Yarigui People - History

History

From first contact with Spanish explorers, the Yariguies were hostile and presented a strong resistance. They impeded the invaders' penetration into their lands, aided by the natural difficulties of the rainforest. The chroniclers, like Fray Pedro Simón, referred to the Yariguies, using their macanas, arrows, poisoned darts, and surprise tactics to reduce the 16th-century army of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada from 900 to 169 men.

By 1570, four Yariguí caciques were known to the Spaniards: Beto of the Arayas, Caciquillo of the Opones, Martinillo of the Carares, and Suamacá of the los Suamacaes, all dedicated to attacking the expeditions on the Magdalena, Sogamoso, Carare, and Opón rivers that transported colonists, militias, and merchants to Vélez and Santafé de Bogotá. They also attacked troops sent to hunt down natives.

The cacique Pipatón offered the most famous resistance, having been captured and maimed by having his heels cut in 1601, after which he escaped and returned to lead the resistance against the Spanish. Nonetheless, at the end of his life, he turned himself in to the colonial authorities and was sent to a convent of friars in Bogotá, where he died after 1612.

Three circumstances combined to weigh against the Yariguies' desires to keep their land free from intrusion: their low birthrate, the increasing number of colonists, and the diseases brought by Europeans, especially swine flu, smallpox, and measles, against which the natives had no immunological defenses. These factors caused the population of indigenous peoples to decline drastically over the 17th and 18th centuries.

In the end, what the Spanish could not accomplish, capitalist enterprise did. The extermination of the Yariguies is one of the many genocides committed against indigenous American communities, committed, moreover, with total impunity.