Bolivian President Evo Morales Speaks

http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/2006/09/evo-at-un-speech-delivered-by.html

Evo at the UN

Speech delivered by the president of the republic, Evo Morales Ayma,
in front of the United Nations General Assembly.

New York, September 19, 2006 .

Thank you, president. Fellow brother and sister presidents, delegates
to the 61 Ordinary Reunion of the United Nations.

It is an enormous satisfaction to be here present, representing my
people, from my homeland, Bolivia and especially the indigenous
movement.

I want to tell you, that after 500 years of be looked down upon, at
times considered to be savages, animals, in some regions condemned to
extermination, thanks to this consciousness and this uprising and to
the struggle for the rights of the peoples I got to, we got here to
repair the historic damage, to repair 500 years of damage.

During the republic, we were equally discriminated, marginalised,
they never took into account this struggle of the peoples for life,
for humanity during the last 20 years, with their application of an
economic model - neoliberalism - that continued the looting of our
natural resources, the privatisation of our basic services.

Convinced, and we are convinced, that the way of privatisation of
basic services is the best way of violating human rights.

And these small considerations oblige me to say the truth here about
the livelihoods of these families, I come to express this sentiment
for the humanity of the peoples, from my people. I come here to
express the suffering, the product of marginalisation, of exclusion, I
come to express above all else, this anti-colonial sentiment of the
peoples that struggle for equality and justice.

I want to say to all of the delegates, Ms president, that in my
country we have begun to search for deep democratic and peaceful
transformations, we are in a stage think of how to refound Bolivia,
refound Bolivia to unite Bolivians, refound Bolivia nor to take
revenge against anyone, despite the fact that we have been kept down
through discrimination, refound Bolivia, above all, to finish with
distain, hatred, against the peoples.

I say this because my mother was commenting to me, saying, that when
she went to the city, she did not have to right to walk in the
principal plazas of the cities of my country, they didn't have the
right to walk on the footpaths.

But happily we have decided to pass over from the social, union,
communal struggle to an electoral struggle so that we ourselves can be
the actors to resolve social problems, economic problems, structural
problems, and we are waging for this Constituent Assembly of
refoundation, and I would like the United Nations to participate in
this process of peaceful and democratic change, which is the best we
can do for these abandoned, marginalised families.

Certainly, many countries have the same problem as my country, a
country, a nation with so much wealth but also with so much poverty,
where the natural resources have historically been stolen, looted,
auctioned off by the neoliberal government, handed over to the
transnationals.

The time has come, now at the head of this struggle of the peoples for
power and land, to recuperate, recuperate those natural resources for
the Bolivian state under the control of the peoples.

And when we speak of recuperating our natural resources, via the dirty
campaign of accusations, they say that the government of Evo Morales
will not respect private property, I want to say to you, in my
government private property will be respected.

It is true that we need investment, we need partners, not bosses, not
owners of our natural resources, we understand perfectly that an
underdeveloped country needs investment, and I want to say, to clarify
in front of all of you some worries, some false accusations; if the
state exercises the property rights of a natural resource such as
natural gas, hydrocarbons, oil, then we don't expel anyone, we don't
confiscate off anyone.

It will be respected, but we guarantee that they recover their
investments and have make an earning, but they will not earn like
before, from the (fat) so we are left not being able to resolve the
social problems in my country later.

I want to say to you within this framework, I don't come here to tell
you how to govern or to threaten a country, or to begin to put
conditions on a country, I only want you as international
organisations, as a state with solidarity, as nations with principals
of reciprocity, of brotherhood, to participate in this process of
democratic change.

We have a great desire, a great interest in their being a conscious of
this class in international forums, international reunions such as the
United Nations to support, to wager on peaceful changes.

All of you know, especially here in North America as well as in
Europe, that there are many Bolivians who go in search of work, before
it use to be the Europeans that invaded Latin American, especially
Bolivia, now it seems that the situation has changed, it is the Latin
American, or the Bolivians, that are invading Europe like they did to
the US before. Why? Because in this conjuncture, at this moment there
is no job creation.

