Carbon pirates: The fake country of the United States of Kailasa and its “perpetual” land grabs in Bolivia
How a fake country tried to set up land deals in Ecuador, Paraguay, Honduras, and Bolivia.
The United States of Kailasa was founded by Nithyananda Paramashivam, an Indian guru and self-styled “godman” in 2019, on an island off the coast of Ecuador. It has a flag, a national anthem, a 547-page constitution, and a reserve bank (which, of course, accepts cryptocurrecy). The country’s passport allows for “free entry in all 11 dimensions and 14 lokas including Kailasa”.
But it’s a fake country — not recognised by the UN or any country. After The Guardian wrote about the creation of Kailasa, Ecuador’s ambassador to the UK, Jaime Marchan Romero, pointed out that “it is absolutely false that Nithyananda or any of his associates have or could ever have established in Ecuador a so-called ‘cosmic republic’ for their followers and supporters”.
Nithyananda is wanted in India on charges of rape, child abduction, and fraud. Nithyananda denies the accusations. He fled India on 20 November 2019.
The United States of Kailasa recently hit the headlines after followers of Nithyananda turned up in Bolivia with offers of thousands of dollars to lease large areas of rainforest.
Four “bilateral cooperation” agreements
Kailasa’s land grab was exposed on 16 March 2025 by Silvana Vincenti, a journalist with the Bolivian newspaper El Deber.
In 2024, Kailasa representatives signed “bilateral cooperation” agreements with at least four Indigenous groups.
“When I first read the contracts, I thought, ‘I must be imagining this’,” Vincenti told The Guardian. “They were so irrational that it felt like magical realism.”
In September 2024, Pedro Guasico Durán and several other representatives of the Baure Indigenous people in Bolivia signed a contract with Kailasa granting a “perpetual lease” of 60,000 hectares of rainforest for US$108,000 a year. Kailasa Ambassador Brenda Jung signed the contract, together with delegates Nilesh Patel, Nithya Paramashivapriya, and Trang Huyen Tran.
An Ecuadorian lawyer called Miguel Antonio Chumapi of Chumapi & Asociados, Quito, had contacted Pedro Guasico by WhatsApp. He asked Guasico to travel to Trinidad, the capital of the department of Beni, to meet the Kailasa representatives.
Chumapi translated for the Kailasa representatives in meetings with the Buare. Guasico told Amazon Real that the Kailasa introduced themselves as Indigenous people and said they were looking for a “way to preserve nature in the territories in Bolivia”.
Guasico returned to the Baure territory to tell the community about the Kailasa deal. At the time, the Baure were facing extreme drought and forest fires in their territory. The Bolivian government’s support with dealing with the fires was not adequate.
“Faced with this need and desperation, we were seeking help, support to save our forest, and we were sent back to Trinidad to sign the contract,” Guasico told Amazon Real.
At the second meeting, Guasico took a closer look at the contract. The contract states that, “This lease is for a period of 1,000 years, which will be automatically and perpetually renewed.”
One clause gave Kailasa complete sovereignty over the territory. The Kailasa constitution would be applied over the Indigenous territory.
“It was a surprise to us, something we would never accept,” Guasico told Amazon Real. “And we found another clause where they took over our airspace, land and subsoil. They acted as if they were the rightful owners.”
The Baure told Chumapi that they did not agree and they requested that the contract be changed. But they signed anyway.
“We made the mistake of listening to them,” Pedro Guasico told the New York Times. “They offered us that money as an annual bonus for conserving and protecting our territory, but it was completely false.”
Also in September 2024, Roddy Albert Chávez Atoyay representing the Cayubaba Indigenous people, signed a contract for “a perpetual and irrevocable concession of 31,000 hectares of land” with Kailasa for “the conservation of endemic biodiversity”. In return, Kailasa promised to pay US$55,800 a year.
In addition to the Kailasa delegates that signed the contract with the Baure Indigenous People, Lewis Jeffrey Smith also signed the Cayubaba contract as a Kailasa delegate.
Chávez Atoyay subsequently told El Deber that he had withdrawn from the deal with Kailasa. “I’m reassured, in a way, because no irregularities were committed, the intention was to do something for the benefit of our population,” he said, “The document and its contents were something else, not what they initially stated.”
