Motilon people in the context of Indigenous people of the Americas

Robert Jaulin (7 March 1928, Le Cannet, Alpes-Maritimes – 22 November 1996, Grosrouvre) was a French ethnologist. After several journeys to Chad, between 1954 and 1959, among the Sara people, he published in 1967 La Mort Sara (The Sara Death) in which he exposed the various initiation rites through which he had passed himself, and closely analyzed Sara geomancy. In La Paix blanche (The White peace, 1970), he redefined the notion of ethnocide in relation to the extermination by the Western world of the Bari culture, located between Venezuela and Colombia. As genocide designs the physical extermination of a people, an ethnocide refers to the extermination of a culture.

Cesar Department (Spanish: Departamento del Cesar), or simply Cesar, (Spanish pronunciation: [seˈsaɾ]) is a department of Colombia located in the north of the country in the Caribbean region, bordering to the north with the Department of La Guajira, to the west with the Department of Magdalena and Department of Bolivar, to the south with Department of Santander, to the east with the Department of North Santander, and further to the east with the country of Venezuela (Zulia State). The department capital city is Valledupar.

The region was first inhabited by indigenous peoples known as Euparis in the Valley of Upar and Guatapuris in the Valley of the Cesar river, among these were the Orejones pertaining to the Toupeh, Acanayutos pertaining to the Motilon and Alcoholades pertaining to the Chimila. The first European to explore the area was Spanish Captain Peter Vadillo, but German Ambrose Alfinger savagely conquered the region in 1532.