...More than 30 years after ILO Convention 169, which includes indigenous and tribal peoples everywhere in the world, we see with concern that, despite the fact that most of our countries have signed and ratified this instrument, governments refuse to guarantee, in practice, the differential rights to which we are entitled, despite the fact that we are recognised as tribal peoples, as in Chile, or that there is an obligation to apply them in Argentina, Honduras or Peru, as noted by the UN Working Groups on Afro-descendants and on Business and Human Rights, in their reports on missions to these countries.

Despite having contributed to the creation of wealth in Europe and North America, at the cost of the enslavement of millions of African people, subjected to forced labour, through transatlantic trafficking, the dire consequences of enslavement, expressed in forms of structural racism, persist today. In the face of this, as an expression of the libertarian spirit bequeathed by our ancestors, we continue to resist peacefully and to demand the right to historical and current reparations for the discrimination of which we have been victims for centuries.

The Covid-19 pandemic has made social and structural inequalities more evident for the Quilombola, Garifuna, Black and Afro-descendant communities in the region. The prevalence of coronary diseases, hypertension, sickle cell anemia and diabetes, among other diseases, increased our conditions of vulnerability, as our communities and territories do not have a minimum and quality hospital structure to face the current health crisis.

The problem of dispossession and physical destruction of ancestral and traditional territories of Quilombola, Garifuna, Black and Afro-descendant communities, due to the legal or violent imposition of economic mega-projects, without guaranteeing the right to consultation and free, prior and informed consent, is another factor of concern...