In November 2024, Sanjinez Mamio Callaú, Grand Captain of the Esse Ejja Indigenous people signed a contract for more than 390,000 hectares of land, for US$28,107 a year. Other leaders witnessed the contract. Brenda Jung signed the contract for Kailasa, along with delegates Lin Wang, Qiaohui Cui, and Sophia Lorena Smith.
El Deber reports that Kailasa representatives “also sought to establish relations with . . . the Andean Coordinating Committee and the National Council of Ayllus and Markas of Qullasuyu (Conamaq)”.
The contracts
Under the contracts, El Deber reports, the Kailasa passport would become the national passport of the Indigenous groups, and “any passport that Kailasa cancels, the corresponding Indigenous nation passport must also be cancelled”.
The transfer of the land would be “literally irrevocable” El Deber writes, “and includes all rights to the airspace and accessible resources above or below the ground, and is automatically renewable every thousand years”.
Kailasa would have full sovereignty and autonomy within the territory to set up its own administrative, legal, economic, and cultural and religious practices.
The contracts state that,
The Indigenous Nation will provide protection against external aggression against the territory with its defence and police services, when requested by Kailasa. However, the Indigenous nation agrees that there will be no interference in its internal affairs, nor will there be any defence force, police force, or any other administrative entity. In accordance with sovereignty, the presence of aircraft of any type in the territory's airspace will be subject to Kailasa's approval. . . .
Furthermore, members of the Kailasa headquarters and all dependent institutions shall be exempt from taxes on the acquisition or sale of movable or immovable property within the Kailasa territory or the Indigenous nation, used or to be used for their official functions. . . .
The Indigenous nation will also provide connection within the territory and with other States for internet, telegraph, telephone, radiotelegraph, radiotelephone, broadcasting, and postal services. It will also provide for the coordination of other public services.
Kailasa promised to make the first payment when the following actions are completed:
The transfer of the land title to Kailasa;
The completion of a formal survey;
A complete topographical evaluation;
Compliance with all applicable legal frameworks; and
The ratification of the treaty by the Bolivian government.
“Carbon pirates”
Adolfo Chávez, of the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia (CIDOB), described the contracts as “scams”.
He told El Deber that,
“What I know is that they are from India and that they were expelled from Ecuador. They are creating a new nation, the United States of Kailasa, to register with the United Nations. They are coming from a religion to impose their culture. The Indigenous people will be slaves in their own territory; they will be pledged. Their agreements are irrational, and it is unclear what benefits the Indigenous people would have. They are far from being recognized by the United Nations; they seem more like a cult.”
He added that the contracts may have something to do with carbon credits.
Chávez told Amazon Real that, “The contracts hand over territorial rights to Kailasa, allowing them to negotiate the sale of carbon credits. This directly threatens the autonomy and control of indigenous peoples over their lands.”
When Chávez began to file complaints about the contracts, he was contacted by Kailasa’s lawyer, Miguel Antonio Chumapi.
Chumapi told El Deber that he no longer works for Kailasa. “It’s like the Catholic religion,” he said, “which is an atypical state, except that its corporate name is the United States of Kailasa. It’s a religion that seeks to awaken consciousness, to achieve recognition, and for man to be his own God.”
He said the contracts did not have anything to do with carbon credits. Kailasa’s sole purpose is to live in harmony with nature, to protect ancestral territories, and “to ensure that they remain intact for eternity”, he said.
Miguel Vargas is the director of the Center for Legal Studies and Social Research (CEJIS). He told Mongabay Latam that the Kailasa contracts were part of a carbon trading strategy. He called the Kailasa representatives “carbon pirates”.
Jorge Vargas, mayor of the municipality of San Rafael in Santa Cruz, told Mongabay Latam that Kailasa representatives also contacted him about the San Rafael protected area and carbon credits. He told Mongabay Latam that,
“A woman called me insistently. I inquired about this alleged state and found it to be a scam. They wanted to enter the protected area (San Rafael) to negotiate carbon credits.”
Jhovana Morales of the Bolivian NGO Tierra Foundation also called the contracts a “total scam”. He told El Deber that they violate all regulations governing Indigenous territories. There was no process of free, prior and informed consent. The contracts are completely unconstitutional.
