David

 2011

What I'm going to tell you happened a few days ago. When I came to work in San José del Guaviare with the Jiw indigenous group, I started hearing about a fight that occurred last year that ended with a death. The fight took place in Capitania, the sector where the chief of the resguardo lives. I didn't pay much attention to it and just focused on my own business.

David is a guy who is working on the nursery project that the Amazon Research Institute is leading in the resguardo. This indigenous group is known in town for being very conflictive; however, there are many good people there, like David, a promising leader of the resguardo and one of the most trained people in sustainable food production.

Without knowing much, I accidentally picked up some information about David: he's the chief's brother, but he had to move to another place after the night of the fight in Capitania. I thought it was caused by divisions between clans and families, and I was right, but I didn't know everything.

One morning, I woke up in the resguardo, had breakfast prepared by Gustavo, the technical supporter of the project. As soon as I finished, I got ready and went to Escuela, another sector of the resguardo. I met a group of missionaries who have been living there for four years. I did my duties and was invited to lunch. We were talking about divisions in the resguardo, and for some reason, we talked about the fight in Capitania last year. I asked a question that I didn't think would have such a stunning effect on me: "Who was the killer?" He replied: "David".