Gabriel Cuatin Cuesta is a Pastos youth from the Indigenous Resguardo of Muellamues, Nariño, Colombia. Throughout his career, he has been interested in political and community processes of Indigenous Peoples in relation to youth. He is a member of the Network of Indigenous Youth of Latin America and the Caribbean (RED-LAC), which articulates actions in 18 countries in the region, managing to be part of different cross-cutting agendas in terms of individual and collective rights. As a result, RED-LAC has been able to bring its voices to different spaces, including the International Land Coalition (ILC). Gabriel is committed to strengthening the local and regional agenda of Indigenous Peoples and their land rights and what can be achieved for human rights from a cross-cutting perspective.
Gabriel has led community processes such as the Cabildo Indígena Universitario del Resguardo de Muellamues, the Cabildo Indígena de la Universidad del Valle and the National Representation of the Red de Cabildos Indígenas Universitarios before the Comisión Nacional de Trabajo y Concertación de la Educación para los Pueblos Indígenas en Colombia (CONTCEPI) (National Commission for Work and Agreement on Education for Indigenous Peoples in Colombia) and before agreement scenarios in the field of Higher Education. He is an educator by profession, and has completed a degree in Indigenous Peoples, Human Rights and International Cooperation at the Carlos 3 University in Madrid and the Intercultural Indigenous University of FILAC. He is currently studying sociology at the University of Valle in Santiago de Cali, Colombia and has been part of the programme for young researchers of the Ministry of Science and Technology in conjunction with the Centre for Advanced Studies in Childhood and Youth - Umanizales.