According to a survey conducted by the Inter-American Development Bank, only 20% of households were fluent in their own language, and higher fluency was related to longer distance from the capital.

[4] Caribs have been historically viewed as a warrior people, and while there is inter-tribal rivalry, much of what remains today was instigated during European colonization.

[5] A lack of writing system at the time of European contact has contributed to a wide array of spellings of group names; an example was the Warao, who had nearly 30 different variants according to early documents.

[8] Titling is a key current issue for indigenous communities,[9] with encroachment on traditional lands for mining, logging, or other commercial uses.

Court cases have presented problems with economic activity performed in adjacent lands affecting Amerindian communities, such as pollution of water supplies.