Indigenous peoples will fight to turn Latin American states into plurinational states. Representatives of different indigenous peoples from 10 countries of Abya Yala (America) took on this commitment at the “Indigenous Peoples, Constitution and Plurinational States” seminar, held in La Paz, Bolivia, between January 15 and 17. Between 18 and 19, they discussed the impacts posed by the initiative for South American Regional Infrastructure Integration (IIRSA).

 

In Latin America, a Nation-State is considered a monolithic state, representing the people as a whole. In the opinion of indigenous peoples, these states must be redesigned in order to become more intercultural and plurinational states. At the seminar, indigenous peoples concluded that, based on the experience of the Bolivian Constituent and on other social struggles, a plurinational State is not a distant reality in the continent, but something that is actually being established.

 

In this connection, the participants demonstrated their support to the constituent process that has been taking place in Ecuador in a final document prepared in the seminar, hoping that the country is also considered as a plurinational state – as happened in Bolivia.

 

At the event, some characteristics of what would be a Plurinacional State were discussed; they are: communitarian economy, acknowledgement of the traditional medicine and justice, bilingual education, political organization of their own, territorial reorganization, amongst other.

 

Peruvian indigenous leader, Miguel Palacin, stressed that indigenous peoples want to play a “political and social role, and not just to be seen as adornments or as a folklore for democracy.” Palacin is the coordinator of the Andean Coordinating of Indigenous Organizations (COIA), which was the organization that held the seminar.

 

South American integration

 

Between January 18 and 19, COIA, together with the Center for Studies Applied to the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CEADESC), held the “IIRSA and Indigenous Peoples” seminar.

 

The main topic discussed during the event was the kind of development expected in South America. Indigenous peoples who attended it stressed that they do not want a model that will destroy and withdraw natural resources from their lands, but rather a model based on the integration of indigenous peoples.  Thereunto, indigenous communities must be better informed on large projects that are being developed in order to be consulted on whether these projects can be carried out or not.

 

The IIRSA is a project developed by 12 countries which includes 507 transport, electricity and telecommunication infrastructure projects, with the aim of increasing the movement of goods inside the continent and also for export purposes. Many of these projects pose threats for indigenous lands.

 

Brazil is considered as one of the main interested and beneficiaries countries of the IIRSA. Brazil’s performance and the line of action of different enterprises headquartered in the country were remembered with concern in a final letter prepared in the seminar.

 

The seminars were attended by representatives from the Aymara, Quéchua, Poqra, Mapuche, Kichwa, Pemón, Miskitu, Guarani, Ayoreo and Chiquitano peoples. There was no indigenous representative from Brazil, but a representative of the Indianist Missionary Council (Cimi) attended the seminars.

 

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A young female from the Mapuche people who is arrested in Chile has been fasting for three and a half months

 

In the past week, there was an increase in the international support to Patrícia Troncoso, who is a young female from the Mapuche people who has been fasting for three and a half months in protest against the political persecution that she and other persons from the Mapuche people has been suffering in Chile. On January 15, she was hospitalized without her family being informed about it. She is facing risk of death.

 

On January 21, the International Amnesty and the Mothers from the May Square Association (Argentina) sent some communications asking for the Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, to intervene in order to solve this issue. Since October 10 last year, Patrícia does not ingest any food. Her family wanted her to be transferred to a hospital in Santiago, capital of the country, where she could receive a better treatment, but the Chilean Police transferred her to a hospital located in Chillan.

 

Patrícia was sentenced for 10 years in prison according to the provisions of an Antiterrorist Law that was drafted during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). She was accused of setting on fire a property belonging to the Minenco forest enterprise located in the municipality of Ercilla in December 2001. The Mapuche leader has already spent five years in prison, and now she is requesting, at least, the right to parole and to visit her relatives on Sundays.

 

She has been claiming for the liberty of the Mapuche people who were arrested for political reasons and were convicted based on the provisions of the antiterrorism law. She has also been asking for the removal of military forces from the “La Araucária” zone.

 

In 2006, Patrícia and three other people from the Mapuche people who are arrested abstained from eating for 63 days in protest against the prevalence of the antiterrorism law in the country.

(relying on information provided by international agencies)

 

Brasília, January 24, 2008.

Cimi – Indianist Missionary Council

www.cimi.org.br