Declaration of the VI International Summit of Indigenous Women of Abya Yala

After having convened ourselves as the Indigenous Coordinator of Abya Yala, gathered in the Gunayala Region, Panama from October 8 to 12, 2025, at the VI International Summit of Indigenous Women of Abya Yala, delegates from different nationalities of Panama, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, the United States, El Salvador, Colombia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Brazil, and Venezuela, with the objective of strengthening the rights of women and native and indigenous peoples to transform racist and patriarchal structures towards inclusive, plurinational and intercultural societies that respect self-determination, and that also recognize the autonomy and self-care of the bodies and minds of women and our peoples.

We declare:

Our unwavering resistance as Indigenous women, 533 years after the European colonial invasion of our continent and 100 years after the Dule Revolution of the Guna people of Panama. This resistance stems from an analysis of the patriarchal system of territorial exploitation and the various forms of violence—historical, structural, economic, and cultural—in the face of the threat to the lives of Indigenous peoples posed by the advance of fascism, the dispossession and forced displacement caused by mega-projects, and intellectual extractivism in the territory of Abya Yala.

From religious, patriarchal and racial fundamentalisms as a consequence, there are violations of the individual and collective rights of women and native and indigenous peoples.

We embrace the plurinational banner of the indigenous peoples of the continent for the self-determination of women and our peoples.

Strengthening ties and solidarity networks in the face of constant threats, criminal prosecution and criminalization, persecution and assassinations of women leaders in countries for defending community democracy systems and territorial autonomy.

To create training spaces for intergenerational transfer, from our life experiences inherited from grandmothers and elders to young people, for the continuity of the defense of collective territorial rights and our autonomies.

To occupy spaces of participation for the construction of comprehensive development policies, from the communities; to guarantee respect for and application of international conventions and treaties in favor of indigenous youth and women, specifically CEDAW Recommendation 39 and ILO Convention 169 in the different territories of Abya Yala.

To recognize and respect the wisdom of grandmothers, midwives, and those knowledgeable in ancestral medicine, as part of the autonomy of native and indigenous peoples.

To confront the patriarchal, fascist, racist system that prevents opportunities for a good life for young people and forces them to migrate to other spaces foreign to our cultures, forcing them to assimilate the patriarchal, racist, ethnocentric, egocentric, adult-centric culture, foreign to the principles of the life being of our peoples.

Given this reality WE DEMAND to the States:

Respect for the dignity and rights of Indigenous women.

That governments repeal all legislative initiatives they promote against individual and collective guarantees that suspend the system of due process of law.

To approve and implement with adequate resources the existing public policies for comprehensive development to protect the lives of indigenous women and women in general.

To guarantee, respect and promote comprehensive and pluricultural education based on our knowledge through the creation of plurinational universities for the construction of critical thinking.

Full respect for our form of organization and work for the good life of our people.

Full respect for the exercise of our rights to free expression and demonstration.

To put an end to the injustices of persecution, criminalization and judicialization of the leaders, ancestral authorities, our elders, councilors, from the State agencies.

We reject racism, cultural genocide, and structural discrimination that threaten the life and dignity of the indigenous peoples of Abya Yala.

The VI International Summit of Indigenous Women of Abya Yala rejects the persecution and criminalization of defenders, justice operators, ancestral leaders, exiles, those imprisoned and criminally prosecuted by the judicial system of the states.

Demanding the immediate release of former Guatemalan ancestral authorities: including Luis Pacheco, Héctor Chaclan, Esteban Toc. And the defenders criminalized from different countries.

We denounce the Panamanian government's policy of imposing electrical and mining interconnection on the Guna people.

We reject the proposed Mayan train project, which threatens biodiversity and damages our territories, causing ecocide and violating the rights of Mother Nature.

We demand that governments stop the plundering of Mother Nature, which undermines food sovereignty and creates the climate crisis.

We condemn and reject the genocide against the Palestinian people committed by the fascist State of Israel.

Because we, indigenous women, are the owners and guardians of our ancestral territories and guardians of our native seeds!

Women moving forward without borders!
For a Plurinational Abya Yala!

Gunayala Region, Panama, October 12, 2025
Day of the Resistance of the Peoples!
Working Group on Indigenous Peoples and Epistemic-Territorial Disputes

This text expresses the position of the aforementioned Working Groups and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.