ABSTRACT
Since the late 1980s and throughout the decade of the 1990s, forms of indigenous autonomy or self-government were introduced into the constitutions of five Latin American countries (Nicaragua, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela), two of which (Ecuador and Bolivia) have reinforced such arrangements in their recent constitutional reforms (at least on paper). In Mexico, boosted by the Zapatista movement, the 2001 constitutional reform also recognized the indigenous right to autonomy, albeit to be implemented at the state (and not federal) level. In Panama, five indigenous Comarcas have been created so far, the first (officially) in 1953 and the last in 2000. Nunavut and Greenland are another two cases of (territorial) autonomies. Since the 1990s, indigenous movements worldwide started to demand autonomy arrangements for indigenous peoples. However, in the 21st century, called by some the ‘Age of Autonomy’ (Skurbaty 2005, xliii–xliv), what will this autonomy look like? What can we learn from the case studies? What shall be the minimum criteria needed to establish a level of indigenous autonomy that fully respects their rights, inter alia, to self-determination, land and cultures?
