TRUTH DEMANDS

Seeking justice for murdered activists in oil-contested territory.

In a memoir with deeply spiritual underpinnings, climate activist and author Reyes tackles issues of environmental justice, Indigenous rights, and personal grief as she recounts the incident in 1999 when her partner, Terence Unity Freitas, was murdered alongside two other activists, Ingrid Washinawatok El-Issa and Lahe'ena'e Gay, after visiting Indigenous U'wa territory in Colombia. “I walked into adulthood through the gates of these murders,” Reyes writes. “As with so many others before me, the murders forced me to learn basic practices for moving through grief and ambiguity that otherwise might have taken a lifetime to learn.” The U'wa people, spiritual stewards of the cloud forests they call “Kajka Ika” (the heart of the world), were early pioneers of the “keep it in the ground” movement, viewing oil as the sacred blood of Mother Earth that should remain untouched. Their ancestral lands and way of life threatened by multinational oil companies, the U'wa’s resistance would become a landmark case in Indigenous environmental justice. Twenty years later, Reyes is contacted by Colombia’s truth and recognition process and chooses, along with Terence’s mother, to confront the painful questions (truth demands) and ambiguous answers about her partner’s killers. “Most of our demands for truth regarding the reasons for the kidnappings and murders remain unaddressed. My access to truth about what happened therefore remains fractured. I still hold only fragments.” Reyes’ personal story is particularly moving as she recalls the days surrounding the discovery of their bodies after their kidnapping. Yet her narrative, despite its profound subject matter, sometimes maintains an emotional distance through academic exposition and institutional language that mutes the full impact of her powerful message.

A necessary testament to environmental justice and personal grief that sometimes struggles to balance emotion with clarity.