MANIFESTO OF THE REGIONAL MEETING OF THE INDIGENOUS AND TRIBAL PEOPLES OF LATIN AMERICA IN RESISTANCE.

Sarayaku, May 24, 2025

We, the Indigenous Peoples and Nations that existed before the colonial invasion and the formation of the "republics", today together with the brothers of the tribal peoples of the Abya Yala (Latin America)We have united to take coordinated action to defend our rights and demand justice. This demand for protection is also the call of KAWSAK SACHA, Nhandeo, Itxofillmogen, Karuara, Nana Echeri, the Heart of the World, Waemo Kewegoimoni, for whom we are the legitimate spokespersons.

We have historically experienced violence such as exploitation, slavery, expropriation, racism, looting, murder, and marginalization. This reality drives us to continue resisting in defense of our territories, life, and the rights of nature—Pachamama.

From May 21 to 25, 2025, in the territory of the Kichwa indigenous people of Sarayaku, we have gathered to legitimize our conceptions of territory – ancestral lands, which is the place where for thousands of years the Life Assets and their protective beings that give rise to multiple forms of existence such as the earth, rivers, air, lagoons, mountains, jungle, swamps, and trees. KS or PM

These spaces have allowed us to harmoniously reproduce our lives, both materially and spiritually, together. It is here that our elders taught us to know, think, perceive, intuit, feel, dream, envision, and live, our territory of life called KAWSAK SACHA – LIVING FOREST. All these elements are part of our conception of diverse worlds.

Despite the constant abuses, we are the legitimate defenders of life and rights. We have always been guided by our wisdom, which seeks to preserve life as a part of nature.

These principles have strengthened our struggles and propose structural changes that have not yet been understood by governments. For this reason, we have undertaken our legitimate struggles based on spirituality, organizational systems, and political and legal actions. As part of our struggles, we have achieved emblematic legal precedents with rulings from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and several national courts in favor of our peoples. However, governments lack the political will or the commitment to comply with these decisions.

In this context and in exercise of our rights as peoples of what is now known as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Suriname, gathered in the territory of the Kichwa Indigenous People of Sarayaku, we declare that:

• We have formed the Regional Coalition for the Demand, Guarantee, and Implementation of Judicial Decisions that Protect the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Our organization will ensure the full protection of our rights and the creation of solidarity actions among different peoples.

• As long as governments continue to advance their policies of discrimination and exploitation of our territories, we will remain steadfast in defense of life and harmony. To restore dialogue, we demand that governments listen to and heed our demands.

• Our commitment is to strengthen global unity and solidarity through concrete actions among Indigenous peoples around the world who defend human rights and the rights of nature. Our actions also include defending the rights of our sister peoples living in voluntary isolation who have decided to preserve their ways of life. We also defend the rights of those peoples who, due to state violence and discrimination, have been unable to participate in this space.

• We demand that governments fully and fairly implement the cases decided by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and various national courts.

• We demand that governments and the competent bodies of the Organization of American States take the necessary actions to establish state and individual responsibilities for disregard and noncompliance with judicial decisions. We will continue to use existing legal tools to ensure full compliance with all judicial decisions that have protected our rights.

• We urge the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to require the governments of the region to immediately comply with the orders included in the rulings that have protected our rights. To this end, we ask the Court to hear us jointly and conduct a comprehensive assessment of the failure of the states of the region to comply with its orders.

• We demand that Latin American governments fully respect the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples enshrined in international instruments, pacts, and treaties.

• As indigenous peoples exercising our autonomous rights, we will be in constant struggle and vigilant to ensure that our rights are respected.

• In the preparation process for COP30, which will be held in Brazil, we call on the international community and governments around the world to implement environmental and climate conservation policies based on the ancestral knowledge of indigenous peoples, which are the foundation for developing an effective alternative to climate change.

Signatories of the manifesto:

Leonardo Simon Cintia del Aguila Mapuche, Chile Kukama, Peru

Mauricio Terena Albert Talco Terena, Brazil Kankuamo, Colombia

Hugo Jabine Pedro Chávez Saamaca, Suriname Purepecha, Mexico

Elice Levi Mima Tega  Los Cedros Forests, Ecuador Nawe, Ecuador

Alex Lucitante A´i Cofán, Ecuador

Miguel Bladimir Grefa  Ponakicsc, Ecuador

Hernán Eloy Malaver Santi  Sarayaku – Tayjasaruta, Ecuador