Cultural Survival condemns the use of excessive force and violence in the aftermath of the forced resignation of Bolivian President Evo Morales (Aymara), the country’s first Indigenous president, after 10 days of public protest.
Morales fled to Mexico after allegations of election fraud from the Organization of American States. Subsequent protests have so far left 23 people dead, more than 100 injured and multiple incarcerated in different parts of the country.
By Anna Hernandez
When Bolivia passed the Law for the Defense of Mother Earth in December 2010, those behind the law, Indigenous leaders, conservationists, and the president were looking to the future. The law would be presented in the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in April in Cochabamba, Bolivia and would go on to become the Universal Declaration for the Rights of Mother Earth, which was taken to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meetings in 2011.
World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, organized by the Bolivian government, was held in Cochabamba, Bolivia April 19-22, 2010 as a response to failed climate talks in Copenhagen during the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP 15) climate meetings in December 2009.
Mother Earth can live without us, but we can’t live without her.
We, the Indigenous Peoples, nations and organizations from all over the world, gathered at the World Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Earth, from April 19th to 22nd, 2010 in Tiquipaya, Cochabamba, Bolivia, after extensive discussions, express the following:
Reconocimiento de tierra
Reconocemos que nuestra sede está en la tierra de Massachusetts, en Cambridge, MA, y agradecemos a los administradores Indígenas pasados, actuales y futuros de este territorio.