I want to say to all of you that we want to wager for a just trade, a
peoples trade for the people, a trade which resolves the problem of
jobs, that trade for companies is important is clear, but trade for
micro and small producers, for cooperatives, for associations,
collective companies, is more important.

I would like, and this is the one wish I have, that instead of my
sisters and brothers going to Europe, how much better would it be that
products go there and not human beings, and I believe that this has to
do with consciousness in the international community, if we want to
resolve the issue of immigration.

I have information that our sisters and brothers are not going there
to monopolise thousands of hectares as those that came to Latin
America did when they monopolise thousands of hectares, they came to
take over ownership of our wealth, of our resources.

I believe that it is important that within this framework of trade,
trade that is referred to as free trade, even in my country, affected
and eliminated the large producers, the agro-industrialists, imagine
the agreement signed by Colombia with the United States over the Free
Trade Agreement, is already taking away markets from the soya farmers
in Bolivia, from the agro-industrialists in Colombia.

I am convinced that it is important to import what we do not produce
and export what we produce and that this would be a solution to the
economic problem, the problem of employment.

I would like to take advantage of this opportunity, Ms president, to
say that there are also other historical injustices, such as the
criminalisation of the coca leaf. I want to say, this is a green coca
leaf, it is not the white of cocaine, this coca leaf represents Andean
culture, it is a coca leaf that represents the environment and the
hope of our peoples.

It is not possible that the coca leaf is legal for Coca Cola and that
the coca leaf is illegal for other medicinal purposes in our country,
and in the whole world.

We want to say, that it is important that the United Nations recognise
that with the help of North American universities, with European
universities, we have scientifically demonstrated that the coca leaf
does not damage human health.

It is very lamentable that due to customs, to bad customs, that the
coca leaf is derailed into an illegal problem, we are conscious of
that, that is why we say as producers of the coca leaf that there will
not be free coca cultivation, but nor will there be zero coca.

The previously implemented policies, that had conditions imposed,
talked of zero coca, zero coca is like talking of zero Quechuas,
Aymaras, Mojenos, Chiquitanos in my country, this finished with our
government, no matter how underdeveloped our country is, a country
with economic problems which are a product of the looting of our
natural resource wealth.

And we are now here to dignify ourselves, and we have begun to dignify
our country, and within this process of dignifying I want to say, that
the best proposal for the struggle against narco-trafficking has been
voluntary reduction, agreed upon without deaths or injuries.

Happily I have heard the report from the United Nation, which
recognises that this honest, responsible effort, in the struggle
against narco-trafficking, has increased efficiency by 300% as opposed
to confiscations which seize drugs,.

Nevertheless, yesterday I heard a report from the government of the
United States, it says, that they do not accept the cultivation of
coca, and that they are putting conditions on it that modify our
norms.

I want to say with great respect to the government of the United
States , we are not going to change anything, we don't need blackmail
and threats, the so-called certification or decertification in the
fight against narco-trafficking is simply an instrument of
recolonialisation or colonialisation of the Andean countries, that is
unacceptable, that can not be permitted.

I want to say to you that we have, and we need, an alliance to fight
against narco-trafficking, but one that is real and effective, so that
the war on drugs can not be used as an instrument, a pretext, for them
to subjugate the countries of the Andean region, just like they
invented preventative wars to intervene into some countries of the
Middle East.

We need a real fight against narco-trafficking, and I call on the
United Nations, I invite the government of the United States to make
an agreement, an effective alliance to fight against
narco-trafficking, so that the war on drugs is not used as a pretext
to dominate us, or to humiliate us, or to try to establish military
bases. In our country they use the pretext of the fight against
narco-trafficking.

I take use of this opportunity to say that, within this process of
change, we want justice, that justice be carried out is important for
our peoples, but I feel that via the Constituent Assembly we are going
to decolonise the law in order to nationalise justice, real justice.

That the people implicated in the violations of human rights, peoples
threaten with military interventions, there will never be justice
there, we are obliged as presidents, as head of states to dignify
humanity by ending impunity.

