Bogotá, November 24 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Thousands of indigenous people are mobilizing in Colombia this week to call for the release of imprisoned community leader Feliciano Valencia and to resist what they say is the systematic persecution of indigenous people.

Indigenous communities from Cauca, one of the region’s most affected by Colombia’s internal armed conflict, called for mass mobilizations in Bogotá to defend the right to protest and indigenous jurisdiction following the detention of Valencia.

Valencia was arrested in 2010 for allegedly kidnapping an army soldier who had infiltrated an indigenous protest in order to collect intelligence on the movement in 2008. The soldier was seized and sentenced to 20 lashings based on indigenous jurisdiction.

The arrest has opened up debate in Colombia over the respect of indigenous justice system, which is recognized as autonomous by the national constitution.

"We have decided to arrive with 3,000 indigenous people in Bogotá to make it clear how wrongful it was to capture Feliciano Valencia,” said Ricardo Rojas, member of the Indigenous Association of the North of the Cauca.

“What we are looking at is not only the issue of Feliciano. It is an evident attack on the special indigenous jurisdiction and against social protests that have exacerbated alongside the peace process taking place in Havana," said Rojas according to Kaosenlared.
  
Indigenous leaders have also called on other marginalized groups to join their protest, including Afro-Colombians, LGBTQ people and campesinos.

"As we recognize ourselves and build with others, we are forging peace. The indigenous alone cannot do it, this is why it is important that we go hand in hand with the rest,” Nelson Lemus, an indigenous organizer, said.

Feliciano, who received the National Peace Prize in 2010 for his peaceful resistance work amidst conflict, has recently been transferred from the maximum security prison to a ‘harmonizing’ center following pressure from previous indigenous protests.