Bolivia, 2006

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.