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LATIN
AMERICA:
Indigenous
Leaders Say World Bank Should
Take Its Own Advice
Diego
Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, (IPS) - The
World Bank should follow its own
advice and modify its policies
and prescriptions for Latin
America, indigenous leaders told
IPS.
They were referring to a new
report by the international
lending institution, which
points out that despite an
increasingly active political
role played by indigenous
communities, there has been
little change in the extreme
poverty and marginalisation in
which a majority of Latin
America's indigenous people are
steeped.
With this report, ”the World
Bank is trying to whitewash its
image, but we all know it is
partly to blame for many of our
problems, and for numerous human
rights violations,” said Rafael
González, spokesman for the
Committee for Campesino Unity in
Guatemala, a country where
indigenous people make up a
majority of the population.
The study, ”Indigenous Peoples,
Poverty and Human Development in
Latin America: 1994-2004”,
released Wednesday, focuses on
the five countries in the region
with the largest indigenous
populations: Bolivia, Ecuador,
Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru.
Overall, indigenous people
account for around 10 percent of
the population of Latin America.
The report states that the
political influence of
indigenous communities, in terms
of indigenous political parties
and elected representatives,
constitutional provisions for
indigenous people or health and
education policies specifically
tailored to the indigenous
population, ”has grown
remarkably in the last 15
years.”
But it underlines that their
income levels as well as human
development indicators ”have
consistently lagged behind those
of the rest of the population.”
In the five countries studied,
to be born indigenous virtually
amounts to being condemned to
poverty, the report notes.
Indigenous lawmaker Ricardo Díaz
from Bolivia told IPS that the
study is ”absolutely credible”
and should be taken note of by
the World Bank itself and by
governments in the region.
”But I highly doubt that they
will listen to themselves,
because it is clear that the
Bank continues pressuring
governments to privatise, that
it is still under Washington's
thumb, and that it maintains
harsh policies against
indigenous people,” said Díaz, a
representative of the Movement
Towards Socialism (MAS),
Bolivia's strongest opposition
party, which is led by
indigenous legislator Evo
Morales.
Critics of World Bank
investments in timber, mining,
and extractive industries say
the projects damage the way of
life of many indigenous
communities.
Roads constructed for timber and
oil companies, cattle ranchers
and miners, and funded by
international financial
institutions like the World Bank
have opened up vast areas for
outsiders to exploit and have
made possible the destruction of
millions of hectares of
rainforest and other areas
traditionally inhabited by
indigenous people, say
activists.
For example, they say indigenous
people are threatened by the
Camisea Natural Gas Project,
currently under construction in
the Peruvian Amazon and aimed at
gaining access to natural gas
and liquid petroleum gas (LPG).
With respect to political
influence, González said in an
interview with IPS that ”It's
true that indigenous people have
gained political power, but not
as much as we could or should
have.”
”The real power remains in the
hands of the traditional
politicians and the economic
elites, which have exploited,
killed and marginalised
indigenous people,” added the
activist.
Since 1994, indigenous movements
have brought down governments in
Bolivia and Ecuador, and the
poorly-armed indigenous
Zapatista National Liberation
Army (EZLN) has gained a strong
foothold in the impoverished
southern Mexican state of
Chiapas.
Indigenous people have also had
a strong influence as
legislators, mayors, ministers,
governors and even
vice-presidents, as in the case
of Aymara Indian Víctor Hugo
Cárdenas, vice-president of
Bolivia from 1993 to 1997.
According to studies by the
Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean (ECLAC),
there are between 33 and 40
million indigenous people in
Latin America, belonging to
around 400 different ethnic
groups, each of which has its
own language, social
organisation, cosmovision,
economic system, and production
model adapted to a specific
ecosystem.
The 500th anniversary of
Christopher Columbus's arrival
to the Americas in 1492 prompted
the international community to
put a special focus on
indigenous people.
Guatemalan indigenous activist
Rigoberta Menchú was granted the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, and
the United Nations declared the
International Decade for the
World's Indigenous Peoples
(1995-2004).
But last year, Menchú told IPS
that she was disappointed with
what the International Decade
had achieved.
In Bolivia and Guatemala, where
more than half of the population
lives below the poverty line, at
least 75 percent of indigenous
people live in poverty, says the
World Bank report.
In the case of Ecuador, 96
percent of the largely
indigenous rural population is
poor, while in Mexico, the
extreme poverty rate is 4.5
percent higher in indigenous
municipalities than in
non-indigenous areas.
And in Peru, nearly half of all
poor households are indigenous.
”If we are not taken into
consideration, there are really
going to be a lot of problems in
the future, and there could even
be violence,” warned Díaz, whose
leftist party, the MAS, is
fighting hard against foreign
oil companies' control over
Bolivia's rich natural gas
resources.
He added: ”In Bolivia,
indigenous people comprise 60
percent of the population, but
we only hold 27 of the 130 seats
in Congress. Something's not
working, wouldn't you say?”
The World Bank study would seem
to back him up.
”The portion of national
legislatures that is indigenous,
in every country, remains far
below the portion (of the
population) that is indigenous,
implying that indigenous people
remain underrepresented in
national lawmaking bodies,” says
the report.
It adds that ”International
organisations and national
governments have passed
progressive policies and
important constitutional
resolutions for indigenous
peoples, but the rights
guaranteed in those documents
are often unrealised.”
The World Bank recommends
stronger policies in favour of
indigenous peoples, to help pull
them out of poverty and boost
their political representation.
But while González and Díaz both
hoped the document would have
some effect on World Bank
policies and strategies, they
said they weren't holding their
breath.
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