Criminal networks threaten the Amazon. Indigenous leaders want the UN to act

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Indigenous leaders from across the Amazon are taking their fight against illegal mining , drug trafficking and deforestation to a United Nations conference in Vienna starting Monday.

More than a dozen Indigenous representatives from Peru, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador are participating in the Oct. 19-23 U.N. conference on transnational organized crime, known as COP13.

The leaders want governments to tackle the financial networks behind environmental crimes while giving Indigenous peoples a greater role in protecting their ancestral territories and shaping a proposed international agreement.

Galois Flores, a representative of Peru’s Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampis Nation, told The Associated Press that illegal gold mining, logging and drug trafficking are putting growing pressure on Indigenous communities.

“Deforestation and pollution in the Amazon are no longer just environmental problems, but a crisis of transnational organized crime and security,” Flores said.

Mercury from gold mining is contaminating rivers used for fishing and drinking water, Flores said, while criminal networks have access to weapons, money and the ability to intimidate communities. In response, the Wampis have established two monitoring posts, each staffed by 14 Indigenous guards, to confront illegal mining. But those resisting criminal groups face threats and violence, Flores said.

Similar dangers confront the Kakataibo people in Peru’s central Amazon, where drug traffickers have established illegal coca plantations and processing laboratories in ancestral forests, according to Indigenous leaders. Marcelo Odicio, president of the Federation of Native Kakataibo Communities, said six Kakataibo leaders have been killed since 2020, while community representatives routinely face threats.

Across the border in Brazil, Francisco Piyako Apiwtxa, an Ashaninka leader , described threats from illegal logging, drug trafficking and roads used to transport illicit goods. In July, he said, at least five heavily armed, masked men entered an Ashaninka community, threatening families and searching for Indigenous leaders. Piyako said inadequate government protection has left Indigenous communities confronting criminal groups themselves.

“Our territories, our homes, our waters, the future of our children are at stake,” he said.

In Colombia’s southern Putumayo region, Indigenous leader Ingry Mojanajinsoy said armed groups that previously relied on drug trafficking for money are increasingly turning to illegal mining. Even when mining takes place outside Indigenous territories, she said, pollution travels downstream, contaminating rivers and fish that communities depend on for food.

At least 105 land and environmental defenders were killed in Latin America in 2025, accounting for 85% of the 124 killings documented worldwide, according to environmental and human rights group Global Witness. Colombia recorded 39 killings, followed by Brazil with 26.

The Vienna conference brings together countries working under a U.N. treaty to combat transnational organized crime. Governments are expected to consider launching negotiations on a new protocol addressing environmental crimes, including illegal mining, logging and wildlife trafficking.

Raphael Hoetmer, Western Amazon Program Director at Amazon Watch, said organized crime and illicit economies have become major threats to the Amazon, Indigenous peoples and the global climate.

He criticized governments’ reliance on military operations and raids, arguing they fail to address underlying causes and can leave Indigenous communities caught in the violence.

Instead, delegates want stronger Indigenous land rights, support for community-led territorial protection and a greater voice in international negotiations.

“The conference should not only agree to begin negotiating a protocol against crimes that affect the environment, but also ensure that Indigenous peoples are seriously consulted in the process,” Hoetmer said.

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said it works with Indigenous communities across Latin America to combat organized crime and environmental threats, pointing to a project in Brazil that helps communities monitor illegal gold mining and work more closely with authorities.

The project has also helped lay the groundwork for a national system to detect and respond to environmental crimes, said UNODC spokesperson Alejandra Silva. The agency did not say whether Indigenous representatives would have a formal role in negotiating the proposed protocol.

Flores called for environmental crimes to be treated as seriously as drug and arms trafficking, including tracing illicit financial flows and disrupting markets for illegally mined gold. Odicio urged governments to recognize Indigenous territorial guards and protect threatened leaders.

Flores said isolated police operations are insufficient because illegal operators often return once security forces withdraw. Soldiers made a similar observation to AP during an illegal mining raid in Peru in August, saying miners would wait for troops to leave before restarting work.

“We do not want to leave future generations rivers poisoned with mercury, destroyed forests and communities controlled by criminal violence,” Flores said.

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