Details of the new multi-million dollar contract between the Cric and the Government: it would be the fifth so far in 2025.

In June, President Gustavo Petro's government signed its fifth contract with the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council (CRIC), this time to strengthen the Joint Commission and the self-government of indigenous communities.

"To join forces between the Ministry of the Interior, through the Directorate of Indigenous, Roma and Minority Affairs, and the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council (CRIC) , as a strategy to strengthen the Joint Commission, self-government, and to guarantee the comprehensive development of public policy for the indigenous peoples of the department of Cauca, created by Decree 1811 of 2017," reads the annex to the contractual conditions between the entity and the CRIC.

EL TIEMPO learned that this new agreement is for 3 billion pesos and will have a deadline of December 15, 2025.

The justification for this new agreement states that the Cric's contribution is represented "in the integrated set of knowledge and experiences of cultures, based on the experiences, ancient practices , and the ongoing interaction between man and nature and the divinity of Colombia's indigenous peoples, aspects that cannot be quantified economically, among other reasons."

The contract establishes that Indigenous peoples and organizations will share their knowledge and traditions in each of the territories, to advance the Joint Commission , through which the Government seeks to guarantee the comprehensive development of Indigenous Public Policy for the peoples of Cauca.

The disbursement of 3 billion pesos will be divided into three parts:

So far in 2025, in addition to this new contract, the Cric has signed four other agreements totaling 99.543 billion pesos, all through direct contracting.

The first was signed on March 13 of this year with the Ministry of Education to "combine technical, administrative, and financial efforts to consolidate the implementation of the SEIP's own educational policy, from the local, zonal, and regional levels of the CRIC within the framework of the SEIP's Four-Year Plan 2023-2026."

In other words, the Ministry seeks to transform early childhood, preschool, primary, and secondary education , with a comprehensive approach, to reduce inequalities with indigenous communities. This agreement is valued at 57.694 billion pesos.

Then, in April, three more contracts were signed. Two of them with the National Protection Unit (UNP), signed on April 22:

The first , for 2.599 billion pesos, seeks to "combine human, economic, technical, operational and logistical efforts between the CRIC and the UNP, in order to develop the proposal for individual and collective protection measures with an ethnic differential approach in favor of the 28 indigenous leaders currently covered by precautionary measure MC-301/08, issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in the areas that make up the CRIC."

The second, for 250 million pesos, is intended to " combine human, economic, technical and logistical efforts between the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council - CRIC and the National Protection Unit - UNP, in order to effectively implement activities of the zonal action plans of the Indigenous Guard, for the territorial control points of the 12 associations and the Totoro people of the CRIC, which allow the protection and care of life and the defense of the territory of indigenous peoples."

The third contract was signed on April 28 with the Ministry of Health, for 39 billion pesos, to "pool technical, administrative, and financial resources to develop the implementation phase of actions with a differentiated approach, within the framework of the Indigenous System of Self-Regulated and Intercultural Health (SISPI), fulfilling the commitments for 2025, within the framework of the Joint Commission with the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC)."

EL TIEMPO's Data Unit revealed that, since the start of this administration, the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) and the Cric have signed public contracts worth more than 405 billion pesos.

Maria Alejandra Gonzalez Duarte