin Americans mark the beginning of Spanish colonisation and commemorate the arrival of Christopher Columbus on the continent on 12 October 1492.
The president named nine indigenous peoples who were decimated by the rubber-tapping project of Julio Cesar Arana, a controversial Peruvian entrepreneur and politician.
The Colombian government recognises 87 indigenous groups but the Colombian Indigenous Organisation, OIC says there are 102.
Up to one-third of them face extinction because of the armed conflict and forced displacement.
