Indigenous youth in Colombia seek to protect land, while escaping violence

The Indigenous youth prepare to leave on a chiva bus, a traditional open-sided vehicle. — Photos: NADEGE MAZARS/AP

Adriana Pazu wiped away tears as she remembered a colleague who was shot dead earlier this year by an armed dissident group for defending their land.

Pazu, an Indigenous authority from the Nasa territory of San Francisco, Toribio, was attending an Indigenous youth assembly recently in Las Delicias, Cauca, a region long affected by conflict.