Elected officials from Guyana have ratified the recognition of the six Amerindian nations of the Amazon department, completing their autonomy project for the territory. Gathered in congress, parliamentarians, mayors, and territorial councilors voted on Saturday by a narrow majority for a resolution on the representation of indigenous peoples within what would be the future autonomous community of Guyana.
Guyanese elected officials are asking for the creation of a sui generis status, like New Caledonia, then translated into an organic law. The future community would be endowed with 'autonomous normative power,' and several skills would be transferred to it. Among these, land use planning, transport, agriculture, and fishing and the exploitation of natural resources. Other skills – regional cooperation, security – would be shared with the State. Some local elected officials were against it, raising fears that the autonomy project would be blocked.