On 16 October 2025 Amazon Watch reported that more than 130 civil society and human rights organizations from across Latin America and around the world have issued an urgent appeal for an immediate end to repression, militarization, and human rights violations by the Ecuadorian government. The statement follows weeks of violent crackdowns against Indigenous-led protests that began on September 21, when social movements mobilized to defend democracy, rights, and the environment amid controversial government reforms.
According to Ecuadorian human rights groups, the government’s response has been brutal and disproportionate: at least three people have been killed, including Indigenous leader Efraín Fuerez; over 282 people injured; 172 detained; and 15 temporarily disappeared. Reports also confirm attacks on journalists, raids without warrants, internet blackouts, and summary deportations, while military operations continue across several provinces.
The joint declaration denounces the criminalization of Indigenous and human rights defenders, who face fabricated charges of terrorism, sabotage, and illicit enrichment, along with the freezing of organizational bank accounts. The signatories condemn President Daniel Noboa’s use of racist and stigmatizing rhetoric to justify state violence and to discredit legitimate social protest.
“Defending life, land, human rights, and freedom of expression cannot be criminalized. Peace cannot be imposed by force; it is built on truth, justice, and dialogue,” the statement affirms.
The organizations also point to international alarm: on October 8, seven United Nations Special Rapporteurs expressed concern about the repression and institutional rollbacks that weaken environmental protections and Indigenous rights. Two days later, members of the European Parliament called for a public EU statement, a monitoring mission, and a review of the E.U.–Ecuador Trade Agreement under its human rights clauses.
In response to the escalating crisis, Amazon Watch has launched an international action urging President Noboa to cease all violence immediately, end the criminalization of Indigenous movements, and ensure full respect for human rights and the rule of law.
Download the statement in PDF format to view a complete list of signatories.
On 1 July 2025, Raphael Hoetmer and Sofia Jarrín in Amazon Watch report on the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, staying that governments and UNODC must include Indigenous Peoples in anti-crime and environmental policies
For Indigenous communities, these expanding criminal economies mean more than environmental degradation. They are direct assaults on their lives, health, and sovereignty. Illegal activities such as logging, mining, and coca production for international markets contaminate rivers with mercury, destroy food sources, deteriorate health, and displace communities from their ancestral lands. These burgeoning criminal markets, coupled with weak or complicit state institutions, have led Indigenous leaders to warn that criminal groups are increasingly taking over local government structures and exerting territorial control.
This deepening crisis makes the Amazon one of the most dangerous places in the world for environmental defenders. Indigenous organizations often face these threats alone, without adequate support from governments or international institutions. As Indigenous Peoples themselves underscore, these violent criminal economies kill leaders, recruit their youth, and spread fear through their communities…
This year a delegation of Amazonian Indigenous leaders delivered a clear and urgent message: organized crime and illegal economies are devastating the Amazon and threatening the survival of Indigenous Peoples. They called on the Forum to include strong recommendations urging the international community and governments to step up their efforts to support Indigenous territorial governance, protect human rights defenders, and ensure Indigenous Peoples are included in shaping policies to prevent and contain organized crime.
“The Permanent Forum must formally recognize that organized crime and illegal economies such as drug trafficking and illegal mining are an existential threat to our peoples. We must be included in drafting the international protocol on environmental crimes, and protection mechanisms for Indigenous defenders must be created, along with funding for Indigenous-led economic alternatives. If these measures are not taken, ongoing military and police interventions in our territories will continue to put our lives at risk. Without dignified livelihoods, we cannot safeguard our culture or our territories.”
The Permanent Forum’s conclusions this year directly responded to these urgent appeals. Its final document, published earlier this month, presents a wide range of concerns, recommendations, and proposals related to the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, with this session explicitly addressing the impacts and expansion of criminal economies.
In conclusion 87 of the document, the Forum urges governments and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) – the leading global institution on anti-crime policies – to integrate Indigenous Peoples meaningfully into the design and implementation of anti-crime and security strategies. This recommendation is particularly relevant in the ongoing process to discuss a new Protocol Against Crimes that Affect the Environment, which must include the voices of Indigenous Peoples – as the principal stewards of global biodiversity and primary victims of the violence tied to these crimes.
The Forum’s conclusions also emphasize the urgent need for the international community and governments to:
take necessary measures to ensure the rights, protection, and safety of Indigenous leaders and human rights defenders,
end impunity and prosecute those who commit violence against Indigenous Peoples,
acknowledge and protect Indigenous women and children from the disproportionate impacts of war and violence on their lives,
ensure Indigenous participation in peace negotiations and peace-building processes,
assess the impacts of mercury on the health, culture, and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples under the Minamata Convention,
and repair the damage from toxic metals on Indigenous lands and territories, including restoring sites and water sources, with special attention to the severe impact on the health of Indigenous women and children.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 