Erasing Indigenous Rights: The Free Trade Area Of The Americas.doc

ERASING INDIGENOUS RIGHTS:
THE FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS

A Background Paper by the Indigenous Network for Economies and Trade (INET)
Continental Indigenous Summit
Mar de Plata, Argentina
November 1-5, 2005

http://www.cumbrecontinentalindigena.org

Indigenous Peoples have called the Americas their home since time immemorial. It is from their strong historic and present link to their traditional territories that their indigenous rights arise:

“For Aboriginal People the land is part of their identity as people… When Europeans came to the Americas they were considered as outsiders, but were permitted to share in the land and its resources… Whatever rights the Europeans wanted had to be sought from those who were placed upon the land first by the Creator.”

It has taken the long unified struggle of indigenous peoples to gain recognition of their inherent rights and jurisdictions. But while indigenous peoples in North, Central and South America try to see their constitutional and inherent rights respected and implemented by national governments, these rights are being undermined by the drive to create bigger and more powerful international trade agreements.

Presently the governments of the Americas are negotiating the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement extending and increasing these rules across the entire Western Hemisphere. Indigenous Peoples have to understand the impact this will have on their indigenous rights and their access to their lands and resources.

The FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS

The Free Trade Area Of The Americas or FTAA will be the culmination of the trade liberalization movement and a model for the next step of the WTO. Incorporating many of the elements of the failed Multi-lateral Agreement on Investment or MAI that was rejected by Canada’s Assembly of First Nations, it would also include strengthened provisions on enforcement, technical barriers to trade (domestic laws and regulations), investment, and force the privatization of public services. It would also give special treatment or outright exemption to corporate officials from normal immigration processes when entering or leaving a country thus creating a class of the corporate executive diplomats.

The FTAA is an attempt to set low regional standards and thereby undermine stronger international standards. The Organization for American States has in the past been known for setting low regional standards, for example in the field of indigenous rights, to influence negotiations at the United Nations level.

How “Free Trade” Works

The underlying principle of free trade is that resources no longer belong to communities for their development but are available to the unrestricted operation of the international market place.

National Treatment means that foreign companies have to be treated equally to people doing business in their own community. National Treatment applies to everything from resources like water, oil, natural gas and lumber to providing services in communities whether public or private, and to investment. No barriers or regulations can be in place to encourage local development or protect the environment if a tribunal decides they unfairly interfere with trade.

National Treatment provisions exist in NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), the agreements of the WTO2 like the GATT and the GATS and effectively stop governments right down to the local level from effecting the way their economies develop and ensuring that their communities benefit from that development.

The General Agreement on Trade in Services or GATS is taking this a step further by dictating how people can regulate services in their community even if they are treating foreign companies the same as local operations.3

Why It Is So Dangerous

Even though trade agreements exist along side of other international agreements like agreements on the environment and human rights, they were written with the intention of making them enforceable. While human rights agreements and environmental agreements rely on moral persuasion, diplomacy or good will to make sure the parties comply, trade agreements have strict enforcement measures that allow other counties to punish them economically for violating the deals or by allowing foreign companies to sue them for billions of dollars. This means that trade agreements will always win out over human rights and the environment.

Under NAFTA Chapter 11 a new kind of tribunal was established. Now investors4 can directly sue countries for loss in profits if they e.g.: enforce environmental protection guidelines or try to protect resources. Each decision so far awarded 100s of millions USD compensation to the companies. It is likely that in the future this will make governments more reluctant to restrict companies’ access to indigenous land. The Costs of Free Trade

This new level of “Free Trade” will cost indigenous people the hard fought gains they have won within their national jurisdictions and on the international level.

Secwepemc elders in the Interior of BC for example can point out the negative impacts of ski-resorts and artificial snow-making on the water shed and their multifaceted use of their traditional territories5. Under GATS and NAFTA the number of tourism suppliers could not be restricted6 and no criteria for example regarding sustainable tourism and the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples would be taken into account.

It is becoming clear that while indigenous people are struggling to establish independence and self-government through control of their communities and resources, the liberalization movement is sweeping away the right to exercise that sovereignty and control over their land and resources.

