The Wayuu are referred to as the people of the sun, sand, and wind. They’re placed within the arid Guajira Peninsula in northern Colombia and northwest Venezuela. The mannerúu language is part of the Arawak family and is referred to as Wayuunaiki.

The Wayuu had never been subjugated by the Spanish. The 2 corporations have been in a extra or less permanent nation of war. There have been rebellions in 1701 (once they destroyed a Capuchin undertaking), 1727 (whilst more than 2,000 Indians attacked the Spanish), 1741, 1757, 1761 and 1768. In 1718 Governor Soto de Herrera known as them “barbarians, horse thieves, worth of demise, without God, without law and without a king.”

In greater latest times, the wayúu have faced amazing discrimination and exclusion, in particular in Colombia. as an example, mannerúu (Guajiro) lands on the border with Venezuela had been granted to mining interests without regard for the Wayuu. The Colombian charter acknowledges the right of the indigenous to manipulate the resources discovered on their territories, but, the authorities permits non-public concessions to extract salt on wayúu land; while the mannerúu themselves were denied the proper to do the identical.

The Wayuu also are stuck within the ongoing war between the Colombian military, FARC and right-wing paramilitaries, placing the Wayuu in an exceedingly susceptible role. Many Wayuu had been forced to relocate to Venezuela to break out of the violence and ethnic harassment.

In keeping with a 1997 census in Colombia, the Wayuu populace numbered about a 144, 003 – representing 20% of Colombia’s general Amerindian population and 48% of the populace of the department of Guajira. The Wayuu occupy a complete location of four, 171 rectangular miles (10,800 km2) inside approximately 10 Indian reservations, 8 of which can be positioned south of the department (inclusive of a completely critical one called Carraipia).

In Venezuela, the population is expected at a few 293,777 individuals, in step with the 2001 census, with some 60,000 residing within the metropolis of Maracaibo. This makes the Wayuu the biggest indigenous institution in Venezuela, representing 57.5% of the Amerindian populace.

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Resource: Wikipedia