Indigenous Amazon groups urge UN to curb organized crime, not militarize territories

Indigenous organizations from across the Amazon and Latin America sent a letter to the United Nations on Monday warning that organized crime — including illegal mining, drug trafficking and logging — is expanding rapidly in rainforest territories, driving violence and accelerating environmental destruction. The groups, representing millions of Indigenous people across the region, urged U.N. member states and agencies to prioritize territorial protection and international cooperation against criminal networks, while cautioning that government responses heavily reliant on military force often fail to address the crisis and can worsen conditions for communities on the ground.

The letter, addressed to U.N. bodies including the Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, was signed by the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA) and dozens of regional federations and international advocacy groups. It calls on the Permanent Forum to conduct a dedicated study on organized crime and illicit economies in Indigenous territories and asks that Indigenous perspectives be included in U.N. anti-crime and anti-corruption policies.

Organized crime has become a central concern for Indigenous communities in recent years, according to Raphael Hoetmer, Western Amazon Program Director at Amazon Watch, an advocacy group that supported the letter. “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,” he told The Associated Press in written comments.

The expansion has been particularly acute in illegal gold mining, which has driven deforestation and mercury contamination across parts of Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. Armed groups and trafficking networks have sought control over strategic river routes and Indigenous lands. In Peru, five men are on trial over the 2023 killing of Indigenous defender Quinto Inuma Alvarado, who had repeatedly denounced illegal logging and drug trafficking in his territory. Rights groups note that most such killings in the region go unpunished, and Global Witness reports that at least 2,253 land and environmental defenders have been killed or disappeared globally between 2012 and 2024, with Latin America accounting for the vast majority.

UNODC Deputy Director of Operations Jeremy Douglas, in written comments to the AP, said that “pushing back requires territorial protection, prioritizing environmental crimes, and cooperation against transnational organized crime networks active across the Amazon.” The agency said it had not yet seen the letter and that the comment should not be interpreted as an endorsement, but noted that its offices in Latin America are working with Indigenous communities and national authorities to combat environmental crimes.

Indigenous leaders from Ecuador and Peru told the AP that government militarization has done little to resolve the crisis and has instead brought displacement and psychological harm. Ercilia Castañeda, vice president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, the country’s largest Indigenous organization, said the militarized approach has “affected their relationship with the land, with the water, with sacred sites, with their spiritual life. We are talking about a deterioration of the identity and life of Indigenous peoples.”

Herlín Odicio, vice president of the regional Indigenous organization ORAU in Peru’s Ucayali region, said organized crime groups have adapted their tactics, increasingly embedding themselves in local political structures and campaigns to maintain influence. He described how poverty and the absence of state services leave many young people vulnerable to recruitment as “mochileros” — people used to transport drugs or supplies through remote areas — and said that “when they no longer want them or do not want to pay them, they kill them.” Odicio also warned of growing sexual exploitation of Indigenous girls as young as 13 or 14 in communities and border areas affected by criminal groups.

The letter stresses that responses to organized crime must not translate into “new processes of militarization, criminalization, or the subordination of Indigenous governance systems.” It calls for U.N. agencies to work with Indigenous communities to strengthen territorial protection and address the underlying economic and governance factors that make communities vulnerable to criminal expansion.