The Threat to Inherent Rights

Indigenous peoples have maintained those rights despite the undermining forces of colonization and assimilation, because they fought for them in any way they could. After long judicial struggles the courts recognized the inherent rights of indigenous peoples to the land and water. The Supreme Court of Canada recognized Aboriginal Title in the 1997 Delgamuukw Decision7 as the collective proprietary interest indigenous peoples hold in their traditional territories.

This follows international developments: in 1992 the rights of Aboriginal Peoples to the Australian continent had been recognized as Native Title8 and many of the new Latin American constitutions enshrine legal pluralism9, meaning the inherent, parallel jurisdiction of indigenous peoples, as a central principle.

Also, in Canada First Nations fought for constitutional recognition of their inherent rights. In the 1980s thousands of Indians traveled from British Columbia to Ottawa and to Europe to have their rights recognized. Today Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution extends constitutional protection to Aboriginal Title and Rights, by stating10: “(1)The existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed.”

The United Nations has recognized that indigenous people have the inalienable right to self-determination, including the right to pursue and sustain their culture, as a central part to their traditional and spiritual life. The international community has to reaffirm their commitment to indigenous rights and recognize the collective rights of indigenous peoples in all fields of law, otherwise they violate the human rights of indigenous peoples.

A New Front

The FTAA is a deadly assault on the gains Indigenous Peoples have made in the Americas. As a culmination of the efforts of the trade liberalization movement that seeks to put all land and resources on the open market and strangle community and collective control, the FTAA is a development that threatens to undermine indigenous nationhood at the international level. As in the 1970’s when indigenous peoples first organized on the international level, starting what became known as “the Fourth World Movement”11, indigenous peoples now have to stand together and devise their own principles for protecting their inherent rights and values against the onslaught of corporate interest, because the trend that was already detected then continues today12: “Land-holding is moving under the control of multinational corporations, which have all the worst aspects of state control and none of the virtues.”

International trade agreements that preclude the recognition of indigenous rights, extinguish those rights. This is a violation of constitutional and international law.

Indigenous peoples hold collective proprietary interests in their traditional territories and natural resources that therefore can only be traded in the international market place. There can be no free trade that does not first guarantee indigenous rights and environmental and human rights throughout this hemisphere and that doesn’t take first recognize the collective proprietary interest of indigenous peoples.

As Indigenous People’s In Solidarity We Must:

• Demand that the negotiations of the FTAA stop immediately, as it is a threat to our rights, our culture and our existence as a people,
• Demand that existing trade agreements that do not recognize our rights be of no effect,
• Educate, organize and mobilize our communities to fight these agreements and future agreements that seek to extinguish our existing and inalienable indigenous rights to land and resources.

In 1998 Canada was force to repeal a law banning the import of MMT, a gasoline additive that has known health-hazards made by American chemical giant Ethyl Corp.13. MMT is banned in many countries, and at the time, almost all American states. Ethyl Corp. sued Canada under NAFTA Chapter 11 and, without a tribunal decision, had the law repealed, was given $13 million US in compensation, and a letter from the Prime Minister of Canada stating that there was no proven harm to human health from MMT.

A Canadian company, Methanex14 is suing the American federal government for $970 million US because the governor of California has issued an executive order that a gasoline additive it manufactures called MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) must be eliminated from gas sold in California by the 2003 due to its contamination of ground water throughout the state.

On August 25 , 2000 a NAFTA Chapter 11 tribunal ordered the government of Mexico to pay an American company, Metalclad, 16.7 million US because a Mexican community refused to allow the company to operate waste disposal site on ecologically sensitive land..15 The Canadian position on the decision is that Chapter 11 was never designed to allow companies to overturn domestic policy.16

In 1998 Sun Belt Water Inc. of Santa Barbara California sued the Canadian government under Chapter 11 of NAFTA for $410 million US because the province of British Columbia withdrew a water export license held by its Canadian partner. Sun Belt has since increased that claim to 10.5 billion US, 17because the broad definition of investment in chapter 11 also allows them to sue for the loss of future profits.

In 1999 a dispute with the United States over Canadian regulations over advertising in Canadian magazines caused the rewriting of Canadian publishing laws protecting culture.

