It
is a source of great satisfaction to be here to represent
my people, my homeland, Bolivia, and especially the
indigenous movement. After more than 500 years of
contempt and hatred for peoples once considered
savages and animals — peoples who in some regions
were condemned to extermination — we have come to
right a historical wrong, to right the wrongs of 500
years, thanks to today’s awareness and the uprising and
struggle for the rights of peoples.
During the period of the Republic, when we were
also discriminated against and marginalized, the
struggle of peoples for life and humanity was never
taken into account. Over the past 20 years, through the
application of an economic model, neo-liberalism, the
plundering of our natural resources and the
privatization of basic services continued. We are
convinced that privatizing basic services is the best
way to violate human rights.
Those minor considerations require us — and
require me personally — to speak the truth here about
the lives of families. I come to express this feeling for
the humanity of peoples, of my people; I come to
express the suffering caused by marginalization and
exclusion; and, above all, I come to express the anti-
colonial thoughts of peoples who are fighting for
equality and justice.
In my country, we are beginning to seek profound
democratic and peaceful change. We are in the process
of identifying ways to recreate Bolivia in order to unite
Bolivians; to recreate Bolivia in order to bring all the
sectors and regions of my country closer together; to
recreate Bolivia, but not to take revenge against
anyone, although we have been subjected to
discrimination; and, in particular, to recreate Bolivia to
put an end to this contempt, this hatred for peoples. I
say this because my mother told me that when she
would go to the city, she did not have the right to walk
in the main squares of my country’s cities; as recently
as 30 or 40 years ago, she did not have the right to
walk on the pavement.
Fortunately, however, we have decided to move
beyond that social, labour and communal struggle to a
new electoral struggle so that we ourselves can resolve
social, economic and structural problems. We are
casting our lot with the reform-minded Constituent
Assembly. I would like the United Nations to
participate in this process of peaceful and democratic
change, which is the best thing that we could do for our
abandoned and marginalized families.
Surely, many other countries have the same
problems as my country, a nation with so much wealth
but also so much poverty. Historically, our natural
resources were stolen, plundered, sold off and
delivered to transnational corporations by neo-liberal
Governments. The time has come for those in the
vanguard of the struggle of peoples for power and
territory to recover those natural resources for the
Bolivian State so that they can be under the people’s
control.
When we talk about recovering our natural
resources, they tell us, in this dirty campaign of
accusations, that the Government of Evo Morales is not
going to respect private property. I want to tell them
that my Government will respect private property. It is
true that we need investment; we need partners — not
bosses, not owners of our natural resources. We
understand perfectly well that an underdeveloped
country needs investment.
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I would like to clear up for everyone a number of
concerns and false accusations. If the Bolivian State
exercises its property rights over natural resources such
as natural gas, hydrocarbons and petroleum, we will
not expel anyone or confiscate anything. Investors will
be respected; indeed, they will be guaranteed a return
on their investment and the right to make a profit. But
they will not make fat profits as they did before, and
then fail to resolve my country’s social problems.
I have not come to tell anyone how to govern. I
have not come to threaten a country or to start to set
conditions for a country. I wish only to ask that, as
international organizations, as States with a spirit of
solidarity, as nations with principles of reciprocity and
brotherhood, all players participate in the process of
moving towards democracy. We are very concerned
that there be an awareness, in international forums such
as the United Nations, of the need to work to bring
about peaceful change.
All are aware, in North America in particular as
well as in Europe, that many Bolivians are leaving
their country to find work. It used to be Europeans who
invaded Latin America, and especially Bolivia. Now,
however, it seems that the situation has changed. It is
the Latin Americans and the Bolivians who are
invading Europe, as they did previously the United
States. Why? Because, at the present time, there are no
jobs. What is needed is fair trade, trade by peoples for
peoples, trade that resolves employment problems.
Of course, trade by corporations is important, but
trade by small producers is even more important. For
the benefit of these cooperatives, these associations
and these collectives, their products — not my brothers
and sisters — are the ones that should go to Europe.
That is what we wish to see. Greater awareness on the
part of the international community is required if we
wish to resolve the problem of migration.
Our brothers and sisters will not go take over
thousands of hectares, as others did when they came to
Latin America. They came to take our wealth and our
resources. It is important to note that, even in my
country, this so-called free trade is affecting major
agribusiness concerns. As a consequence of the free
trade agreement that Colombia signed with the United
States, soy farmers, Bolivians, and even Colombian
agribusiness concerns have lost market share. I am
convinced that it is important to import what we do not
produce and export what we do produce. That would
resolve economic problems and the problem of
unemployment.
I should like to take this opportunity to speak of
another historical injustice: the criminalization of the
coca leaf. This coca leaf is green, not white, like
cocaine. The coca leaf is symbolic of Andean culture,
of the Andean environment and of the hopes of
peoples. It is not acceptable that the coca leaf be legal
for Coca-Cola and illegal for medicinal consumption
not only in our country but throughout the world.
The United Nations should be aware that
scientific studies have been carried out in American
and European universities that have shown that the
coca leaf has no negative effects on human health. I am
very sorry that because some have a drug habit, the
coca leaf has become illegal. We are aware of that.
