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Call to an International Meeting of Solidarity with Bolivia in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, from 23 to 25 October
by Open-Publishing - Saturday 4 October 2008Edito Meeting-Debates Movement South/Latin America
Those who Stand with Bolivia, Stand for all People, all the Time
1. The dignified inhabitants of this Abya Yala1 (American) continent have been struggling for centuries to re-establish SUMAK KAWSAY2 (Living Fully) that was seized from us by the invaders and subsequent colonizers. Throughout the ages they have murdered worthy leaders, usurped the wealth of the people and at the height of their greed, violated all human rights and those of Pachamama3 [Mother Earth], aided and abetted by members of the religious hierarchies who forged accords with the political and economic power in each historical period.
2. After 516 years, the neo-invaders and conquistadores seek to abort the libertarian rebirth in Latin America, and so the descendants of the murderers and usurpers return with their neoliberal policies, provoking new genocides and larcenies.
3. North American imperialism and its allies within the Latin American oligarchy are trying to halt the liberation processes in countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Nicaragua, among others; and so the oppressors shed their sheep’s clothing in order to fully display their predatory wolves’ fangs, ready to save their outdated political, social, economic and cultural system by any means necessary. Bolivia is now the target of the largest offensive by these sectors who believe themselves to be owners and lords of the world, intending to permanently appropriate for themselves the water, gas, oil, and land that belong to the Bolivian people.
4. In Bolivia, the groups that make up the so-called "Half-Moon,4" which are fascist civic-prefectural groups, descendants of those who served Hitler in his deathly project and following their defeat in the Second World War, fled to various countries, Bolivia among them, are unable to comprehend that the time has come for stolen property to be returned to its legitimate owners.
They cannot bear that in Bolivia, for the first time in Latin American history, with more than 53% of the vote, the people chose the Aymara brother, Evo Morales Ayma as their president; an heir to the rebellion of Tupac Katari, Bartolina Sisa, Tupak Amaru and Che Guevara; a man born of Pachamama and forged in the social insurgency lit by the millennial fire of the sacred COCA leaf; who called a new Constituent Assembly and won all battles cleanly and with dignity; who struggles for a true Agrarian Reform in a country where more than 80% of the population is impoverished, and who was ratified as President of the Republic by 67% in a referendum held August 10th; who nationalized strategic resources such as oil and natural gas; who implemented social measures in solidarity, in order to favor the least protected; who with a dignified attitude expelled the United States Ambassador in La Paz, Philip Goldberg, for conspiring against Bolivia’s sovereignty and refusing to respect the people’s right to self-determination; among other measures that demonstrate his unwavering commitment to serve the people who now ratify him as President.
5. These anti-democratic sectors, finding themselves defeated and in the middle of complete desperation to maintain their privileges, began a divisive plan of autonomy for Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni, Pando, and with the help of a terrorist group called the "juventud cruceñista" [Santa Cruz Youth Union] are implementing a new phase of their COUP PLAN, by the taking of public institutions, and in an effort to destabilize the legitimate government of Evo Morales, SLAUGHTERED AND KILLED scores of unarmed indigenous and peasants in Porvenir (Pando), the very same who through their struggle have been added to the thousands of heroes and martyrs who have offered their lives for the ultimate recovery of Sumak Kawsay on our continent.
6. Faced with these situations, in the name of Pachamama’s loving and rebellious cry for justice, of the dignified women and men who aspire to leave our sons and daughters a planet where we might live in universal brotherhood, through the exercise of the right to a dignified life, the right to self-determination for the people, and respect for inter-cultural and multinational coexistence; for a just and fraternal world, we call on all organizations of indigenous, Afro-Americans, peasants, workers, women, social movements, students, networks, intellectuals, personalities, friends of revolutionary causes, to the INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF SOLIDARITY WITH BOLIVIA, to be held on October 23 and 25 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, in order to unite our forces and hearts, and testify together to the world that BOLIVIA DOES NOT STRUGGLE ALONE.
That is why we join with President Evo Morales and endorse his words:
"Many times I will be wrong, who isn’t once in awhile? But in the struggle against neoliberal colonization, I will never be wrong, I will never betray them."
(Evo Morales, Umala, May 3rd, 2008)
Convocation
* Confederación de Pueblos de la Nacionalidad Kichwa del Ecuador (ECUARUNARI) - Ecuador [Confederation of People of Kichwa Nationality from Ecuador (ECUARUNARI) - Ecuador]
* Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador (CONAIE) - Ecuador [Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) - Ecuador]
* Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia (ONIC) - Colombia [National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) - Colombia]
* Consejo de Todas las Tierras - Chile [Council of All Lands - Chile]
* Movimiento Sin Tierra (MST) - Brasil [Landless Movement (MST) - Brazil]
* Vía Campesina - Brasil [Campesina Way - Brazil]
Santa Cruz, Bolivia, from October 23th to 25th, 2008
Tlaxcala Notes:
1) Abya Yala: This is the name that the autochthonous nations of America chose in 1992 to call their continent, instead of America, after Amerigo Vespucci. The expression "Abya Yala" comes from the language of the kunas, a native population of Panama and Colombia, and was what they called the continent before the arrival of Columbus. The two words mean "Fully mature land." The Aymaran Bolivian leader Takir Mamani proposed that all America’s native people use the name "Abya Yala" in their official declarations, since "accepting foreign names in our towns, cities and continents is equivalent to subjugating our identity to the will of our invaders and their heirs." Mamani’s proposition was favorably accepted by diverse sectors.
2) Sumak Kawsay: "Living fully" is an expression deriving from the ancestral concept of the indigenous of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, about a way of being in the world with respect for men and nature, whose introduction in the new Constitution is presently being debated in Ecuador, to indicate a rupture with capitalistic concepts of society, growth and development.
3) Pachamama: The mother earth of the Tiwanaku civilization (5th through 11th century) and, afterward, of the Inca civilization, to which the Quechua and Aymara continue to make offerings (challa or pago) every August 1st. It is associated with fertility, as a generous woman and mother who cares for and feeds her children. The term comes from the Quechua words pasha, which also means "land" and "time," and mama, "mother."
4) Media Luna: Term which designates the 4 eastern departments of Bolivia, whose prefects have headed the "secessionist" subversion against the central government.
For support and more information:
– agenciaplurinacional@yahoo.com - -todosconbolivia@yahoo.es