Continental Commission
Abya Yala
MEXICO
Communique to the Holy
See, Vatican State
Dismantling the Doctrine
of Discovery
Valley of Jovel, San Cristobal de Las
Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
February
10, 2016
Your
Holiness Pope Francis,
For
the third time we issue this diplomatic communique to the Vatican State,
recalling that in 2014, within the framework of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Papal Nuncio as
representative of the Vatican State in the UN also received this request and
gave our delegation assurances that delivery and response would be forthcoming.
The
demands raised here obey the mandates of our Nations of Indigenous Peoples, which were deliberated and
articulated in Plenary Assembly of the V
Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala,
with more than eight thousand Indigenous Peoples gathered at Maria del Piendamó, Cauca, Colombia in
November 2013 and subsequently ratified by the Continental Commission Abya Yala in Philadelphia on September 23, 2014
and now here again in the Valley of Jovel in San Cristobal de las Casas,
Chiapas, Mexico on February 9-10, 2016.
With
the spirit of self-determination of Indigenous Peoples, equal in dignity
and rights to all other peoples, we call on Your Holiness Pope Francis to
commit to assume the responsibilities and consequences for the issues presented
here which are directly incumbent upon the Roman Catholic Church. With the
intention of moving deliberately towards the end of the era of colonialism and
into a continental decolonization process, and with our ancestral mandate to
overcome the regimes of domination that have been normalized and justified by
the Doctrine of Discovery of Christendom for more than 523 years ago on this
continent of Abya Yala [the Americas]:
We
as Nations of Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala demand:
We
demand an urgent appointment at the Vatican with His Holiness Pope Francis for
a direct dialogue with the Continental Commission Abya Yala, in order to
directly communicate our concerns and proposals to address the persistent violation
of our individual and collective human rights, territorial rights and
violations of our autonomy as Peoples, equal to all other peoples. We recall and reiterate that your request as
Head of Holy Roman Catholic Church for forgiveness for sins and violations of
the dignity of our common humanity by the church in this continent, is not
sufficient if there is not justice, reparation and real guarantees of
international recognition of our right of self-determination as Indigenous Peoples.
Likewise, as the Indigenous Peoples who are guardians of Mother Earth, we wish to leave as inheritance for our future generations a healthy world, without pollution, so that the life of Our Sacred Mother Earth with her children may continue to be extended with wellness. Recalling that in the encyclical "Laudato Si" emitted by Your Holiness, in Article 32:
“The earth’s resources are also being
plundered because of short-sighted approaches to the economy, commerce and
production. The loss of forests and woodlands entails the loss of species which
may constitute extremely important resources in the future, not only for food
but also for curing disease and other uses. Different species contain genes
which could be key resources in years ahead for meeting human needs and
regulating environmental problems.”
The
Indigenous Peoples celebrate your initiative and urge you to likewise assume
the responsibility of Dismantling of the
Doctrine of Discovery in order to effectively achieve concrete results
oriented towards the protection of our territories and Mother Earth, travelling
together along the path of the Original Instructions of our Nations of
Indigenous Peoples, and with a renewed global cultural climate of Living With Wellness amongst all of
humanity.
As
a fellow human being and in defense of the sacredness of life, it is necessary
Your Holiness intercede with the governments of nation-states to bring about enforcement
of respect and guarantees for our human and territorial rights, an end to discrimination,
institutional racism and abuse of power by colonial settler state governments engaged
in blatant ideological and political persecution against the Indigenous
defenders of our territories and the life ways of Abya Yala.
Also, in realization and exercise of our right of self-determination, autonomy and self-government as Nations of Indigenous Peoples, and moving towards the re-founding of the government states of the Americas as multi-national states committed to the decolonization and healing of Mother Earth, we remind His Holiness Francisco at the 11th Session of the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues was presented the following recommendation:
4. The Permanent Forum recalls the
fourth preambular paragraph of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples, which affirms that all doctrines, policies and practices
based on or advocating superiority of peoples or individuals on the basis of
national origin or racial, religious, ethnic or cultural differences are
racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally condemnable and socially
unjust. Legal and political justification for the dispossession of indigenous
peoples from their lands, their disenfranchisement and the abrogation of their
rights such as the doctrine of discovery, the doctrine of domination,
“conquest”, “discovery”, terra nullius or the Regalian doctrine were adopted by
colonizers throughout the world. While these nefarious doctrines were promoted
as the authority for the acquisition of the lands and territories of indigenous
peoples, there were broader assumptions implicit in the doctrines, which became
the basis for the assertion of authority and control over the lives of
indigenous peoples and their lands, territories and resources. Indigenous
peoples were constructed as “savages”, “barbarians”, “backward” and “inferior
and uncivilized” by the colonizers who used such constructs to subjugate,
dominate and exploit indigenous peoples and their lands, territories and
resources.