(Footnotes)
1. Hamilton, A.C.; Sinclair, C.M. (1991) The Justice System and Aboriginal People, Report of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Queen’s Printer, pp. 115-116
2. The World Trade Organization administers + rules on disputes of a dozen international trade agreeements
3. General Agreement on Trade in Services Article XVI prohibits six different categories of non-discriminatory regulatory controls.
4. Canada has been sued by Ethyl Corp. for banning a gasoline additive, Sun Belt Corp. for not allowing Water Exports, Mexico was sued by Metalclad for not allowing the construction of a waste dump
5. Adams Lake and Neskonlith Shuswap (1999) Traditional and Current Use Study, unpublished, maps
6. Shrybman, GATS and Water 2001
7. Delgamuukw v. British Columbia (1997) 3 S.C.R. 1010
8. Mabo v. Queensland (no.2) (1992) 107 A.L.R. 1
9. Diaz-Polanco, H. (2000) Las reformas constitucionales, presentacion en el Congreso Mondial de Pluralismo Juridico, Arica, Chile (proceedings to be published by the Commission on Legal Pluralism)
10. Canadian Constitution (1982), Section 35
11. Manuel, George and Posluns, Michael (1974) The Fourth World, Free Press, New York
12. Manuel, p. 253
13. Appleton and Associates International Lawyers web site http://www.appletonlaw.com/4b1ethyl.htm
14. California Governor Gray Davis issued an Executive Order on March 25, 1999 directing the removal of MTBE from gasoline sold in California by December 31, 2002.
15. California Governor Gray Davis issued an Executive Order on March 25, 1999 directing the removal of MTBE from gasoline sold in California by December 31, 2002.
16. Greenfield, Gerald “Against the Current” 2001 7012 Michigan Avenue Detroit, MI 48210
17. Jack, Ian, National Post, Sept. 1, 2000, C4
18. Sun Belt Water Inc., news release October 14, 1999

TONATIERRA
Date: Wednesday September 7, 2005
Contact: Tupac Enrique Acosta (602) 254-5230
www.tonatierra.org

Quantum Ecology

Nahuacalli Hosts Global Millennium Assessment Dialogue
and Community Forum

Phoenix, AZ - In the midst of an accelerated development phase in downtown Phoenix, a first time global assessment of the planet’s ecosystems will serve as point of departure for a series of talks on the role of urban development and community sustainability as understood by the Indigenous Peoples.  The two-day event brings together a local task force working on the development of the TIANKIZCO, a continental center of Indigenous Trade and Culture in central Phoenix with the director of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), Dr. Walter Reid, along with local and regional representatives of Indigenous Nation representatives working on community sustainability and development.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) is a historic global initiative commissioned by Secretary General Kofi Anan of the United Nations to provide a first time comprehensive scientific evaluation of the environmental health of planetary ecosystems. Accomplished with the assistance of Indigenous Peoples, the MA was completed this past spring and will be the focus of a two-day dialogue and set of presentations on the significance of the MA, and implications for local development strategies of Indigenous Nations and human society as a whole.

“We are called by the teachings of the Indigenous Peoples to look to the future generations and fulfill our responsibilities to the future of humanity and the world: we must redefine what a “city” is beyond the extractive ‘service provider’ model of material exploitation and resulting regional and global ecological destruction. And further, we must apply the principles of ecological sustainability as a holistic and quantum concept, inclusive of both the global and community context of being human,” Stated Tupac Enrique Acosta, event coordinator.

A specific focus of the talks will concern the recognition, and protection of Sacred Sites of the Indigenous Peoples as a set of values and rights in the community development process in the Greater Southwest and the world.

The symposium events begin with a traditional welcoming and opening remarks at the Nahuacalli on Friday the 9th at 6:00 PM, located at 802 N. 7th Street in downtown Phoenix, and will continue into the evening. The agenda for Saturday morning the 10th will continue with the TIANKIZCO task force at the Nahuacalli, at noon hour the gathering will move to Pueblo Grande Museum and Archeological Park located at 4619 E. Washington Street. Traditional closing ceremonies will be at 4:00 PM.

