Continental Manifesto Abya Yala: Indigenous Peoples in Resistance

 

Continental Manifesto Abya Yala

Indigenous Peoples in Resistance

July 1, 2020
Megaprojects and the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Continent

Colonization and Genocide

Fake Consultations and Settler States of the Americas

WE DENY CONSENT!

Activation of the Continental Indigenous Guard

In defense of the

Right of Self Determination as Indigenous Peoples

"Equal to all other peoples"

and the

Territorial integrity of Mother Earth

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Recalling the Memory, the Millennial Consciousness, and the Spirit of our ancestors of Original Peoples, those who have given OrigiNation to the Indigenous Peoples of our continent the Great Turtle Island Abya Yala, 

Reclaiming the power of our destiny as Peoples of Humanity, 

In safeguard of the Human Rights of the Future Generations of our Original Nations and the Territorial Integrity of Mother Earth; 

Invoking the Ancestral Mandates of our Continental Confederation of the Eagle and the Condor, and the pronouncements in this regard taken since the First Continental Indigenous Encounter in Quito, Ecuador 1990, and the five continental summits Abya Yala since then in Teotihuacan, Mexico 2000; Quito, Ecuador 2004; Iximche, Guatemala 2007, Puno, Peru 2009; and Cauca, Colombia 2013; 

WE PROCLAIM: 

The right to health is a Human Right. The right to health is a collective and planetary responsibility of Humanity without exception and discrimination. Although we are under the shadow of a horizon caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the world, the light is felt and seen of a global cultural and geopolitical dawn that intends to reestablish a relationship of balance and homeostasis between Humanity and the Natural World. The Original Peoples of Mother Earth rise in Resistance, in Rebellion, and in Regeneration.

Observing how the interests of global capital and its minions of the “Captured States” of the Americas accelerate the pogrom of genocide, colonization, and territorial dispossession during the current COVID-19 crisis, taking advantage of the condition of marginalization imposed by force of violence that our peoples have suffered for 526 years;

In the context of the social limitations due to the pandemic regarding public mobilizations;

Taking particular attention to the nefarious policies that states in the Americas are implementing to take advantage of the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic with the intention of advancing their megaprojects of death and dispossession, trying to disguise them as "development" projects;

Noting in particular the complicity of the three governments of Canada-United States-Mexico that have subscribed to a modification of the tri-national North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA 1994, now named USMCA (aka CUSMA-TMEC 2020);

Recalling that the original 1994 NAFTA compact which served as the platform for designing the privatization agreements of neoliberalism promoted at the continent level, was merely a continuation of the looting of the continent initiated by the colonial Doctrine of Discovery 1492, which was rebranded in 1823 under tenets of the US Monroe Doctrine (AKA Rancho Grande of Uncle Sam.)

Noting once again that neither with the first NAFTA of 1994, nor  with this USMCA 2020 version, there has been no consultation or consent on the part of the Indigenous Peoples whose traditional territories are being subsumed for exploitation under the international commercial zone that extends from Mexico-USA-Canada;

Observing how the interests of the global capital have commanded their servants in the political power structures of the states to carry out "fabricated consultations" to illegally advance their megaprojects in our territories in the midst of the quarantine of the pandemic;

Noting that the OAS itself in its Resolution 1/2020 "Pandemic and Human Rights in the Americas" adopted on April 10, 2020 has proclaimed : 

Indigenous Peoples 
57. Refrain from promoting legislative initiatives and/or advances in the implementation of productive and/or extractive projects in the territories of indigenous peoples during the duration of the pandemic, due to the impossibility of carrying out prior consultation processes, free and informed (due to the WHO recommendation to adopt social distancing measures) provided in ILO Convention 169 and other relevant international and national instruments on the matter. 

WE DENOUNCE:

Any governmental policy that attempts to deliver a fake manufactured approval to any economic project in violation to our right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent under any local, national, regional, or continental plan during the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, will be denounced, nullified, and ultimately rejected by the power of our Original Peoples in defense of our collective right of Self Determination and the Territorial Integrity of Mother Earth.

Maya Visión – Centro Cultural Techantit

TONATIERRA
 

January 1, 2020

TONATIERRA: Communiqué to Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, House Committee on Foreign Affairs

The USMCA has been promoted as a necessary "update" of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In distinction from NAFTA which was adopted in 1994 thirteen years before adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), the signatories of USMCA must comply with the minimum standards of FPIC or the corporate consortia investing in any development project in violation of FPIC will immediately become financially liable and exposed to the risk of legal challenges and financial penalties that must be presented before their constituencies (states) and shareholders (corporations).

This principle is now well established, having been the subject of the Soft Woods Lumber Dispute (1982) between the US and Canada which acknowledged the proprietary rights of Indigenous Peoples over territories and resources in the international trade tribunals. Recognizing this fact, the World Bank has restructured its procedures, protocols and practices regarding Indigenous Peoples and the right of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent under the Environmental and Social Standard 7 to shield its interests.

OAS Resolution 1/2020

Pandemic and Human Rights in the Americas

(Adopted by the IACHR on April 10, 2020)