FONDECYT Regular: Indigenous Peoples and Self-Determination in Cross-Border Spaces in Latin America

In Latin America, there are over one hundred indigenous peoples divided by the borders of two or more states; they inhabit transboundary areas where they engage in customary mobility along ancestral routes, as well as economic exchange and family, sociopolitical, and cultural interactions. While international regulations aim to facilitate these interactions and promote indigenous self-determination, in practice, states and their sovereign prerogatives constrain the rights of border-divided indigenous communities through various control mechanisms, militarization, marginalization, and neglect. Against this backdrop, alongside these peoples' historic demands for rights and recognition at the domestic level, various expressions of self-determination have emerged in the transboundary and international arenas such as autonomous organizations, networks, and self-generated maps of ancestral territories that challenge the authority of sovereign states and expose the limitations of the international order.

Thus, this project aims to understand how contemporary expressions of self-determination among transboundary indigenous peoples and the ideas and practices underpinning them call into question key elements of the state-centric international order (territory, boundaries, and sovereignty) and offer potential contributions to the international sphere. To this end, the study examines the Aymara, Guaraní, Mapuche, and Wayuu peoples, whose communities inhabit the border regions of Chile-Bolivia, Brazil-Paraguay, Argentina-Chile, and Colombia-Venezuela, respectively. Preliminary findings suggest that their expressions of self-determination are rooted in relationships with nature that encompass non-material dimensions differing from the legal logic of the international order; furthermore, the spaces in which these expressions unfold are shaped by their own worldviews, pre-state historical occupation, and contemporary claims all of which transcend the boundaries established by states and the international system. This gives rise to forms of self-determination that challenge sovereignty or the exclusive exercise of authority over a delimited territory and its international representative expressions while also generating potential contributions to a richer understanding of the international realm.