Qollauyo/Bolivia in the heart and struggle of the Indigenous peoples of Abya Yala/America!

CAOI-Coordinadora Andina de Organizaciones Indígenas (Andean Coalition of Indigenous Organisations). La Paz, January 17, 2008

The originario authorities, indigenous organisations, mallkus and leaders of the Aymara, Quechua, Poqra, Mapuche, Kichwa, Pemón, Miskitu, Guaraní, Ayoreo, Chiquitano and other First Nations, part of the more than 400 societies and cultures that have existed since before the states of Abya Yala, and present at the international workshop convoked by the Andean Coordinator of Indigenous Organisations (CAOI) “Indigenous Peoples, Constitution and Plurinational States”, which met during the days 15, 16 and 17 of January 2008 in the city of La Paz, Bolivia:

AFFIRM that we participated in this workshop, which occurred within a South American context that is seeing political structural changes occur as a result of the moves by Indigenous Peoples to go from resistance to the construction of power; demanding and exercising political structural changes in the old nation-states, each time more privatised and denationalised; and opening up new democratic and participatory spaces of social equity in order to “live the good life”/ Sumaq Kawsay/ Sumaq Tamaña, and overcome neoliberal developmentalism.

DENOUNCE that in a number of our territories and lands throughout Abya Yala, we are having to confront permanent conflicts, due to territorial invasion, persecution by judges and polices and a growing criminalisation of our rights and movements; a product of the imposition of policies that favour the looting by transnational companies, with the support of many false democrats.

VERIFY that in Bolivia, the indigenous movement and society excluded by Eurocentric (neo-colonial) policies have been fighting to achieve changes and that due to the fascism of the right that impedes, blocks, sabotages and manipulates via the media in order to stop the changes, represented in by the broad majority vote for brother president Evo Morales, becoming a reality. What the right has lost in a decade of elections they pretend to recuperate through open boycott; something which must not remain unpunished.

As a result, we agree to, proclaiming it to Abya Yala and the world:

RATIFY our firm decision, as Indigenous Peoples who are make up Abya Yala, to reconstruct our Peoples, fighting for inclusion and the construction of Plurinacional Status and Intercultural Societies; with new governments that recognise our territories and collective rights and implement public policies, knowledge and intercultural democracies; having as a principal for these societies Unity in Diversity; and the construction of alternative societies on the basis of the proposals from Indigenous Peoples.

PERSIST in the idea that, as indigenous peoples, we will continue to dialogue, proposing internal territorial restructuring in which the ancestral traditions of our people are taken into consideration, which is far removed from all types of violent confrontation such as has been occurring in some countries, where politicians stoke up fear about the incorporation of state indigenous policies and have been militarising regions and displacing peoples, for the sole purpose of facilitate looting and neoliberal economic policies.

SOLIDARIZE with the struggle of the Mapuche People, in particular the brothers who have been arrested, persecuted and are on hunger strike in defence of their survival as Peoples and their means of living, such as their territories, forests, mountains and seas; we demand the cessation of repression against the Mapuche People, which only benefits the interests and privileges of power and which continues to be an open wound in Chilean society.

REITERATE that there will be no peace or development whilst there is exclusion and poverty produced by governments and monolithic and vertical policies. As Peoples we call for a constant mobilisation to wipe out all forms of exploitation, racism and confrontation by the states or transnational interests.

REJECT the late intent by the oligarchy of the denominated “half moon” to reopen and reconsider the text of the new Political Constitution of Bolivia - which has already been approved - with the objective of maintaining their domination over lands and natural resources in order to privilege a few and exclude the broad national majorities.

ACCOMPANY the entire process of change in Bolivia, where, with the active participation of the indigenous movement, they have approved a new Carta Magna that recognises rights for all. We ask that human rights organisations and the UN investigate the racial violence perpetrated by oligarchic groups in the denominated “half moon”. It is inconceivable that at the same historic moment, a historic declaration is approved in the UN and yet it remains mute in front of this unpunished racist fascism.

BACK the National Constituent Assembly of Ecuador in order to make possible the creation of a Plurinational State with the participation of the Indigenous Nationalities and Peoples, with the aim of constructing a solidarity-based, reciprocal and egalitarian country that guarantees institutional and political stability in the medium and long term.

REAFFIRM that, in support for the process of constitutional change in Bolivia, we will deepen and broaden our mobilisations in order to back the approved constitution, and so that the same advances and rights can also be incorporated into the next Ecuadorian Constitution.

CALL on our peoples and allied indigenous and social movements of the world, in solidarity with the Bolivian people and in order to back their process, to declare ourselves in alert and permanent solidarity in front of any threat against Bolivia by the same transnational powers of always.

CALL for participation in the Social Summit of the Peoples to be held in Lima, in May 2008, where, with the mobilisation of the indigenous peoples and social movements of the Andean countries and solidarity activists from Europe, we will develop our alternative proposals to the Association Agreement (FTA, Free Trade Agreement) between the European Union and the Community of Andean Nations (CAN). After 516 years, old Europe pretends to re-impose its chains of neocolonialisation; we will respond together with Túpac Amaru, Micaela Bastidas, Tùpac Katari, Bartolina Sisa and the martyrs of the struggle of the Mapuche, the indigenous people of Bolivia and Abya Yala, to say they never killed our roots and that we are in the time of the new Pachakutik: of the decolonialisation of power, states and knowledge in the Abya Yala.