The leader of Arhuaco people “Leonor Zalabata Torres will be our ambassador to the UN in New York,” the leftist president wrote on Twitter.
Zalabata was born 58 years ago within that indigenous community, which ancestrally inhabits the imposing Sierra Nevada of Santa Martain the Colombian Caribbean.
Until now, only career diplomats or members of conservative elites had represented Colombia before the United Nations.
a life of activism
A dentist by profession, the new diplomat is a writer, chronicler and defender of the human rights of the aborigines who live in the mountains, coveted by the armed groups that operate in Colombia.
Zalabata participated in the peace process which led to the disarmament of the rebels of the FARC in 2017.
In a conversation with Blu Radio, Zalabata celebrated being the first indigenous woman to represent Colombia before the United Nations and said that she will defend three “fundamental axes”: “peace, social justice and environmental justice“.
They are points “of interest to Colombia and continue to be the interests of humanity,” added the leader, who always wears the typical dress of the Arhuacos: a long, sleeveless white tunic.
For his activism in favor of native peoples and “Mother Earth”, Zalabata received the award Anna Lindhs by the Swedish government in 2007 and the Franco-German Prize for Human Rightsin 2019.
Gustavo Petro will take office on August 7, a month after being elected as Colombia’s first leftist president with strong support from the indigenous and black communitieshistorically silenced in politics.
This Tuesday the president also appointed two other aborigines in the direction of state entities: the embera Patricia Tobon as director of the Victims Unit and the nasa Giovani Yule as head of the Land Restitution Unit.
Source: Ambito
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