Evo will create a global organisation of indigenous peoples

La Paz (EFE, La Prensa) – During the “International Encounter of the Indigenous Peoples of the World”, to be held on Friday October 12, the government of President Evo Morales will propose the articulation of a new organisation which will bring together indigenous people at the global level.

According to government spokesperson, Alex Contreras, the summit is seeking to “organise all the indigenous movements of the world”, as well as “elaborate a joint agenda” so that the United Nations Declaration [on Indigenous Rights] “becomes reality”.

Contreras explained that the encounter would begin on Wednesday in La Paz, then shift on Thursday to the ruins at Tiawuanacu, some 70 kilometres west of this city and would finish up on Friday 12 in the Chapare, the cocalero region in the centre of Bolivia and union and political stronghold of Morales.

The executive power confirmed the presence of the 1992 Nobel Prize winner, Rigoberta Menchú, at the summit of indigenous peoples to be held in the Chapare. The Guatemalan leaders will arrive in the country today for the encounter to celebrate the passing of UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Delegates from original communities of the region will join the roaming summit from Wednesday until Friday, October 12, the day in which the indigenous people celebrate “the Day of the Race”

Evo Morales announced last September 13, when the UN declaration was approved, that he would mark this “historic milestone for the indigenous movement” with a “great party”.

It is estimated that there are 370 million indigenous people in the world, of which 50 million live in Latin America, in condition of poverty and social exclusion.

The UN declaration recognises the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination and administration of their ancestral territories based on their own norms.

The governing party, Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) is pushing for the creation of indigenous autonomies in the new Political Constitution of the State, which is being debated in the Constituent Assembly.

Translated from La Prensa for Bolivia Rising