President Gustavo Petro has announced the start of a consultation process with ethnic communities to draft a new decree protecting the sacred “Black Line” of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta after Colombia’s highest administrative court annulled the previous legal framework governing the ancestral territory.

The announcement came late on March 4 during an interethnic assembly in the Caribbean city of Santa Marta attended by Indigenous authorities, Afro-Colombian representatives and members of Petro’s government.

The process follows a February 12 ruling by the Council of State of Colombia that struck down Decree 1500 of 2018, a measure issued under former president Juan Manuel Santos that formally recognized the “Black Line” as the spiritual and cultural boundary of the ancestral territory of the Sierra Nevada’s Indigenous peoples.

The ruling removed the legal recognition of 348 sacred sites across the mountain range, an area spanning the Caribbean departments of La Guajira, Magdalena Department and Cesar Department.

The court concluded the decree had not complied fully with the constitutional requirement of prior consultation with all ethnic communities potentially affected by the territorial delimitation.

Sacred geography

For the Indigenous peoples who inhabit the Sierra Nevada – Arhuaco, Kogi, Wiwa and Kankuamo p – the “Black Line” is far more than a geographic boundary.

It represents a cosmological network of sacred sites connecting coastal lagoons, rivers, glaciers and mountain peaks across what Indigenous leaders describe as the “Heart of the World.”

Through these sites, spiritual elders – known as mamos – maintain rituals they say preserve the balance between humans, nature and the spiritual realm.

“The Sierra is not only a mountain; it is a living being that breathes through its lagoons, its glaciers, its stones and its lines of energy,” Indigenous leaders said following the ruling, warning that removing the decree threatens decades of cooperation between the state and Indigenous authorities.

The now-annulled decree had been the product of years of negotiations between Indigenous authorities and the Colombian government following orders from the Constitutional Court of Colombia to formally recognize ancestral territories and sacred geography.

The mapping of the 348 sites was supported by technical studies conducted by the national mapping agency, the Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi.

For Indigenous leaders, the decree served as the main legal instrument protecting the sacred network from outside interventions, including mining projects, infrastructure development, tourism ventures and energy exploration.

With its annulment, communities fear they are left without an effective legal mechanism to defend the territory and its ecosystems.

The Sierra Nevada is widely regarded by scientists as one of the most biodiverse mountain systems on Earth, rising from sea level to snow-covered peaks in less than 50 kilometres.

Speaking before Indigenous delegates in Santa Marta, Petro said the consultation process would now place communities at the centre of the decision-making process.

“Here a process begins in which you have the word, not the government,” Petro told the assembly. “Now corresponds a process of consultation. The consultation belongs to you. I hope it ends well and quickly so we can issue the decree again.”

The president urged participants to move forward without unnecessary delays while ensuring the key issues are discussed.

“Sometimes our own dialectic of discussion leads us to prolong processes or find contradictions where none exist,” he said.

Petro framed the protection of the Sierra Nevada not only as a territorial matter but also as a message to a world facing increasing geopolitical conflict.

“The Heart of the World must be at peace, because if the Heart of the World is not at peace, humanity will not be at peace,” Petro said. “Today humanity is not at peace – missiles fall everywhere.”

The government says the consultation will include not only the four Indigenous nations of the Sierra but also neighbouring groups such as the Ette Ennaka people and coastal communities including Afro-descendant groups and residents of Taganga.

According to Vice-Minister for Social Dialogue and Human Rights Gabriel Rondón, the current stage is an “intercultural dialogue” designed to define a roadmap toward a new decree that avoids the legal flaws identified by the Council of State.

“The purpose is to start from the beginning, clarify doubts and create a broad path that allows us to agree on a new administrative act without the failures of the previous one,” Rondón said.

PNN Tayrona reopens

Separately, the government confirmed that the nearby Tayrona National Natural Park will reopen to visitors on March 5 after a three-month closure over security concerns with illegal armed groups operating in the Sierra Nevada.

