Indigenous leaders bring Amazon crime crisis to UN summit in Vienna

Roughly a dozen indigenous leaders from Peru, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador are set to appear at a United Nations conference in Vienna from 19 to 23 October, seeking international action against expanding criminal networks in the Amazon. They will call on governments to disrupt the financial flows that fund illegal gold mining, drug trafficking and clandestine logging, and to grant indigenous peoples a greater role in safeguarding their territories.

Galois Flores of the Wampis Autonomous Territorial Government highlighted mercury contamination of rivers from illegal mining, and noted that armed groups intimidate locals. Marcelo Odicio of the Kakataibo Federation said six of his community’s leaders have been killed since 2020, while Francisco Piyako Apiwtxa described armed incursions into Ashaninka villages. In Colombia, Ingry Mojanajinsoy warned that former drug-funded armed groups are turning to mining, spreading pollution downstream. The meeting will also explore a possible new UN protocol on environmental crime, echoing data from Global Witness that 105 land and environmental defenders were killed in Latin America in 2025.