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
Community Forum
Pueblo Grande Museum and Archeological Park
4619 E. Washington Street
1:00 to 4:00
Saturday September 10, 2005
Public is Invited

This event is the second in part a series of events being implemented along the trajectory of development for the TIANKIZCO project, a continental center of Indigenous Trade and Culture which is being led by TONATIERRA and located at the gateway to downtown Phoenix.  The annual anchor event of Indigenous Peoples Day March 12, 2006 is part of this series.

Protocols for participation are under the Principles of Community Ecology, with special invitation to elements of governance from tribal to local, municipal, county and state, that have overview to the responsibilities of environmental and ecosystem management and protection.

As a departure point for dialogue, the Nahuacalli has proposed discussion of the correlations evident in the Seven Global Currencies of the Indigenous Peoples - Life Sustaining Systems of Exchange and Reciprocity - An Evaluation Matrix for the Global Economy and Millennium Development Goals. In turn, Dr. Reid has suggested the following set of questions for community discussion:

• What ecosystem ‘services’ are of particularly importance from an economic,
• What is the status of these services?
• Are systems in place to adequately monitor changes in the services and impacts on peoples in the region?
• What seem like the highest priorities for actions to help conserve those services and maintain or enhance the benefits that ecosystems provide to the community?

"We are also convinced that the experience of the MA will transform the nature of future environmental assessments.  ‘Scientific’ assessments, which privilege scientific knowledge over other types of knowledge, will now give way to ‘ knowledge assessments’ that recognize the value and legitimacy of many forms of knowledge held by different groups of people."

Presentation by Dr. Walter Reid at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Wednesday, May 18, 2005  United Nations, New York, US
www.millenniumassessment.org/en/Article.aspx?id=65

Further information available from TONATIERRA and Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
Please contact Tupac Enrique Acosta, Coordinator for more information at (602) 254-5230,
or by Email: chantlaca@aol.com.    

NAHUACALLI
Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples
c/o TONATIERRA
Tel: (602) 254-5230
P.O. Box 24009  Phoenix, AZ  85074

URGENT SOLIDARITY!!!
Tena, Community Shiwa Yacu, August 23, 2005

The community Shiwa Yacu finds itself defending its ancestral lands against ambitious, very wealthy outside interests from the United States of America and from Ecuador - Michael Porter (United States) and Gerardo Moscoso (Ecuador), the latter a dealer of Indigenous lands who buys property titles then sells them at much higher prices.

The land of Shiwa Yacu has been coveted by mining companies since gold deposits were found there. But these lands belong to a community that defends them, that fights to conserve its ancestral lands- this has made it impossible for these companies to enter the territory. This has led them to another way to go about it: the forceful evacuation of community members. Shiwa Yacu considers all “legal figures” to be illegal, since the community has occupied this land since long before the colonists arrive and told them they did now own an official title to the lands granted by the state. We will never give up our lands; they were the lands of our fathers and their fathers before them. Now they are ours, and in the future, they will be our children’s. Therefore, we state: “we will defend our lands like ferocious tigers, and if necessary, we will offer our lives for our children and our grandchildren, and for our ancestral lands”.

This is the decision that we made the 23rd of August in the meeting at the central office in Tena of the Network of Kichwa communities of the Amazon (LA COORDINADORA DE COMUNIDADES KICHWAS DE LA AMAZONIA CORKA), since an illegitimate act was taken at the Institute of Agrarian Development between the supposed “legal owner” of the land (the “owner” only for having the official titles in his power)- Mr. Michael Porter (United States)- and Gerardo Moscoso (wealthy colonist and land dealer)- the former who has passed the ownership on to the latter. Therefore the community of Shiwa Yacu finds itself extremely concerned, and has now declared a state of emergency and maximum alert, since Mr. Moscoso has sent, on various occasions, his workers well-armed to attack the community, to make them want to abandon these lands. We have refused completely- we are not going to abandon our only home, which has been ours for more than 110 years.