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism (MinCIT), said it has mobilised institutional support and technical funding to ensure the park resumes operations with security and sustainability guarantees.

Tourism authorities also announced plans for light infrastructure investments of about COP$2.7 billion to improve visitor facilities and promote Colombia’s network of national parks as leading ecotourism destinations.

The Colombian government temporarily closed last week PNN Tayrona National Natural Park following threats against park staff and escalating violence between rival armed groups fighting for control of drug trafficking corridors along the Caribbean coast.

The shutdown, announced on Feb. 17 by Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia, was described as a preventive measure to protect visitors, local communities and officials.

“The National Government announced the temporary closure of PNN Tayrona as a preventive measure to protect the lives and safety of visitors, communities, and officials, and to ensure their security,” the agency said in a statement.

Tayrona, located near the city of Santa Marta in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, is one of Colombia’s most visited protected areas, drawing as many as 750,000 visitors annually. Known for its white-sand beaches and dense tropical forest, the park is a pillar of the tourism economy in the Magdalena department.

The closure comes amid an intensifying turf war between the Conquering Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada (ACSN) and the Gaitanist Army of Colombia (EGC), better known as the Clan del Golfo, a criminal organization designated as a terrorist group by the United States.

Authorities say the immediate trigger for the crisis was a Feb. 11 operation to dismantle unauthorized constructions within the protected area, including houses, bathrooms and hiking trails built without state permission.

According to the parks agency, the demolitions prompted threats on social media directed at park personnel. Tensions escalated on Feb. 16 when local residents blocked employees from entering the park. Officials said individuals then began charging tourists for access and allowing entry without formal registration, effectively taking over certain administrative functions.

“This created a situation that prevents a minimum level of security from being ensured within the protected area,” authorities said.

While the government has not formally attributed responsibility for the threats, the timing of the closure has drawn attention to the deteriorating security environment in northern Colombia. Recent confrontations between the Clan del Golfo and the ACSN in nearby municipalities, including Aracataca, have led to forced displacements and heightened fears about the stability of the region.

Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office has previously warned of the presence of both groups in and around Tayrona, citing risks ranging from extortion to sexual violence. The violence, analysts say, reflects a broader struggle for control over strategic drug trafficking corridors extending into the departments of Cesar and La Guajira.

Yet the official narrative has been complicated by contrasting statements from government negotiators engaged in talks with the ACSN.

Mauricio Silva, the government’s chief negotiator in a socio-legal dialogue with the ACSN, said the decision to close the park was driven largely by climatic and preventive considerations. While acknowledging the existence of security risks and territorial control by armed groups in parts of the Sierra Nevada, Silva said it would be inappropriate to assign criminal responsibility without completed judicial investigations.

“One thing is to recognize the delicate security situation in the territory, and another is to point to specific perpetrators without proof,” Silva said, underscoring the government’s cautious position amid ongoing negotiations.

Local tourism operators have also questioned the link between the closure and the armed conflict. Some community leaders argue that the dispute stems in part from longstanding grievances over how ticket revenues are managed. They contend that funds collected by the central government are not sufficiently reinvested in infrastructure and local development within the park and surrounding communities.

The crisis has exposed deeper tensions over who exercises effective authority in one of Colombia’s most emblematic tourist destinations. Indigenous communities, national authorities and armed groups all operate in the broader Sierra Nevada region, where state presence has historically been uneven.

Although tourists in Tayrona have generally been insulated from direct violence — with armed groups preferring to profit indirectly through extortion, drug trafficking and prostitution — the park’s closure has raised concerns that the conflict could increasingly disrupt legitimate economic activity.

For the department of Magdalena, where tourism  depends on Tayrona as key source of revenue, the shutdown represents both a security and economic setback. Hotel operators and tour agencies in Santa Marta have reported cancellations since the announcement, though officials have not provided a timeline for reopening.

The government has said the closure will remain in effect until minimum security conditions can be guaranteed. Meanwhile, the dispute underscores the fragile balance between conservation, tourism and public saefty in a region where armed actors continue to expand their territorial control.