In the previous governments in my country, they massacred people that
struggle for their economic demands, for their natural resources, and
it is not possible that perpetuators of genocide, corrupt criminals,
escape in order to live in the United States, in a developed country
such as United States .

I ask with a great deal of respect, expel these perpetuators of
genocide, criminals, corrupt ones that come to live here, if they have
nothing to do with it, why don't they defend themselves in the
Bolivian justice system.

I am obliged, as president, to demand that these authorities be tried
in the Bolivian justice system, and I believe that no country, no head
of state can protect, hid, delinquents, the perpetuators of genocide.

Hopefully with the help of the North American people, hopefully via
international organisations, the people that have done so much
economic damage, damage to human rights, will be tried, given that
they have never respected human rights.

I have a recommendation for the permanent forum of the indigenous
peoples, in front of the debates about the rights of indigenous
peoples, in front of the debates about the rights of indigenous
peoples that are in the subcommission of the rights of indigenous
peoples in the United Nations in Geneva, in the Organisation of
American States, I have information that this debate has reached this
maximum instance of the United Nations.

I want to ask you in the name of the indigenous peoples of the world,
especially of Abyalala, now called America, to urgently approve this
declaration of the rights of indigenous peoples of the world, the
right to self-determination, the right to live in community,
collectively, the right to live in solidarity, in reciprocity, and
fundamentally the right to live in brotherhood.

There are regions were communities live without private property,
there is collective property, the indigenous peoples only want to live
well, not better, to live better is to exploit, is to loot, to rob,
but to live well is to live in brotherhood and that is why it is very
important, president, that the United Nations urgently after the
decade of the indigenous peoples, that this declaration of the rights
of the indigenous peoples, the right to natural resources, the right
to look after the environment, be approved.

Finally president, the indigenous peoples, the poor come especially
from a culture of life and not a culture of war, and this millennium
will really have to be to defend live, to save humanity and if we want
to save humanity we have the obligation to save the planet. The
indigenous peoples live in harmony with mother earth, and not only in
reciprocity, in solidarity, with human beings.

We feel greatly that the politics of hegemonist competitions are
destroying the planet. I feel that all countries, social forces,
international organisms are important, let us begin to debate
truthfully, in order to save the planet, to save humanity.

This new millennium, the millennium that we find ourselves in needs to
be a millennium of life, not of war, a millennium of people and not of
empire, a millennium of justice and equality and that any economic
policy needs to be orientated towards ending, of at least lessening
these so-called asymmetric differences between one country and another
country, those social inequalities.

We are not trying to implement policies that allow the economic
humiliation or economic looting; when they cannot loot according to
the norms, they use troops.

I want to ask with great respect, that it is important to withdraw
troops from Iraq if we want to respect human rights, it is important
to withdraw economic policies that allow the concentration of capital
in only a few hands.

And for this, I feel president, that these events should be historical
in order to change the world and to change economic models,
interventionalist policies. Above all else we want them to be times
that allow us to defend and save humanity

Thanks a lot.

Translated from Bolivian Information Agency


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========================================================================


* Bolivian President Evo Morales on Latin America, U.S. Foreign Policy and the
Role of the Indigenous People of Bolivia *


-----------------==========================================

TODAY'S DEMOCRACY NOW!:

* Bolivian President Evo Morales on Latin America, U.S. Foreign Policy and
the Role of the Indigenous People of Bolivia *

In a Democracy Now! special, we spend the hour with the president of
Bolivia, Evo Morales. At his inauguration in January, Morales declared the
end of Bolivia's colonial and neo-liberal era. Since then he has moved to
nationalize parts of the country's vast energy reserves and strengthen
Bolivia's ties to Venezuela and Cuba. On Tuesday, Morales spoke for the
first time before the United Nations General Assembly in New York. During
his speech he held up a coca leaf even though it is banned in the United
States and he vowed to never yield to U.S. pressure to criminalize coca
production. In one of his first extended televised interviews in the United
States, Morales discusses U.S. foreign policy, Latin America, the role of
the indigenous people in Bolivia and much more.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/22/1323211

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