Teresita Antazú (AIDESEP), Elaine Shajian (CORPI-SL), Matut Impi (Autonomous Territorial Government of the Awajún Nation), Olivia Bisa (Chapra Nation), and Kelly Valencia (ORGI) are bringing to Washington the voices of Indigenous women facing threats, criminalization, and violence in territories where criminal networks already affect 67% of Amazonian municipalities and are disputing control over 32% of Indigenous territories.
Washington, D.C. – Peru's gold exports reached US$11 billion in 2025, far exceeding the US$6 billion attributed to illegal activities such as drug trafficking. Against this backdrop, five Indigenous women leaders from the Peruvian Amazon will appear before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on Tuesday, August 4, to warn that the expansion of illegal economies is deepening a human rights crisis across the Peruvian Amazon. The thematic hearing, "Peru: The Situation of Indigenous Women Defenders in the Context of Illegal Economies," is part of the Commission's 196th Period of Sessions.
This hearing marks a significant political milestone, as it will be the first thematic hearing before the IACHR in which representatives of the Peruvian State will participate during the government of Keiko Fujimori. The Indigenous women leaders will address the Commission and the Peruvian State directly, exposing how the expansion of organized crime, institutional weakening, and regressive legal reforms are increasing the risks faced by Indigenous women defenders, their peoples, and the Amazon rainforest.
The women leaders warn that the convergence of illegal mining, drug trafficking, illegal logging, land trafficking, and other illicit economies has turned Indigenous territories into one of the main battlegrounds for organized crime in the region. According to a 2026 Amazon Watch report, these criminal networks already affect 67% of Amazonian municipalities and are disputing control over 32% of Indigenous territories across the Amazon.
This crisis is compounded by the weakening of State institutions and governance. According to the Global Organized Crime Index, Peru ranks sixth in South America and 32nd globally for organized crime, while its resilience against organized crime ranks only 119th in the world. Ten of the fifteen criminal markets assessed by the Index are highly developed in Peru, including illegal mining, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and arms trafficking.
Illegal mining has become one of the main economic engines of organized crime. Today, one out of every two kilograms of gold exported by Peru is of illegal or unknown origin, and the country accounts for approximately 45% of all illegal gold exports in South America. Between 2020 and 2024, criminal complaints related to illegal mining increased from 800 to more than 2,500, while the number of mining exporters nearly tripled between 2019 and 2025.
"Illegal economies pose an enormous threat to our territories and our communities. The danger becomes even greater when criminal networks are combined with institutional weakening and pro-crime laws that facilitate the dispossession of our rights and of the territories that mean everything to us. They are sacred. They are our life. That is why we defend and care for them. Without territory, there is no life," said Teresita Antazú, Yanesha Indigenous leader, speaking from Washington, D.C. señaló Teresita Antazú, lideresa yanesha, desde Washington.
The consequences fall disproportionately on Indigenous women, girls, boys, and adolescents. In addition to defending their territories against criminal organizations, they face threats, criminalization by both the State and private companies, sexual and digital violence, human trafficking, forced displacement, and an increasing burden of caregiving and community protection related to food security, health, and safety.
The severity of this crisis is also reflected in the violence against those defending the Amazon. Since 2012, at least 296 environmental and Indigenous defenders have been killed across Amazon Basin countries. Organizations warn that State responses, focused primarily on militarization, have failed to halt the expansion of organized crime or address the structural causes driving it.
The organizations also warned about a series of legislative reforms adopted in recent years that weaken protections for Indigenous territories and forests. These include Law No. 32293, the so-called "Anti-Forest Law" (Law No. 31973), the repeated extensions of the Comprehensive Mining Formalization Registry (REINFO), legislative initiatives to ease hydrocarbon extraction in protected natural areas, and amendments to the Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation (APCI) Law (Law No. 32301). These developments are compounded by Peru's decision not to ratify the Escazú Agreement, based on misinformation, leaving environmental and Indigenous defenders without an important regional protection framework and exposing them to even greater risks.
The Peruvian Amazon Indigenous women's delegation includes Teresita Antazú, a Yanesha Indigenous leader and member of the Board of Directors of the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), Peru's national Indigenous organization representing Amazonian Indigenous Peoples for the past 46 years; Elaine Shajian, President of the Regional Coordinator of Indigenous Peoples of San Lorenzo (CORPI-SL); Matut Impi, Vice President of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Awajún Nation; Olivia Bisa, President of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Chapra Nation; and Kelly Valencia, President of the Regional Organization of the Shipibo-Konibo Indigenous Guard (ORGI), which coordinates Indigenous guard units dedicated to protecting Shipibo-Konibo ancestral territories.
The hearing will take place in person on Tuesday, August 4, at 1:00 p.m. (Peru time) in Washington, D.C., United States, and will be livestreamed through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights' official YouTube channel: https://www.oas.org/es/cidh/sesiones/Default.asp?S=196. To access simultaneous interpretation in English, participants may register at: https://www.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_Ku45BJ7sQ8iGjgf9_-qrgA#/registration