The Permanent Forum calls upon States to
repudiate such doctrines as the basis for denying indigenous peoples’ human
rights.
Consequently
and in accordance with the previous recommendation of the UN Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues, and taking into context the diplomatic communique of the
Plenary of the V Continental Indigenous Summit Abya Yala (2013), and concerned
about the validity of the Bull Inter Caetera which remains the as basis of
international and national law, we as Indigenous Peoples express our concern
for the permanence of the spirit of the Alexandrian papal bulls as fundamental
to the relationship of the Vatican with Indigenous Peoples, and by historical extension the successor states.
For
example, your own comments as bishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2012
regarding the dispute between Argentina and Great Britain over territorial
jurisdiction of the Malvinas / Falkland Islands. Likewise, the canonization as
a Catholic Saint of Junipero Serra in Washington DC in September 2015 by yourself,
which we must denounce as being an affront to our human dignity due to the fact
that this missionary priest is responsible for acts of genocide against of our Indigenous
Peoples in California. We consider it inappropriate for Your Holiness to have
instituted this sainthood, for it it is unethical and immoral to sanctify
genocide. We call for the revoking of the canonization of Junipero Serra by the
Holy Roman Catholic Church.
In
reviewing the histories and current conflicts that narrate and contextualize
the systemic criminal violations of our human rights as Indigenous Peoples in
the hemisphere, criminal acts which are at the base of a genocide that is
normalized and subsequently formalized by political and ideological persecution
with impunity, resulting in the territorial dispossession our peoples under
colonizing regimes disguised as "legal systems" under the mantle of
the Doctrine of Discovery;
National
states have taken the Papal Bull Inter
Caetera (1493) as the basis for the elaboration of the legal concept of
"original property of the nation",
under which the states then presume to make delivery of our territories to national
and international corporations of resource extraction, mining, and neo-extraction
in general, assuming the prerogative to make international commercial agreements
and treaties, without our Free, Prior, and Informed Consent and in Good Faith,
such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); the Trans-Pacific
Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP), "Special Economic Zones", ALCA,
Plan Puebla Panama, IRSA, and now the World Bank global carbon market REDDs+,
causing dispossession of Indigenous Peoples and bringing about direct and
indirect irreparable damage to our Mother Earth.
Our
position is that the Vatican State, the Holy See and Your Holiness Pope
Francis, must take appropriate measures and carry out a process of international
accountability for the role of the Catholic Church as intellectual author of
the Doctrine of Discovery of Christendom, which continues to serve to normalize
systemic human rights violations and colonization against our Indigenous
Peoples in this continent Abya Yala [Americas].
Among
other things, we also call upon Your Holiness to give accompaniment in the
peace processes involving indigenous territories seized by States and other
actors. For example, in the case of Colombia, there is an international
obligation to guarantee the incorporation of the indigenous agenda in the Peace
Talks taking place in Havana (Cuba) between the Colombian government and the FARC,
ensuring effective participation of Indigenous Peoples in the dialogue and the
implementation of commitments.
In conclusion, the Continental Commission Abya Yala Commission-Mexico, we exhort upon the Vatican to repudiate, denounce, and dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery and call upon Your Holiness, appealing to your human sensitivities, to make a public statement in repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery of Christendom. We demand the issuance of a new bull, a "Bull of Atonement."
The
Continental Commission Abya Yala (Mexico) meeting in the city of San Cristobal
de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, on February 9 -10, 2016, with the participation
of a hundred representative delegates of Indigenous
Peoples of the Four Directions of Abya Yala, call, summon, and invite our
brothers and sisters of the continent, to join together to work every day in
the Dismantling of the Doctrine of Discovery, with ethical actions in
realization of the spirit of our common humanity and in responsibility to future
generations and the regeneration of a New Sun.
SECRETARIAT CONTINENTAL COMMISSION ABYA
YALA
Embassy of
Indigenous Peoples
802 N. 7th
Street Phoenix, Arizona 85006
Contact:
Tupac Enrique Acosta, Yaotachcauh
Email: chantlaca@tonatierra.org
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