Indigenous organizations from across the Amazon and Latin America will send a letter today to the United Nations, warning that expanding organized crime, fueled by illegal mining, drug trafficking, and logging, is driving violence and environmental destruction while governments respond with failed militarized tactics.
The letter, addressed to U.N. member states and agencies including the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime and the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, details how criminal networks are expanding across Indigenous lands, threatening communities, ecosystems, and local governance. These networks undermine Indigenous governance systems that have long acted as stewards of some of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems. Illegal gold mining, logging, and drug trafficking have spread deeper into remote rainforest regions in countries including Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador, bringing violence, mercury contamination, and deforestation. Raphael Hoetmer, Western Amazon Program Director at Amazon Watch, stated that the expansion of organized crime is increasingly shaping life across large parts of the Amazon, becoming a risk to Indigenous ways of living and the global climate. He noted that four years ago this was not a central topic for most partners, but now it is for the wide majority, reflecting a growing sense of urgency among Indigenous organizations. Global Witness reports that at least 2,253 land and environmental defenders were killed or disappeared globally between 2012 and 2024, with Latin America accounting for the vast majority of these cases. In Peru, five men are on trial for the 2023 killing of Indigenous defender Quinto Inuma Alvarado, who had repeatedly denounced illegal logging and drug trafficking in his territory, though most similar killings in the region go unpunished.
Capital's Advance and Human Cost
The letter warns that these dynamics not only drive environmental destruction but also weaken Indigenous governance and territorial control. Illegal gold mining, in particular, has become a major driver of deforestation and mercury contamination across parts of the Amazon. Armed groups and trafficking networks have sought control over strategic river routes and Indigenous lands for their operations, facilitating the extraction of resources and illicit profits. Jeremy Douglas, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Deputy Director of Operations, noted that drug trafficking in the Amazon often connects with illegal mining, logging, and land grabbing, forming a "criminal ecosystem" where environmental degradation disproportionately impacts local populations and Indigenous people. Herlín Odicio, vice president of Organización Regional AIDESEP Ucayali (ORAU), an Indigenous organization in Peru, described how organized crime groups have adapted their strategies, no longer making direct threats but embedding themselves in local political structures and campaigns to maintain influence and continue operating in Indigenous territories. Odicio highlighted that poverty and the absence of state services in Indigenous communities leave many vulnerable to recruitment into illegal activities, such as working as 'mochileros' to transport drugs or supplies, only to be killed when no longer needed or unpaid. He also warned of growing sexual exploitation of Indigenous girls, some as young as 13 and 14, in communities and border areas affected by criminal groups.
The State's Response: Militarization and Its Failures
Ercilia Castañeda, vice president of Ecuador’s largest Indigenous organization, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), stated that governments have increasingly responded to organized crime and illegal mining with militarization. Castañeda asserted that militarization "has not provided answers" and has failed to resolve the crisis in many Indigenous territories. She detailed the human cost, including displacement, fear, psychological harm, and the deterioration of Indigenous identity and spiritual life, affecting their relationship with the land, with the water, and with sacred sites. The Indigenous organizations' letter explicitly states that government responses focused primarily on military force risk worsening conditions for Indigenous communities if they fail to recognize Indigenous territorial rights and systems of self-governance. The letter warns against responses that "translate into new processes of militarization, criminalization, or the subordination of Indigenous governance systems." While the UNODC suggests "territorial protection" and "cooperation against transnational organized crime networks," the agency had not seen the Indigenous organizations’ letter at the time of its comments, indicating a potential disconnect in proposed solutions.
Indigenous Resistance and Alternatives
Major Indigenous organizations, including the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA), Brazil’s Indigenous umbrella organization APIB, Peru’s AIDESEP, and Ecuador’s CONAIE, along with dozens of regional Indigenous federations and international advocacy groups, signed the document. These groups are collectively demanding that the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues conduct a dedicated study on organized crime and illicit economies in Indigenous territories. They urge U.N. agencies to include Indigenous perspectives in anti-crime and anti-corruption policies, advocating for solutions that respect and strengthen Indigenous self-governance rather than imposing external, militarized control.