Some 450 people—Afro-Colombians and indigenous members of the Embera Katio-Eyabida, Dóbida, Wounaan and Zenú communities—marched 194 miles from the western state of Chocó to the Colombian capitol of Bogotá to demonstrate their concerns about a resurgence of violence in their state.

The march, termed a #MingaPorLaVida, or March for Life, headed out from Chocó Saturday, Nov. 10, and quickly reached the capitol of the country.

There, demonstrators fanned out to camp in offices, private homes and other institutions. The plan was to wait indefinitely for an audience with the new Colombian president, Iván Duque Márquez.

Minga participants included elders, men, women (11 of whom are pregnant) and children from the Chocó towns of RioSucio and Carmen de Darién. Afro-Colombians were in the minority during the march because the event was coordinated by the Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia (Colombian Indigenous Organization) and mostly led by indigenous groups.

Estimates are that only 50 or so Afro-Colombians were part of the original march from Chocó. But once in Bogotá, Black support for the aims of the Minga was evident everywhere. Local students took to the streets to march with the Mingueros and call on the government to negotiate with them. And Afro-Colombian activist Marino Cordoba‏, a member of AFRODES (National Association of Displaced Afro-Colombians/Asociación Nacional de Afrocolombianos Desplazados) sent a message via Twitter encouraging the #MingaPorLaVida.

“I feel a moral obligation to express support and solidarity with Mingueros from Riosucio, my hometown,” said Cordoba, “who are decrying the lack of security that has forced them to march.”

On its own Twitter account, ONIC stated, “We didn’t come to Bogota because we like the cold or wanted to sleep in the streets here; we came because we have a right to a dignified life in our territories.”

“Peace in Colombia never came to the territories where indigenous and Black people live,” ONIC organizer Maricela Londoño explained while giving live updates about the march. The 52-year Colombian civil war, which formally came to an end in November 2016, had been mostly fought in areas such as Chocó. When peace accords were signed, promises to aid the people and areas that had suffered the most were also part of the deal. But with the election of conservative president, Duque in June 2018, violence has again resurfaced. Duque was elected based on his promises to change the peace deal, which he claims is too lenient on former guerrilla fighters accused of war crimes.

The #MingaPorLaVida was created so that people from Chocó could talk with Duque about the new security threats they have seen since his installation as president and to demand that the government live up to the security standards already agreed to under the last president, Juan Manuel Santos. 
In a statement, ONIC claimed that since the end of 2016, a new wave of violence in Colombia has led to the displacement of 5,730 people, as well as people being tortured and threatened by militant groups such as ELN guerrillas, and FARC dissidents who have resurfaced in the area. Militants have been trying to re-take the drug trafficking routes they operated when they were at war with the federal government—those routes helped fund their armies. ONIC also noted that even beyond the attacks from armed groups, the federal government had promised to fund educational, health and infrastructure projects in Chocó, which remain undone.

By Nov. 15, Mingueros had settled on an agreement with the Colombian government and began boarding buses to head back to Chocó. The Minga had successfully brought the Duque administration to the table with indigenous communities and Afro-Colombians to talk about reviewing security measures in Chocó, putting more effort into discarding still-live landmines in the area, verifying titles and land boundaries with indigenous community councils and establishing a health system specifically designed for indigenous communities.