A/HRC/48/75 and does not participate in United States elections. 49 In Nicaragua, the inhabitants of the Caribbean Coast have their own autonomous regions under Law No. 28, entitled “Statute of Autonomy of the Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua”. 50 23. In the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, some indigenous peoples administer their own lands and communities. In the Maurak Pemon community, the current elected indigenous leader ensures the running of an airport; she also oversees a security body to protect and defend their rights to land and supports the 432 indigenous families in their territory of 38,000 hectares of land that borders with Brazil. They have their own system of administration of justice, whereby they apply their own customs and traditional knowledge, even in cases of murder. The challenges experienced relate to the militarization of their land, the movement of indigenous peoples across borders, illegal invasions of and economic interest in their land, demonstrated by the intensification of conflict after the activation of the Orinoco Mining Belt in 2016.51 24. Some indigenous peoples exercise autonomy at the municipal level. In Ecuador, local governments are established through indigenous municipalities. 52 Indigenous communities administer justice under ancestral or ad hoc mechanisms, hearing cases on land conflicts, cattle theft and domestic and sexual violence. However, in recent years, several indigenous judicial authorities have been criminally prosecuted, reflecting “a lack of understanding, on the part of the ordinary justice system, of the legitimate practices and processes of the indigenous justice system”. 53 As of July 2020, four persons who were detained for those reasons had received amnesty from the National Assembly. In many communities in Mexico (Capulalpam de Méndez, Ayutla de los Libres and San Francisco Cherán), indigenous peoples exercise their self-determination through municipal elections regulated according to their own customary regulatory systems and the creation of municipal governments and councils and thereby build their autonomy within the structure of the State.54 However, some communities continue to be in opposition to the State, such as the Zapatista movement, groups of which have implemented alternative local governments and their own health service and hold and grant land under their own normative systems. Their activity has provoked numerous conflicts with non-Zapatista communities.55 25. Many indigenous peoples have their own territorial protection. In Ecuador, several communities have organized territorial protection systems as an expression of their selfdetermination, with significant achievements. The Sinangoe community, made up of 200 Ai’Cofán people, formed their own guard dedicated to monitoring 50,000 hectares of their ancestral territory. In 2018, they won a case before the Constitutional Court, which “recognized their right to free, prior and informed consent” regarding activities that affect their access to natural resources in their territory, invalidating mining concessions. The people of Ai’Cofán also achieved their goal of buying a drone to aid in the monitoring of invaders conducting mining, hunting and logging activities. 56 During the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the communities themselves carried out containment and community care tasks. 57 The challenges expressed by indigenous peoples include official mistrust of indigenous guards, often referred to as paramilitary, as was the case for the Sinangoe, and the militarization of indigenous territories.58 26. Some indigenous peoples express their self-determination in urban areas. In Mexico City, indigenous peoples hold elections and form governments by custom in Tepepan in Xochimilco and some neighbourhoods in Tláhuac. The Totonacas and Nahuas of Cuetzalán 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 8 See E/C.19/2018/7. Submission from the national human rights institution of Nicaragua. Presentation made by Lisa Henrito at the expert seminar convened by the Expert Mechanism in February 2021. See A/HRC/42/37/Add.1. Ibid. See www.iwgia.org/images/documents/Recommendations/Autonomi_report_UK.pdf; and A/74/149. Submission from the Fundación para el Debido Proceso, Mexico. Submission from the Alianz Ecuador; see also www.culturalsurvival.org/news/koef-grant-partnerspotlight-asentamiento-ancestral-cofan-de-sinangoe-ecuador. Submission from the Alianz Ecuador. Submission from the Alianz Ecuador.