Starting tomorrow, the 24th of August, we will close all access to the community, and will be at maximum alert, ready for any act of aggression that may come from Mr. Moscoso or authorities that we may find in favor of the side with more money. Therefore, we are calling out for solidarity from everyone in Ecuador, and countries in Europe, Latin America, and North America, human rights organizations, political movements, National Congress, national and international means of communication, and all organizations in support of our defense of the ancestral lands of Shiwa Yacu. The community would prefer suicide than to lose its only land, its only home, to laws that favor only people of high status and not indigenous peoples, for not having economic resources that can pay for lawyers or ambitious interests of state institutions.

The directors of CORKA, too, are taking part in these measures taken for the community of Shiwa Yacu- mobilizing the community to support the resistence process, the defense, and the dignitiy for the indigenous peoples.

From CORCKA’s central office in Tena, we will be informing you all of everything that occurs in the next few days and however much time this process may take. We wait and hope for your letters of solidarity; To pressure the “Defensoria del Pueblo”

Write to fax # (00593) 62 886 815 in Tena, Ecuador “Defensoria del Pueblos” at national level:
(00593) 23 3033 93
National Congress Commission for Indigenous Issues
(Congreso Nacional Comisión de Asuntos Indígenas)
(00593) 22 953 792 / 22 584182
Commission of Human Rights
(Comisión de de Derechos Humanos)
(00593) 22 903777
CODENPE 0593 22 581 361

Sincerely,

COORDINADORA DE COMUNIDADES KICHWAS DE LA AMAZONIA CORCKA

In The attachment we send to you a model letter to make pression in the different gubernamental organism for take urgent actions to benefit the Shiwa Yacu community.

CODENPE Doctora Lourdes Tiban Guala
SECRETARIA EJECUTIVA NACIONAL DEL CONSEJO DE DESARROLLO DE LAS NACIONALIDADES Y PUEBLOS DEL ECUADOR CONDENPE
Quito-Ecuador
Fax: 00593 22

DINAPIN: Lc. Alberto Andrango
DEFENSOR DEL PUEBLOS.- DIRECCION NACIONAL DE DEFENSA DE LOS DERECHOS DE LOS PUEBLOS INDIGENAS.
Fax: 00593 23 303 393

Doctora Omaida Mera de Caicedo
COMISIONADA DE LA DEFENSORIA DEL PUEBLO DE NAPO
Fax: 00593 62 886 815

Diputado: Salvador Quishpe
PRESIDENTE DE LA COMISION DE ASUNTOS INDIGENAS DEL CONGRESO NACIONAL.
Fax: 00593 22 953 792

José Parra
Oficial del Programa y de derechos Humanos
OFICINA DEL ALTO COMISIONADO DE LAS NACIONES UNIDAS PARA LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS
Fax: 00593 22 461 960

Desde ya les anticipamos por su apoyo y sus buenos oficios.

Atentamente;

COORDINADORA DE COMUNIDADES KICHWAS DE LA AMAZONIA CORCKA

KAWSAYMANTA, YACHAYMANTA, SACHA ALLPAMANTA; AMA KILLA, AMA LLULLA, AMA SHUA.

PS: Les agradeceremos de sobremanera si pudieran traducir este texto al Francés, Alemán e Ingles para que nuestros otros compañeros también puedan comprender y solidarizarse.

POR LA DIGNIDAD DE LA NACIONALIDAD KICHWA Y UNA AMAZONIA VIVA.
POR SIEMPRE RECOKA-CORCKA!

Mariana Montesdeoca 228 y Av. 15 de Noviembre
Teléfono: (++593)(0)6 2887 865
Apartado Postal: Nap-15-01-114
E-mail: recoka@recoka.org
Web: www.recoka.org
AMAZONIA - TENA - NAPO - ECUADOR - SUDAMERICA

United Nations calls for U.S. accountability

by: Brenda Norrell /
Indian Country Today,
Posted: August 29, 2005

GENEVA - A United Nations committee on racial discrimination has asked the United States to respond to the Western Shoshone appeal for urgent intervention, regarding the attack on their spiritual and cultural areas by the United States and mining corporations.

Mario Yutzis, chairman of the U.N. Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, issued a formal letter to the United States and questioned why Western Shoshone sacred land and treaty rights are not being honored.

