Tuesday 23 September
2008, San José, Costa
Rica
LATIN AMERICA:
Native Groups Express
Solidarity with Bolivian
Leader
By Kintto Lucas
QUITO (IPS) -
Indigenous organisations
from several countries
in Latin America
declared their
solidarity with Bolivian
President Evo Morales
with respect to the
crisis in his country,
and are preparing a
major gathering in La
Paz, Bolivia within the
next few weeks.
Humberto Cholango, the
head of Ecuarunari,
which groups Quechua
communities from
Ecuador’s highlands
region, warned that an
attempted coup against
Morales could trigger a
generalised uprising by
indigenous people
throughout the Andean
region.
"The indigenous movement
in Ecuador and other
countries is on the
alert to any attempt to
overthrow our brother
Evo (Bolivia’s
first-ever indigenous
president) by economic
power groups backed by
the government of the
United States," Cholango
told IPS.
"The U.S. government has
always meddled in the
affairs of the countries
of Latin America, and
lately has supported
attempts to organise
coups in Venezuela and
Bolivia," said the
native leader.
Ecuarunari, the biggest
association within the
powerful Ecuadorean
Confederation of
Indigenous Nationalities
(CONAIE), also forms
part of the Unidad por
el Sí y el Cambio, a
coalition of urban and
rural social
organisations that are
calling on voters to
approve the new
constitution in the
Sept. 28 referendum, but
are independent from and
critical of the
government of
left-leaning President
Rafael Correa.
Unidad por el Sí y el
Cambio was the first
organisation to publicly
declare its solidarity
with Bolivia, urging
Correa on Sept. 11 to
offer his unconditional
support to the Morales
administration.
The manifesto signed by
more than 100 social
organisations and dozens
of personalities warned
that in Bolivia there
are "attempts by
economic power groups to
destabilise the
democratic government,
with the support of the
U.S. ambassador, and by
resorting to armed
violence against the
civilian population."
It added that the
Bolivian government and
people are engaged in a
determined effort to
"build a country based
on equality and fully
integrated with the rest
of Latin America."
On Sept. 11, between 15
and 30 indigenous
supporters of Morales
were killed and dozens
injured in what has been
dubbed the "Porvenir
massacre", for the town
near the spot where it
occurred in Bolivia’s
northern Amazon jungle
province of Pando.
The survivors described
the incident as an
"ambush" by the
opposition, and video
footage shows people
desperately swimming
across a river to
escape, under gunfire.
Several dozen people who
went missing after the
incident are still being
sought in the
surrounding bush and
rivers by the security
forces and local
families.
The rightwing governor
of Pando, Leopoldo
Fernández, is under
arrest and facing trial
for inciting violence.
The incident was the
bloodiest in over a week
of often violent
protests by the
rightwing opposition in
Bolivia’s relatively
wealthy eastern
provinces.
On Sept. 12, a number of
indigenous organisations
and social movements
created the Bolivia
Solidarity Committee.
"We will not allow the
violence, racism and
xenophobia against
indigenous people and
poor peasant farmers to
take root in the region,
as occurred on Thursday
(Sept. 11) in the
Bolivian department
(province) of Pando,"
said Cholango.
"We indigenous people
are carrying forward
peaceful changes, in
democracy. We don't want
violence, but if there
is provocation, we can
respond, as we have
shown before," said
Cholango, who is also a
leader of the Andean
Coordinator of
Indigenous Organisations
(CAOI), which brings
together groups from
Argentina, Bolivia,
Chile, Colombia, Ecuador
and Peru.
The indigenous leader
said that "a great
global chain of
solidarity with Bolivia"
is being created by
indigenous and social
organisations as well as
intellectuals throughout
South America, which
will culminate in a
major demonstration in
La Paz.
"Our commitment is to
defend any sister nation
attacked by local elites
and the U.S. empire,"
said the activist. "All
of us who want change in
Abya Yala (‘the
Americas’ in the Kuna
language) are with
Bolivia."
Indigenous Mexican
immigrants in the United
States, organised in the
Embassy of Indigenous
Peoples, also expressed
support for Morales.
"The era of
decolonisation has
arrived on our continent
Abya Yala, which is now
experiencing the birth
pangs of a new reality
for all of our
societies," said a
statement issued by the
organisation.
"The shout heard
throughout the continent
is one of liberation, in
keeping with the promise
expressed by the United
Nations Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples," added the
Embassy of Indigenous
Peoples, based in the
U.S. state of Arizona.
"As Nations of
Indigenous Peoples of
North Abya Yala, the
members of the
Confederacy of the Eagle
and the Condor are today
in solidarity with our
brothers of Tawantinsuyo
(the Quechua name for
the Inca empire) and the
leadership of President
Evo Morales of Bolivia,"
they said.
They also condemned "the
acts of violence
perpetrated by
paramilitaries" in
Bolivia and "legal
meddling and
manipulation" by the
United States "which led
to the direct
consequence that the
ambassador in Bolivia
was named persona non
grata."
Indigenous organisations
from Guatemala,
Colombia, Peru, Chile,
Panama and Venezuela
also expressed their
solidarity with the
Bolivian government.
Cecilia Flores,
president of the
National Aymara Council
of Chile, said in a
statement that "in the
face of the serious
incidents of violence
that have occurred in
our sister republic of
Bolivia, especially in
the departments of
Pando, Beni, Tarija and
Santa Cruz, we, as an
indigenous movement,
offer our solidarity and
support to the Bolivian
people as a whole, and
especially to indigenous
organisations."
She also expressed
"unconditional support
to the constitutional
government of President
Evo Morales, a
democratic government
that was ratified by
more than 60 percent of
its people -- an example
for the nations of Abya
Yala and a hope for the
peoples of the
Americas."
She was referring to the
Aug. 10 recall
referendum in which 67
percent of voters backed
Morales.
In response to the
crisis in Bolivia, the
recently created South
American Union of
Nations (UNASUR) held an
emergency summit in
Chile on Sept. 15, and
the leaders of the
region declared their
"fullest and most
decisive support for the
constitutional
government of President
Evo Morales."
They also said they
"vigorously reject and
will not grant
recognition to any
situation that implies a
civil coup or the
rupture of the
institutional order, or
that will undermine the
territorial integrity of
the republic of
Bolivia."
In addition, the
presidents condemned
"the massacre in the
department of Pando" and
backed the call issued
by the Bolivian
government for the
creation of a UNASUR
commission to carry out
an impartial
investigation to clarify
the incident and set
forth recommendations to
ensure that those
responsible would be
held accountable. |
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