From resistance we go to rebellion and from
rebellion to revolution

This was the message from the indigenous President of Bolivia Evo Morales Ayma, in a letter sent to the IV Continental Summit of Indigenous People held the 29, 30 and 31^st.

The letter was read by Leonilda Zurita, at the shore of the majestic Lake Titicaca with more than 6,000 Indigenous of the different towns of Abya Yala representatives. 

Evo Morales underscored “this is the moment of the second and final independence.

Brothers and Sisters,

This is  a fraternal message to all the delegates (male and female) of the different towns and nations gathered in this IV Continental Summit

I want to thank for the invitation you sent me and feel sorry I could not make it to such an important event due to the multiple activities and obligations I must attend.

This summit coincides with the celebration in several countries of the struggles for independence. Even though the struggle against the imperial yoke were initiated by our grandfathers and grandmothers, they were the ones who since  five centuries back have been protagonists of different uprisings. Official history have tried to make us forget that throughout those centuries we resisted and rebelled.

 We are heirs of the Amarus, the Bastidas, the Apaza, the Katari, the Sisa and so many others. It was 200 years ago that the mestizos and the Creoles added on to consolidate the birth of the new republics.

For us, for more than two centuries the fight for independence is the same fight for land and the territory. As the III Summit of Abya Yala  land and territory are part of a unifying and complementary dimension. “In that sense the territory is everything it is not only a geographic area. It is the space of its culture and identity. It is the space where its technology is developed, it is the balance management of its natural resources, its art, its way of being and thinking, its cosmovision (cosmology), its life itself”

For the Indigenous People of the planet, Mother earth is life itself. We conceptualize the human being as an integral part of nature and we have felt and practice always a great respect for her.

For thousands of years we have cohabitated with nature in constant balance with and within her. Today we feel the devastating effect of the transnational neo-liberal capitalist system that is destroying at an accelerated space our planet.

 From outside and from above they are still trying to impose on us economic policies that go go against people’s rights, the right of other sentient beings and the rights of the planet earth.. They pretend to continue selling their brick-a- brack for our gold. They told us it was a discovery when it really was an invasion, they said it was a conquest when it was a genocide. Now they are telling us that they want integration and insert us into the world economy, when what they really want is to loot our wealth, giving privilege to profit at the cost of solidarity.

Under that logic the free trade agreements brake down harmonic relations between humans and with nature, make commerce of natural resources and the culture of people, privatize basic services, pretend to patent life itself.

We human beings are being prisoners of the forces of this model that pretends to put man as the absolute owner of the planet. The capitalist, imperialist and colonialist and based in forms of life of domination, subjugation and subordination of one upon another. That is why sisters and brothers, in order to preserve the planet, life and human species we must challenge capitalism. 

 We have gone a long way, and that is why now we can say with certainty that the sacrifice of our ancestors was not in vain , we follow their path in this process, unstoppable and irreversible. But we still have a long way ahead. We should not forget that for the liberation of our people, we must recognize  that we do not own  the land, but that we belong to the la

 As we have said many times before, after 500 years of resistance, after the valuable uprising of our ancestors, it is our turn to guarantee our rights and the rights of Mother Earth by taking power democratically. This is the moment for Indigenous people; peasants, workers, young, men and women to take destiny in our hands, from the villages, from the fields, communities, factories, neighborhoods, so that with our own hands we can build the kind of world we want for our children. This is the moment to let everybody know that our struggle is not over, that from resistance we move to rebellion, and from rebellion to revolution. This is the moment of our second and final independence.

 With this words I foresee the greatest success in this IV Continental Summit and pray that the conclusions of this gathering ratify our total unity in defense of the land and our natural resources.

Evo Morales Ayma

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