Honduras: Garífuna resist land grabs, Indigenous voices sidelined at COP30
Grassroots movements push for more inclusive climate governance as palm oil expansion threatens ancestral lands.
Ecuador: The river never forgets – nor do the communities
In March 2025, the rivers of Esmeraldas, an Ecuadorian province that for decades has suffered from the social and environmental impacts of the petrochemical industry, were heavily polluted by a 25,000-barrel crude oil spill. Afro-descendant communities, environmental defenders organized in solidarity networks, and local universities continue agitating the murky waters of a disaster the country would prefer had sunk into oblivion.
Confronting racism and gendered violence in Guerrero
On 27 January 2025, the collective Mujeres Colibrí, Defensoras de la Vida (Hummingbird Women, Defenders of Life) presented their research on the multiple forms of violence experienced by Indigenous and Afro-descendant women in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, to state representatives and local media.
Brazil: soldiers acquitted of Rio ‘execution’
A military court acquitted 8 soldiers of the 2019 assassination in Rio de Janeiro of musician Evaldo Rosa, together with a refuse collector who went to his aide. The only woman judge condemned the verdict and spoke of institutional racism and racial profiling.
Ka’apor and Quilombola Communities in Brazil
Documentary film: We Fight For This Land: Ka’apor and Quilombola Communities in Brazil (62”, 2024)Directors: Cahal McLaughlin and Siobhán Wills
Quilombo and Indigenous Ka’apor communities...
‘The Dark Side of Skin’: race relations in modern Brazil
Jeferson Tenório, originally from Rio de Janeiro, is currently a teacher of literature in Porto Alegre. The Dark Side of Skin is his third novel and winner of the esteemed Jabuti national literature prize.
FILM: The Future is in Our Territories
In a new LAB film, environmental defenders discuss their territorial work and the Americas-wide alliance for racial and climate justice
Ailton Krenak: Samba to portray our vision
Brazilian Indigenous leader Ailton Krenak is made a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. Meanwhile Samba schools at Carnival gave voice to Indigenous and Black peoples
Brazil: Coup and Carnival
Brazilian police and the Supreme Court have released a video showing Bolsonaro plotting to deny the results of the presidential election and mount a coup. The leading Samba schools in this year's carnivals, by contrast, highlighted the lives of Indigenous Peoples and the culture of black Brazil
Carnival: Afro-Brazil meets Indigenous Amazon
In developing its carnival theme, the Salgueiro samba school drew on the knowledge of Yanomami shaman Davi Kopenawa, whose visit to the Rio de Janeiro community forged a bridge between favela and forest, reviving the transgressive power of Brazil’s most popular festival.
