Solidarity with indigenous peoples

Letter to Rafael Correa

Tlahtokan NAHUACALLI

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President Rafael Correa
Republic of Ecuador

Dear Mr. President,

Greetings. Recent events in the territories of the Confederation of the Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (CONFENAIE) have brought deep concern and alarm to the Nations of the Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala [the Americas] as we become informed of the policies and actions of your government in terms of recognition, respect, and protection of the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples within the plurinational state of Ecuador.

As members of the human family, we all mourn the unnecessary loss of life that is the common history of centuries of continental conflict which has characterized the policies of colonization by the royal crowns of Europe initially, and presently their subsequent political heirs in the form of the American Republics of the OAS system. This ongoing atrocity being committed against Humanity and the Indigenous Peoples must be brought to a speedy end immediately.

Specifically, the adoption on September the 13^th 2007 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples demands that a new standard of accountability be implemented, in particular with regard to recognition of territorial rights of the Indigenous Peoples and our Confederations of Nations, Pueblos and Nationalities.

In our hemisphere of Abya Yala [the Americas], the illegal and antiquated conceptual framework that attempts to justify the jurisdiction of the National State over the preceding and superceding natural territorial rights and ecology (Pachamama) of Indigenous Peoples, as codified in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, must now be denounced as an aberration of the Divine Right of States, a bastard intellectual relic derivative of the long abandoned concept of the Divine Right of Kings of feudal European societies.

The time is now, the place is the great expanse of the Amazonian Watershed which underlies the Ecuadorian Amazon, where we must turn the tide of history and emerge by the power of our common humanity from the centuries of genocide and terracide of colonization. As Nican Tlacah Cemanahuac, Indigenous Peoples of the Mother Earth, we engage with the entirety of Human Society in this cause, knowing that our struggle in not only the struggle for Self Determination of our Indigenous Peoples, but is the defining battle of the global Climate Crisis.

In this context, and in good will, we extend our invitation to your government to join with the Indigenous Peoples of the planet to address the issue of human societies relationship with the waters of the world within the much needed context of shared responsibilities in ecological and spiritual terms. We cannot accept the privatization of the waters of Mother Earth and expect to provide a sustainable way of life for our future generations. We call upon you as President of Ecuador to permanently remove any threat of privatization and commodification of the waters of the Amazon basin as an immediate first step towards peaceful relations with the Confederations of the Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador, and as example of a national policy of global ecological responsibility.

We further support the demand of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador and other popular elements of the pluri-national state of Ecuador who call for an immediate embargo on the invasion of the extractive mining industry in Indigenous Territories of Ecuador. We echo the findings of the official audit by the Commission of Integral Audit of Public Credit, which denounced the World Bank financed mining projects in Ecuador as “illegitimate’ and “illegal”. (www.auditoriadeuda.org.ec)

Finally, we assert our solidarity with the just cause of the Confederation of the Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), and the regional confederation of the Confederation of Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (CONFENIAE), in anticipation of your personal attendance at the talks initiating dialogue now set for Union Base, Pastaza at the headquarters of CONFENAIE.

Sincerely,

Tupac Enrique Acosta, Yaotachcauh
Tlahtokan Nahuacalli
TONATIERRA

NAHUACALLI
Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples, Phoenix, Arizona

October 2, 2009

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