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  • Elections Significance for Indigenous Peoples in Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, USA

    The significance of democratic elections in 2020 for indigenous peoples go beyond electoral results. Wavering between the need for sovereignty/self-determination and democratic participation, indigenous people are finding themselves in places of power denied to them historically. After hundreds of years of noncitizenry, indigenous plurinational states are now shaping democracy. Below we summarize some of the…

  • Manufacturing Critical Geography for Social Struggle and Resistance

    Interview with Gabriela Ruales, member of the Critical Geography Collective in Ecuador How was the Critical Geography Collective (Colectivo de Geografía Crítica) formed and what role do you play in accompanying indigenous peoples in the defense of their territories and against extractivism? The Colectivo de Geografía Crítica emerged in 2013, approximately 2012-2013, and was created…

  • Precautionary Measures against Ethnocide: Strategic Alliances Push for the Protection of Indigenous People

    On April 7 a catastrophic oil spill in Ecuador polluted the Coca and Napo Rivers where 27 thousand indigenous and 90 thousand mestizo people depend on for drinking water and fishing. It was a predictable industry-provoked disaster that geologists and environmentalists long warned about: the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant was generating heavy erosion near…

  • Oglala Sioux Tribe. Picture: Anna Halverson

    The Right to Voluntary Self-Isolation

    Voluntary self-isolation has been practiced for millennia by uncontacted peoples, so as not to be victims of the devastating consequences of Western ​​civilization and progress. Several intergovernmental organizations have recognized this legal right and survival strategy of peoples to protect their land and territory, as a way of protecting themselves against genocide, colonization, and the…

  • Ecuador: Agrarian revolution in the midst of crisis COVID

    With the COVID-19 crisis, the Ecuadorian nation state, like many other failed states, panicked and its reactions were late, with omissions and negligence towards its civilian population. For example, two months ago, salaries to state workers were suspended , but they have not stopped paying the foreign debt, nor have they suspended oil and mining…

  • Ecuador: The State Should Buy Food Supplies Directly From Campesinos

    “Due to the health emergency that we are experiencing, the State must take measures to suspend the payment of credits, not only for agricultural activity but for all economic activities in Ecuador,” Leónidas Iza, here during a conversation in Loja. (Diego Vaca / MICC Communication) FROM THE EDITORS: In the face of the pandemic, indigenous…

  • #WasipiSakiri. Foto: RadioIluman

    Decolonizing Health II: Community Efforts in Abya Yala

    Slowly we perceive―like the rising of the river when it comes down from the mountain―that the rain at the top of the summit hasn’t ceded, and that we must prepare for the sudden flow. After the initial storm, like the soft roots that creep between the stones until they are broken, ideas, actions, and the…

  • Indian Was the Name Used to Subjugate Us, Indian Is the Name by Which We Will Be Liberated

    FROM THE EDITORS: During the October 2019 protests in Ecuador led by indigenous groups and social justice organizations, politicians made openly racist statements, replicated by the media and promoted by social networks, that deeply polarized the country. Below we share a clear response to racist comments made on a popular podcast, raising calls for inquiries…