The indigenous politics of belonging: Opposing neo-liberal extractivism with ethical cosmologies

Abstract

The chapter examines four parallel stories that reveal the relative success of indigenous communities in defending their autonomy and examines how their territory is linked to their ability to mobilise external solidarity around the use of national and international legal instruments as effective shields to protect their rights. Considering the past decades of ecological history, it seems that of all the victims of this violence exercised in the Amazon region by economic sectors in collusion with the national Peruvian state, many Indigenous Peoples have been able to endure the aggression and secure some circumstantial victories. Through their political and cultural struggle, these groups have brought to the centre of national and international politics the ethical and environmental principles that should inform the relation of the rest of Peru with the Amazon.