That is why, as coca leaf producers, we have stated that
there will not be unfettered coca leaf production, but
neither will there be zero production. Conditionality-
based policies implemented in the past focused on zero
coca-leaf production. But zero coca-leaf production is
equivalent to zero Quechuas, zero Aymarás, zero
Mojeños, zero Chiquitanos. All of that ended with
another Government. We are an underdeveloped
country with economic problems resulting from the
pillage of our natural resources. We are here today to
begin to regain our dignity and the dignity of our
country.
In that context, I wish to say that the best
contribution to combating drug trafficking has been
through an agreed, voluntary reduction, with no deaths
or injuries. I was pleased to hear that the United
Nations report recognizes the honest and responsible
effort that has been made to combat drug trafficking.
Drug seizures have increased 300 per cent. However,
yesterday I heard the United States Government state
that it would not accept coca cultivation and that it was
imposing conditions on us so that we would change our
system.
I want to say, with all due respect for the United
States Government, that we are not going to change
anything. We do not need blackmail or threats. The so-
called certifications or de-certifications used in the
combat against drug trafficking are simply an
instrument for the recolonization or colonization of
Andean countries. We will not accept or allow this.
We want, and need, an alliance to combat drug
trafficking, but it must be genuine and effective. The
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war on drugs cannot be an instrument or a pretext to
subjugate the Andean countries, just as the idea of
preventive war was invented to intervene in certain
countries of the Middle East. We must wage an
effective battle against drug trafficking. I call on the
United Nations and invite the Government of the
United States to reach an agreement and to forge an
effective alliance to combat drug trafficking. The war
on drugs should not be used as an excuse or a pretext
to dominate or humiliate us, or to try to establish
military bases in our country under the pretext of
combating the drug trade.
I should like also to take this opportunity, in the
context of this process of change, to say that we want
justice. That is important to our peoples. I believe that,
through the Constituent Assembly, justice will be
decolonized and nationalized. That will be true justice.
As long as some violate others’ human rights, as long
as peoples are threatened by military intervention,
there will never be justice.
We are committed, as Presidents and heads of
State, to safeguarding the dignity of humanity by
putting an end to the impunity promoted by my
country’s previous Governments and to the massacres
of people demanding their economic rights and
claiming their natural resources. It is not acceptable
that the perpetrators of genocide and the most corrupt
criminals can escape and move to the United States.
With all due respect, I ask the United States, as a
developed country, to expel those corrupt, genocidal
criminals who are living there. If they have nothing to
hide, why are they not defending themselves before the
Bolivian judiciary?
I am obligated, as President, to ensure that they
are tried by the Bolivian justice system. I do not
believe that any country or any head of State can
protect criminals or those who are guilty of genocide. I
hope that, with the support of the American people,
through international organizations, those responsible
for so much economic damage and so many violations
of human rights will be brought to justice, or there will
never be respect for human rights.
I have been entrusted by the Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues to say the following. Previously,
debates on the rights of indigenous peoples were held
in the United Nations Sub-commission dealing with
that issue, in Geneva, and in the framework of the
Organization of American States (OAS). But I have
been informed that the debate has now moved to this
highest of bodies, the United Nations itself.
I call on the Assembly, on behalf of the
indigenous peoples of the world, and particularly those
of Abiallal — now known as America — urgently to
adopt the declaration on the rights of the indigenous
peoples of the world: the right to self-determination,
the right to live in communities, and the right to live a
life based on solidarity and reciprocity, and, above all,
on brotherhood.
There are regions and communities where there is
no private property, only community property. We
indigenous peoples want, quite simply, to live well, not
better. Living better means exploiting, pillaging,
robbing, whereas living well is living peacefully in
brotherhood. That is why it is extremely important for
the United Nations, after the Decade of the Indigenous
Peoples, to adopt as a matter of urgency the
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,
including the right to natural resources and the right to
care for the environment.
We indigenous peoples, particularly the poor, are
of the culture of life, not the culture of war. This
millennium must really be about defending life and
saving humanity. If we want to save humanity, we must
save the planet Earth. We indigenous peoples live in
harmony with Mother Earth, not only in reciprocity
and solidarity with human beings. We are very sorry
that hegemonistic policies and rivalries are destroying
the planet Earth. I feel that it is important for all
countries, societies and international organizations to
begin to debate this subject truly, in order to save the
planet Earth, to save humanity.
This new millennium in which we are living must
be a millennium of life, not war, a millennium of the
people, not of empire, a millennium of justice and
equality; and all economic policies must be directed
towards ending or at least reducing the so-called
asymmetries or differences between countries and
social inequalities. There is no question now of
implementing policies that involve the economic
humiliation or pillaging of others, whether with rules
or with troops.
With all due respect, I wish to say that it is
important for the troops to be withdrawn from Iraq, if
we want to respect human rights. It is important to
abandon economic policies that allow capital to be
concentrated in just a few hands. I feel that these
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actions have to be of historic importance in order to
change the world and to change economic models and
interventionist policies. In particular, we want these to
be times which enable us to defend and save humanity.