Within the framework of the XX Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues of the United Nations, this Tuesday the telematic conversation Plurinational America of the people for the people was held, with the participation of the former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, and representatives of various social organizations and indigenous people of the region, who highlighted that the 21st century is the century of defense of Pachamama (Mother Earth).
During his speech at the meeting, the indigenous leader Evo Morales reviewed the more than 500 years of genocide of which the original people of Latin America have been victims by the imperial forces, highlighting the need to retake the millenary roots to change the capitalist system and achieve the salvation of the human species.
“For more than 500 years, successive generations of indigenous people, Africans and their descendants fought and resisted against the colony and the republican states that have not resolved the historical debt, because they basically did not change their extermination policy,” said the indigenous chief, assuring that “the XXI century is the century of the defense of Pachamama.”
In this sense, he stressed that a structural change in the States is imperative, “but above all a change in the mental, spiritual and ideological structure that the capitalist system imposed on us.”
“Today we must ask ourselves, will we let capitalism continue to destroy Mother Earth, life? or we will assume our generational responsibility”, he emphasized.
The former Bolivian president assured that in the face of the life crisis caused by modernity:
“it is necessary to return to our ancient roots, to our ancestral wisdom, to our cultural identity, and to the richness of the cultural diversity of Abya Yala (…) We must gestate this new world order of Plurinational America to live well in balance with Pachamama. If there is no Mother Earth, there is no life, there are no human rights, less collective rights.”
Respect for ancestral heritage
Representing Venezuela and the Simón Bolívar Institute for Peace and Solidarity among Peoples, María de Los Ángeles Peña participated in the meeting, highlighting respect for the ancestral heritage, manifested in the country since the arrival of Commander Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution.
The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is an advisory body to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), established on July 28, 2000 with the mandate to examine indigenous issues, in the context of powers related to economic and social development, culture, environment, education, health and human rights.