Amazon's Indigenous Leaders are Assassinated and There's No Action by the United Nations

In the Amazon, Indigenous leaders are assassinated, and there's no action from the United Nations

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 27, 2025

NEW YORK -- Indigenous women in the Amazon question why there is no decisive action from the United Nations while leaders are being assassinated and mining and criminals flourish in the Amazon. Speaking during the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Indigenous women called for action by the United Nations and for countries to sanction mining companies.

"We can not talk about implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples if we do not recognize that illegal mining, drug trafficking, illegal logging, human trafficking and other illicit activities are killing us," Nely Shiguango, Quichua, told the U.N.
"These criminal economies pollute our rivers with mercury, they destroy our food sources, they worsen our health, and undermine our economies and they sow fear among our communities."

"Our leaders are assassinated, our young people are recruited and we are dispossessed of our lands and chased out."

"I'm wondering, why we are still not taking decisive action within these forums. These forums should provide a response."

"Our people cannot wait any longer."

Nely Shiguango, Quichua representative from the Amazon, representing 34 Indigenous women's groups in Latin America, the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of Napo (FOIN), spoke before the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues as this week's session began in New York.

From the heart of the Amazon, Indigenous women demand their voices be heard, and oil and mining companies be sanctioned for crimes against humanity for the metals poisoning their rivers and women.

"I'm not here by mere coincidence, I'm here with the strength of our grandchildren, our young people, and our martyrs," Fany Kuiru Castro, coordinator of COICA, told the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

She said Indigenous women endure structural and systematic violence in the Amazon.

"We are age-old owners of the biological beating heart of the planet, but when we don't even have our rights to speak on its behalf recognized -- we can no longer remain silent."

Urging those present to speak out about the violence, and demand that the voices of Indigenous women be heard, she said, "Our territories voices ring out here."

"We don't want symbolic tokenistic invitations, we demand that we participate with a voice and a vote, this must be a binding obligation."

She said countries must carry out inquiries for the ongoing crimes against humanity and issue sanctions against businesses for the crimes of extractivism, oil and mining.

The oil and mining industries leave toxic contamination, arsenic, mercury and lead. Those medals contaminate the rivers and affect the reproductive health of the women, resulting in infertility, fetal abnormalities, miscarriages and rare illnesses, as was seen in Ecuador and other regions.

"We don't come to ask for your permission but to demand justice for our physical and cultural survival and our dignity -- because when an Indigenous woman speaks, she does not speak alone."

COICA is the largest Indigenous organization in the world and Fany Kuiru Castro is the first Indigenous woman to chair the organization after 40 years of existence. COICA, Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin, is the Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Indígenas de la Cuenca Amazónica founded in 1984 in Lima, Peru.

The extractive industries lead to extermination, to genocide, said the Indigenous Parliamentarian from Bolivia. Many of her Indigenous brothers and sisters have their blood contaminated with cyanide and mercury and others, and they have no access to hospitals. They don't have medical insurance, she said, and they have no way of alleviating this.

"The ecocide is continuing," she told the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York today.

Indigenous women and youths say there has been no significant progress to ensure their safety, as mining continues to result in violence and sex trafficking, targeting Indigenous women and girls. The Continental Network of Indigenous Women of the Americas (ECMIA) represents organized Indigenous women, young women, and girls from 23 countries in the Americas.

While Indigenous women and youths testified before the United Nations in New York, Navajos protested outside the Navajo Nation Council, to protect their water from new coal mining. Navajo President Buu Nygren was in Washington pushing for new coal mining.

This comes after Nygren entered into a secret deal with Energy Fuels for radioactive uranium trucks to pass through the Navajo Nation, from the Grand Canyon Pinyon Plain mine in Arizona, to the mill and dump in the White Mesa Ute community in southeastern Utah. The Navajo Nation Council was never informed, and never approved the agreement now endangering the Navajo people.

On Monday and Tuesday, Dine' protested outside the Navajo Council. Nygren was a 'No Show' at the Council, even though the Council issued a subpoena for him to appear.

Read more in Censored News new series

From the heart of the Amazon, women arise about violence, demand sanctions on mining

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/from-heart-of-amazon-women-rise-above.html

The ecocide of mining in Bolivia

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-ecocide-of-mining-testimony-at-un.html

Australian Indigenous brings power of warrior women to United Nations

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/australian-indigenous-brings-power-of.html

Fighting for the People, Protecting the Water, Dine' Rally at Navajo Nation Council

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/fighting-for-people-protecting-water.html

Navajo President is a 'No Show.' Dine' Say Nygren is Selling Them out in Washington

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/dine-coalition-opposes-navajo.html

U.N. Permanent Forum Begins with Voices of Indigenous Women

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/un-permanent-forum-on-indigenous-issues.html

Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News