Indigenous Amazon groups urge UN action on organized crime in rainforest territories

The Indigenous organizations said they are sending the message as Indigenous communities across the Amazon increasingly find themselves caught between expanding criminal networks and state security operations, with rights groups and UN experts raising alarms about rising attacks on Indigenous leaders and environmental defenders. The letter, which was addressed to UN member states and agencies including the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime and the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, also warned that illicit economies are spreading into remote rainforest areas in multiple countries.

According to the letter, the expansion of organized crime is not only accelerating environmental destruction but also undermining Indigenous governance systems and territorial control. It links that erosion of governance to the growth of illegal gold mining, drug trafficking and logging, which the organizations said are bringing violence and other harms to communities that have long served as stewards of some of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems.

The signatories said the same dynamics are increasingly displacing Indigenous people and weakening local institutions that manage land and resources, while criminal networks seek influence over strategic routes and Indigenous territories. Raphael Hoetmer, Western Amazon Program Director at Amazon Watch, described the letter as reflecting urgency among Indigenous organizations as these threats expand.

“Even four years ago this was not a central topic for most of our partners, but now it is one of the central topics for the wide majority,” Hoetmer said in a written response to The Associated Press.

The appeal came amid broader concerns over lethal violence toward environmental defenders. Global Witness said 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 cases, the AP reported. In Peru, five men were on trial over the 2023 killing of Indigenous defender Quinto Inuma Alvarado, according to the report, a case rights groups said reflects how similar killings in the region often go unpunished.

The AP reported that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Deputy Director of Operations, Jeremy Douglas, said UNODC had not yet seen the Indigenous organizations’ letter at the time he provided written comments. Douglas added that the response should not be interpreted as an endorsement and said UNODC offices in Latin America were working with Indigenous communities and national authorities to strengthen territorial protection and combat environmental crimes tied to organized criminal networks.

Indigenous leaders and regional organizations cited in the report described militarized responses as failing to resolve the crisis in Indigenous territories. Ercilia Castañeda, vice president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, said governments increasingly respond to organized crime and illegal mining with militarization, which she said has not resolved the threats in many Indigenous areas. She said the harms include displacement, fear and psychological effects, and that the violence is affecting relationships to land, water and sacred sites.

Herlín Odicio, vice president of Organización Regional AIDESEP Ucayali, or ORAU, said that organized crime groups have adapted their approaches inside Indigenous territories. In an AP call, he said the groups “no longer make direct threats” and instead use other strategies, and he said criminal networks increasingly embed themselves in local political structures and campaigns to maintain influence. Odicio also said expansion of organized crime affects Indigenous communities where poverty and the absence of state services can leave people vulnerable to recruitment into illegal activity.

“They recruit young people to work as ‘mochileros,’” Odicio said, referring to people used to transport drugs or supplies through remote areas. “Then, in the end, when they no longer want them or do not want to pay them, they kill them.”

Odicio also warned in the AP report of growing sexual exploitation of Indigenous girls in communities and border areas affected by criminal groups, with some as young as 13 or 14, he said. In the letter, the organizations said that in light of the threat from organized crime and illicit economies, responses should not translate into new processes of militarization, criminalization or the subordination of Indigenous governance systems.

The letter asked the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to conduct a dedicated study on organized crime and illicit economies in Indigenous territories. It also urged U.N. agencies to include Indigenous perspectives in anti-crime and anti-corruption policies, the AP reported. The AP said it contacted the U.N. Permanent Forum for comment but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.