The Mennonite community that has lived for nine years in the Meta region of Colombia expressed its willingness to repair the environmental damage caused by deforestation for which it is being accused by the Colombian justice system.
The prosecution holds 12 members of this religious community responsible for the deforestation of more than 100 hectares through indiscriminate logging and the construction of several bridges and other infrastructure without the required legal permits.
Specifically, the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office accuses this Mennonite community of the crimes of unlawful exploitation of renewable natural resources, damage to natural resources, invasion of an area of special ecological importance, and arson.
Mennonites in Colombia to repair environmental damage
The Mennonite community that has lived since 2016 in a rural area of the municipality of Puerto Gaitan, in the Colombian department of Meta, expressed its willingness to repair the environmental damage of which it is accused by the Prosecutor’s Office, according to the local newspaper El Espectador, citing sources from the defense attorneys.
At a proceeding held last week, the prosecution read out the charges against the Mennonites: the indictment states that between 2017 and 2021, this community was allegedly involved “in the removal of vegetation cover and the mechanized logging of numerous trees of different native species in the Colombian region. All of this over an area of approximately 110 hectares, in order to prepare the land for the establishment of agricultural crops.”
Likewise, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, the Mennonites did not have any legal permit to proceed with the logging of trees in this native forest, an action that, according to the accusation, “caused soil erosion and the elimination of strategic corridors or transit areas for the migration of birds and mammals.”
The accusations, however, go further. The Prosecutor’s Office revealed that the Mennonites built four bridges, ranging between six and seven meters wide and 11 to 16 meters long. According to authorities who inspected the area, these structures invade the channel, or area of influence, of up to three water bodies.
“They have experience in agricultural activity; they knew that in order to log trees and remove vegetation cover a permit or authorization from the environmental authority was required, and they did not obtain it. This means that this was a crime, and yet, of their own will, they carried out the works,” concludes the indictment.
However, five days ago, at the Sept. 5 proceeding, the community and the 12 defendants announced their willingness to negotiate with the prosecution on reparations and avoid going to trial. “Our purpose is not to delay the hearings; on the contrary. We were the ones who wanted to initiate the process to reach a principle of opportunity. We do not want to evade responsibility, as some would like to suggest,” the defendants stated.
An area of Colombia overtaken by paramilitaries 30 years ago
This rural area was, in fact, a place where, during the 1990s and early 2000s, paramilitaries operated with total impunity. Some of the irregular purchases made at that time by members of criminal groups are still owned today by their descendants.
As cited by El Espectador, this is the case of several farms purchased 20 years ago by the emerald magnate Victor Carranza, who died in 2013 and was accused of being linked to these criminal groups. These lands today remain in the hands of his family, who also control the cattle ranching industry in the area.
On another of Carranza’s farms, called Brasil, the paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) operated in the days leading up to the Mapiripan massacre, committed in 1997. Demobilized members of the now-defunct paramilitary group told the transitional justice system (Justice and Peace Tribunal) that this Carranza farm was the operations center for that massacre, which in July 1997 left between 49 and 77 dead — an atrocity for which paramilitary leader Carlos Castaño was convicted in absentia in 2006.
Judicial sources, however, indicate that the Mennonite case is “far from over,” since even if an agreement with the prosecution is reached, charges must still be formally filed.
After the demobilization of AUC in 2003, the area became a no-man’s-land, and after the arrival of the Mennonites in 2016, a dispute began with various Indigenous populations, the ancestral inhabitants of the area, which still continues today.
From judicial sources, however, it is noted that the Mennonite case is “far from over,” since even if an agreement with the prosecution is reached, the deal must still be drafted and the form of reparation negotiated.