Indigenous Amazon Organizations Urge U.N. to Address Expansion of Illegal Mining, Drug Trafficking and Logging

He said the expansion of organized crime is increasingly shaping life across large parts of the Amazon.

“The expansion and control of organized crime and violent conflict is taking over more and more of the Amazon, becoming a risk to their ways of living and to the global climate,” he said. Jeremy Douglas, Deputy Director of Operations at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said drug trafficking in the Amazon often connects with illegal mining, logging and land grabbing.

“Drug trafficking in the Amazon often connects with illegal mining, logging and land grabbing — a criminal ecosystem where environmental degradation disproportionately impacts local populations and Indigenous people,” Douglas stated.

He said pushing back requires territorial protection, prioritizing environmental crimes, and cooperation against transnational organized crime networks active across the Amazon. N. Office on Drugs and Crime had not yet seen the Indigenous organizations’ letter at the time it provided comments to the Associated Press.

UNODC offices in Latin America are working with Indigenous communities and national authorities to strengthen territorial protection and combat environmental crimes tied to organized criminal networks. The letter was signed by the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA), Brazil’s APIB, Peru’s AIDESEP, Ecuador’s CONAIE, dozens of regional Indigenous federations and international advocacy groups.

Ercilia Castañeda, vice president of Ecuador’s Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), said militarization has not provided answers.

Some communities have faced displacement, fear and psychological harm from militarization, affecting their relationship with the land, water, sacred sites, spiritual life, identity and life of Indigenous peoples, she said. Herlín Odicio, vice president of Organización Regional AIDESEP Ucayali (ORAU) in Peru’s Ucayali region, said organized crime in Indigenous territories has changed its strategies significantly.

They no longer make direct threats. Now they use other strategies,” Odicio stated. He said criminal groups are increasingly embedding themselves in local political structures and campaigns. Odicio said organized crime groups recruit young Indigenous people to work as ‘mochileros’ to transport drugs or supplies and then kill them when they no longer want them or do not want to pay them.

He warned of growing sexual exploitation of Indigenous girls in communities and border areas affected by criminal groups, some as young as 13 and 14. N.

N. agencies to include Indigenous perspectives in anti-crime and anti-corruption policies.

Officials.