How do we maintain hope in the face of authoritarianism and repression? For me, the start of 2026 has been jarring, marked by deadly U.S. state violence from Venezuela to Minneapolis. Rapidly shifting events, the constant firehose of official misinformation, and daily outrages make it difficult to stay focused on long-term work. Each day requires a deliberate effort to return to tasks that may seem small or disconnected, but are in fact essential to sustaining our movements.
And yet, at Amazon Watch, we are privileged to work in collaboration with long-term allies from across the Amazon region. In many cases, they are members of Indigenous peoples who have suffered generational traumas caused by centuries of genocidal policies to wipe them out. Our partners have faced violence against their communities and, at times, against themselves personally, at the hands of government security forces, multinational corporations, transnational organized crime, and even members of their own families.
Amazon Watch’s longest-standing relationship, now approaching 30 years, is with Colombia’s U’wa people. Ironically, they don’t actually live in the Amazon Basin, but in the cloud forests near the Andean border with Venezuela. The U’wa burst onto the international scene in the 1990s, just as Atossa Soltani and others were founding Amazon Watch. U’wa spiritual elders have since shared that the organization was born from their prayers to Sira, the Father Creator, in search of new allies in their struggle to protect Mother Earth.
At the time, the U’wa were rejecting oil expansion plans by Occidental Petroleum, then headquartered in Amazon Watch’s birth city of Los Angeles. The U’wa introduced the phrase “the blood of Mother Earth,” now widely used to describe oil, and offered the world a powerful David-versus-Goliath model of grassroots resistance grounded in ancestral law and spiritual belief.
Amazon Watch joined the U’wa Defense Working Group, supporting diverse protest and advocacy campaigns. The U’wa organized civil disobedience actions within their territory, raised their voice through international media, recruited celebrities as allies and confronted shareholders to divest from destructive natural resource extraction. As a testimony to the effectiveness of the U’wa’s sustained campaign, Oxy withdrew from their territory in 2002. In the subsequent decades, the U’wa have continued to face threats from new extractive projects.
In recent days, I have been grounded by conversations with U’wa colleagues, including teacher and community leader Daris Cristancho. I have known Daris throughout my 18 years at Amazon Watch, and her relationship with our organization extends back even further. She has long collaborated with Mujer U’wa and Amazon Watch, as has her daughter Aura Tegría, the first U’wa woman lawyer and currently Colombia’s Vice Minister for Equality.
As of January 1, a new High Council of the U’wa Association for Traditional Leaders and Authorities (ASOU’WA) began its four-year term. Daris was inaugurated as their director for internal oversight. She will monitor the work of the Council and ensure transparency and accountability. With her lifelong commitment and unimpeachable ethics, Daris is uniquely suited for the job.
In a recent conversation, Daris reflected on themes central to U’wa culture and resistance. Looking back over decades of struggle, she pointed to enduring successes. “The U’wa People have kept alive la ley de origen (Original Law) through cultural practices left to us by Sira to protect Mother Earth,” she said. “We have walked hand-in-hand with national and international allies who have come to know our people and our struggle to maintain the natural balance and to keep the heart of the world alive.”
U’wa spirituality has always been central to their defense of territory and climate. As Daris explained, “The power of U’wa words comes from our spiritual elders who have left a legacy of struggle and survival. This is our connection with Sira and Mother Earth, which is all around us.”
Mandate for 2026: Implement the Inter-American Court ruling
Alongside their territorial, spiritual, and political strategies, the U’wa have spent more than 25 years pursuing justice through the international legal system. In 2024, they won a groundbreaking ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. While the Court has ruled in favor of other Indigenous peoples, such as the Sarayaku in Ecuador, this marked its first judgment in favor of Indigenous peoples in Colombia.
Daris described what is at stake: “The Inter-American Court ruling is important because it recognizes that our rights were violated by governments and multinational corporations. It reinvigorates our struggles to protect and care for Mother Earth, raising the visibility of our Indigenous cosmovision bound to Original Law and our spiritual connection with sacred sites like Mount Zizuma.” Fundamentally, she said the ruling, “legitimizes the U’wa process of resistance and our demands.”
Unfortunately, the Colombian government has been slow to implement even the most basic requirements of the ruling, and the window of opportunity under the current government is closing. President Petro’s term ends in early August, and the coming months will be dominated by national elections. The commitment of the next president to the protection of Indigenous rights is uncertain, and in the worst case it could disappear altogether.
For this reason, the time is now to press existing authorities to fully implement the Court’s ruling. As Daris put it, “We are calling on our Colombian and international allies to serve as observers of the government’s compliance with the IACHR ruling.”
One upcoming opportunity for the U’wa, and for grassroots struggles against the destruction caused by fossil fuel exploitation, will be the International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, hosted by Colombia in late April. If the Trump administration’s naked appetite for oil in Venezuela underscores anything, it is the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels. The slogan “No War, No Warming” has never been more relevant.
While closer to home we must continue defending the rights of our neighbors and communities, we should not lose sight of the global struggle for climate justice. For decades, the U’wa have inspired the world, and they continue to lead a movement that speaks far beyond their territory. Nearly 30 years later, Amazon Watch remains committed to walking alongside them, and we invite you to join us.
