News
20 April 2026
Indigenous organisations from across the Amazon and Latin America have issued a joint communication to United Nations bodies, warning that the rapid expansion of organised crime and illicit economies is driving a worsening of human rights, security and the environmental crisis in their territories.
They stress that this expansion is directly linked to extractive economies, weak state protection and, in some cases, direct or indirect state complicity.
The organisations are calling for urgent action from the international community, as Indigenous Peoples continue to face this crisis without meaningful support.
At the same time, they assert their role not as victims, but as political authorities with proven systems of governance capable of protecting both their communities and the Amazon.
‘Indigenous patrols, community monitoring, and ancestral knowledge are already protecting our territories. What we need is recognition, protection, and support. Without this, there will be no military solution to the expansion of organised crime in our territories.’
HERLIN ODICIO
Vice-President, ORAU (Organización Regional AIDESEP Ucayali)
The call comes alongside a new report, ‘Amazon Under Siege: How Crime and Militarization Threaten Indigenous Peoples’, which documents how criminal networks are consolidating territorial control, intensifying violence and undermining Indigenous governance across the region.
The report reveals that the Amazon has become a key hub for transnational organised crime, where illegal mining, drug trafficking, logging and other illicit economies operate as interconnected systems that control land, resources and populations.
Across the region, criminal groups are establishing parallel systems of governance that displace Indigenous authority. Communities face violence, forced displacement and threats against leaders. Militarised state responses fail to address root causes and actively increase risks for communities.
These dynamics represent a direct threat not only to Indigenous Peoples but to global climate stability, given the Amazon’s outsized ecological role.
‘Our communities are facing the combined pressures of drug trafficking, illegal mining, and a State response that has failed to address the root causes of these problems. This is why we are calling on the international community – especially importing countries – to change course. Strengthening our livelihoods and systems of territorial governance is essential to stopping the expansion of organised crime in the Amazon.’
MIGUEL GUIMARAES
Vice-President, AIDESEP (Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana)
Leaders from major Indigenous organisations emphasised that solutions must centre Indigenous rights, governance and participation.
In their communication to UN Member States, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Permanent Forum, Indigenous organisations have called for a fundamental shift in global responses to organised crime in the Amazon, away from militarised approaches that have failed to deliver security and toward strategies rooted in Indigenous rights, governance and leadership.
‘Security in the Amazon cannot be imposed from outside’, the coalition states. ‘It must be built with Indigenous Peoples – grounded in our rights, our governance systems, and our relationship with our territories.’
‘Militarisation has not brought security to our territories. On the contrary, it has deepened violence and exclusion. States must move beyond repressive approaches and guarantee the participation of Indigenous Peoples in decisions that affect land, water, and life.’
ERCILIA CASTAÑEDA
CONAIE Vice President
As organised crime expands across the Amazon, Indigenous Peoples continue to lead frontline efforts to defend forests, biodiversity and global climate stability.
The report makes clear that supporting these efforts is not optional, it is essential. Without urgent action, the convergence of organised crime, environmental destruction and militarised responses will continue to deepen a crisis with global consequences.
‘The expansion of organised crime in the Amazon is not only a security issue – it is a direct attack on our territories, our systems of governance and our very survival as peoples. Indigenous Peoples are not merely victims; we are resisting and we have solutions. We are essential to protecting the Amazon and must be recognised as such.’
JAMNER MANIHUARI
COICA Vice President, representing the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon Basin
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