The Bolivian government’s response
On 21 March 2025, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs put out a press release stating that,
the Plurinational State of Boliva does not maintain diplomatic relations with the alleged nation “United States of Kailasa”, which, furthermore, is not recognized as a State by any other actor of the International Community within the framework of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.
On 24 March 2025, 20 people linked to the United States of Kailasa were expelled from the country. The group included people from China, Sweden, USA, UK, India, Ireland, and Portugal.
The first three Kailasa representatives were Irish and entered Bolivia as tourists. They moved into houses in Exaltación, in the department of Beni. From there they started contacting Indigenous leaders with proposals of “bilateral cooperation”.
Mongabay Latam spoke to the mayor of Exaltación, Gonzalo Hurtado. He filed a complaint against the three Kailasa representatives after they “intervened” in the Cayubaba Indigenous Community Land.
Hurtado told Mongabay Latam that,
“I did everything to protect the Cayubaba people’s territory. We knew these people (from Kailasa) were in the municipality, but we didn’t know what they wanted. They had been there since September of last year, claiming to practice yoga and want to protect the environment. Basically, they were negotiating land deals with bad leaders in exchange for money. Now, they’re writing and calling me from abroad to threaten me.”
Kailasa in Ecuador, USA, Paraguay, Honduras, the UN in Geneva, and with Bolivia’s president
Bolivia is not the first country that Kailasa has targeted.
Before arriving in Boliva, Kailasa representatives had tried to lease 1,000 hectares from the Kichwa Indigenous community of Jatun Molino in the province of Pastaza. But the Indigenous organisations annulled the agreement and expelled Kailasa.
For six days in January 2023, the City of Newark in the USA had a “sister city” cultural-trade deal with the United States of Kailasa. Mayor Ras Baraka signed the sister city deal with Kailasa on 12 January 2023.
At the signing ceremony in City Hall chambers Mayor Baraka said,
“I pray that our relationship helps us to understand cultural, social and political development and improves the lives of everybody in both places that helps us to understand where we are and who we are and our connectivity to one another and helps us to become better people in this process, better people individually and as cities and nations.”
Baraka cancelled the deal on 18 January 2023 when officials realised that the United States of Kailasa does not exist.
In February 2023, two Kailasa representatives attended a UN meeting in Geneva. They demanded protection for Nithyananda who she calls the “supreme pontiff of Hinduism”.
In November 2023, Arnaldo Chamorro, was replaced as chief of staff for Paraguay’s agriculture ministry after he signed a “proclamation” with Kailasa representatives. The “proclamation” stated Kailasa’s
sincere wish and recommendation for the government of Paraguay to consider, explore and actively seek the establishment of diplomatic relations with the United States of Kailasa and support the admission of the United States of Kailasa as a sovereign and independent state in various international organizations, including, among others, the United Nations.
Chamorro said that the Kailasa representatives had offered to help Paraguay on several issues, including irrigation.
In October 2024, Kailasa representatives took part in a meeting to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia (CIDOB) in Santa Cruz. One of the Kailasa representatives presented Bolivia’s president Luis Arce Catacora with a book.
Justo Molina, president of CIDOB, told El Deber that Kailasa were not invited to the event and had climbed onto the stage to give President Arce a book while other gifts were being handed out.
In November 2024, Kailasa claimed to have entered into a bilateral agreement with the Lenca Indigenous community in Honduras.
Threats and intimidation
After reporting on the Kailasa attempted land grab in Bolivia, Silvana Vincenti and other journalists, have received threats and intimidation. A WhatsApp message to Vincenti states,
Legal Notice. Urgent cease and desist from malicious, defamatory, and anti-Indigenous publications against the Kailasa Indigenous Nation.
The sender is apparently Ms. Surekha Sekar, Legal Adviser, Kailasa High Court, Delaware, USA, with Bar Association Number 2339/2017, Poonamallee Court, Madras High Court, India.
Sekar accuses El Deber of a “deliberate disinformation campaign” and of allying itself with “the colonial powers that have historically subjugated and exploited
Indigenous peoples.”
On 1 April 2025, the National Association of Journalists of Bolivia (ANPB) condemned the intimidation attempts against El Deber and other Bolivian publications.
ANPB put out a statement explaining that the articles about Kailasa are based on documents, testimonies, and verified sources: “The demands for retractions, content removal, and public apologies from the fictitious Kailasa State constitute an unacceptable intimidation strategy.”
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