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II CONTINENTAL SUMMIT OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
AND NATIONALITIES OF ABYA YALA
Kito Declaration
From the Heart of the World, in the place of the vertical sun, as a follow
up to the I Summit held in Teotihuacán, Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities
of Abya Yala have summoned ourselves on the July 25, 2004, to meet in
the II Continental Summit organized by the Confederation of Indigenous
Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), the Organization of Quichua Nationalities
of Ecuador (ECUARUNARI) and the Coordinating Body for the Indigenous Organizations
of the Amazon Basin (COICA). With participants from 64 Indigenous Peoples
and Nationalities, we express our voice.
We are aboriginal peoples from Abya Yala. Our ancestors, our grandparents
taught us how to love and revere our bountiful Mother Earth (Pacha
Mama) and how to live in harmony and freedom with the natural and
spiritual beings that inhabit Her. Our political, economic, social and
cultural institutions are a heritage from our ancestors and form the foundations
to build our future.
The valleys and pampas, the forests and deserts, the mountains and snow
reservoirs, the seas and the rivers, the eagle and the condor, the quetzal
and the hummingbird, the puma and the jaguar, have been witnesses of our
collective socio-political systems based on human and environmental sustainability.
Colonizers and national states have robbed us of our ancestral territories;
they divided us in order to control us politically and to push us to inhospitable
places. The territories we inhabit today are noted for the conservation
of biodiversity and the existence of natural resources. Multinational
corporations desire these resources, and this provides a new reason for
which we suffer further despoliation.
National governments, following the guidelines emanating from the IMF,
WB and IDB, are devastating us for the payment of the external debt and
are disregarding our collective rights to our land, changing legislation
to allow privatization, corporative alliances, and individual appropriation.
We denounce that national governments in the Americas are increasingly
using violent repression, and this is expressed in: the violation of our
human rights and our rights as Peoples; the criminalization of our actions
for the defense of life and religious ceremonies, paramilitarization,
removal from our lands, military occupation, the corruption of leaders
and local authorities; promotion of projects to "compensate"
the damage done by transnational corporations; the so-called equitable
benefit-sharing; and forced migration. They promote division, confrontation
and armed conflict among the communities to impose their excluding, racist,
and oppressive policies.
We firmly oppose the development of plans such us the South American Regional
Plan for Infrastructure Integration (IIRSA); Plan Puebla Panama; Plan
Patriota; Plan Colombia; Plan Dignidad; Plan Andino, and the establishment
of military bases. We also oppose the adoption of the FTAA and FTAs, which
are fostered by the WTO for the benefit of the looter countries of the
world. They only intend to create infrastructures to facilitate the circulation
of their goods, to exploit natural resources on our lands and territories,
and to protect transnational corporations. We consider them invasion plans
for plundering, destruction and death.
We reject the implementation of territorial organization plans, the exploitation
of minerals and hydrocarbons, the establishment of natural protected areas
and forest plantations, the payment for environmental services, the privatization
of water and air, fumigations, the granting of patents on natural and
cultural resources, and the use of transgenic seeds in our territories
which only intend to guarantee the reproduction of large transnational
capital to detriment of our lives.
We denounce that the nation states of the Americas have customarily violated
national and international legal instruments, thus ignoring our collective
rights. The ILO Convention 169 is one of those instruments, and we demand
its immediate ratification on the part of all the countries in America
and in the rest of the world.
We protest a lack of will in the OAS to modify the American Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous "Populations," which should be done
with the participation and decision making of Indigenous peoples.
We object to the United Nations because it proclaimed an empty Decade
of the Indigenous Populations, as the necessary steps have not been taken
to adopt a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Facing the situation of exploitation of our Peoples:
We resolve
To create a space for the permanent linkages and exchanges where we can share
experiences and proposals, so that our peoples and nationalities can confront
together the neoliberal globalization policies.
To develop a common agenda of actions and mobilizations to show our rejection
of the exclusionary model and to act together and in coordination under the institutions
in which we decide to participate.
To establish alliances with other civil society sectors, particular other social
movements, which help allow us to face the policies which oppress us.
To demand unconditional freedom for Indigenous leaders and authorities unfairly
imprisoned for defending their land and exercising their autonomy, and the redress
for the moral damage done to Indigenous peoples and nationalities by murder committed
against their people, as well as compensations to the families of those killed.
To demand from national states the unconditional repatriation of genetic and natural
resources which have been legally or illegally extracted from our lands and territories;
the restitution of lands; the free transit of Indigenous persons within their
territories when these territories are transboundary; the compensation to peoples
affected by any kind of impacts and exploitation, and the restoration of their
lands and territories to their original conditions; and the full respect for our
Indigenous peoples and nationalities' territories, particularly the territories
of uncontacted or voluntary isolated peoples.
To demand that governments resolve any conflicts arising from the exploitation
of natural resources and from the lack of guarantees on our territories and lives
when state and corporate policies are applied, as in the cases of Sarayacu, Raposa
Serra do Sol, Plan Colombia, Pilcomayo River, Blue Mountains, Camisea, the gas
issue in Bolivia, and Margarita, Ashánica.
To participate in international fora such as the World Social Forum and the Americas
Forum with common proposals reflecting the position of the Indigenous movement.
To express our solidarity with the CONAIE that is facing a strong attack from
the Ecuadorian government of Colonel Gutiérrez that is trying to undermine its
struggle to build a plurinational state.
To express our solidarity with the Venezuelan people and President Hugo Chávez
who have defended their national sovereignty in the face of a strong push from
the United States government, and we call on them to take action against the referendum
scheduled for August 15, 2004.
To express our solidarity with the Cuban people for its continuing anti-imperialist
struggle.
We declare:
That the territories we inhabit are ours due to time, history and right, and
so they are inalienable, imprescriptible and inembargable.
That we have our own models which guarantee the reproduction of our Peoples and
Nationalities in harmony with nature, and are rooted in our ancestral cultural
heritage.
That we do not require legal recognition to create autonomous spaces which may
allow us to exercise our peoples' and nationalities' self-determination.
Translated by ALMACIGA.
Mirian Masaquiza
http://groups.msn.com/salasaca-runakuna
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Indigenous Environmental Network
P.O. Box 485
Bemidji, Minnesota 56619-0485 USA
Phone (218) 751-4967
Fax (218) 751-0561
email: ien@igc.org
Internet Web Site: http://www.ienearth.org
"A network of Indigenous Peoples empowering Indigenous Nations
and communities towards sustainable livelihoods, demanding environmental
justice and maintaining the Sacred Fire of our traditions."
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