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.