The committee pressed the United States for an explanation of expanded mining and nuclear waste storage on Western Shoshone ancestral land, and for ''placing their land up for auction for privatization.''

Further, the committee questioned whether the Treaty of Ruby Valley of 1863 has been abrogated and the imposition of grazing fees, trespass and collection notices, horse and livestock impoundments and restrictions on hunting and fishing.

Western Shoshone said their lands cover approximately 60 million acres stretching across what is now referred to as the states of Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California. The United States claims about 90 percent of the land base is ''public'' or federally controlled lands.

Western Shoshone challenge the United States' assertion of ownership, stating that there has never been a legally valid transfer, sale or cession of land by the Western Shoshone.

The United States was asked to report to the U.N. committee on the arrests of Western Shoshone while using lands claimed as their ancestral lands. Further, the United States was asked how it deals with sacred lands and whether it ensures effective participation by indigenous communities in decisions affecting them.

The United States was asked to provide an explanation of the approval of expanded mining activities in the Mt. Tenabo area in Crescent Valley and the approval to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

''Both areas are of spiritual and cultural importance to the Western Shoshone and are sites where local creation stories originate,'' a Western Shoshone delegation, in Geneva Aug. 8 - 20, said in a statement.

Western Shoshone said the appeal for urgent intervention was taken to prevent further escalation of federal assaults on Western Shoshone people and their ancestral lands. The delegation was and presented the requests.

Chief Raymond Yowell of the Western Shoshone National Council was encouraged by the U.N. response.

''We are pleased that the United Nations committee is willing to look into this. We encourage the U.S. to respond in an honorable manner and to begin to work toward a solution on this long standing matter - for the benefit of all concerned.''

In the August letter, the U.N. committee noted with concern the allegation that Western Shoshone are being denied their traditional rights to land. Further, the committee questioned whether the subsequent use and occupation of these lands by others would cumulatively lead to irreparable harm:

''The committee, in particular, has received information concerning reinvigorated federal efforts to open a nationwide nuclear waste repository on Western Shoshone land; passage of controversial legislation allowing for distribution of compensation for the alleged extinguishment of Western Shoshone title over land; alleged legislative efforts to privatize Western Shoshone lands for transfer to multinational extractive industries and energy developers; and alleged seizures of Western Shoshone livestock and imposition of heavy trespass fines against Western Shoshone people.''

Further, the committee questioned the United States' assertion that the Western Shoshone people lost their rights to their ancestral lands, as identified in the 1863 treaty, as a result of ''gradual encroachment'' by non-American Indians.

The committee asked whether this violated the right of everyone, without discrimination, to own property alone as well as in association with others.

Another issue raised was whether Western Shoshone were involved and informed of the U.S. Indian Claim Commission decision regarding their ancestral lands.

The United States was asked for its response to Western Shoshone protests over compensation in the 2004 Western Shoshone Claims Distribution Act and whether the act was fair and adequate.

Another question raised concerned Western Shoshone's access to the judicial process to assert title to their land.

The committee's letter was issued on the final day of its 67th session, Aug. 19, after a private meeting with representatives from the United States. The United States was informed that the questions presented were based on the request from the Western Shoshone National Council, and by the Western people of the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, Winnemucca Indian Colony and Yomba Shoshone Tribe.

In the letter, Yutzis said the committee appreciates the frank and open preliminary discussion, which took place Aug. 8 between representatives of the United States and the committee's Working Group on Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedure.

According to Yutzis, the United States assured the committee that reports on Western Shoshone issues, now far behind schedule (they were due in November 2003), are currently being prepared. However, the committee said it regrets that the United States has not agreed to submit the reports by a specific date.

The committee asked for a response to the questions by Dec. 31 for further examination at its next session, beginning Feb. 20, 2006 in Geneva.

-- C 1998 - 2005 Indian Country Today

NAHUACALLI
Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples
802 N. 7th Street
Phoenix, AZ  85006

September 1, 2005

Dear Relatives,

On September 9-10th, 2005 the Nahuacalli will be hosting Dr. Walter Reid, Director of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) which is a historic global initiative commissioned by Secretary General Kofi Anan of the United Nations to provide a first time comprehensive scientific evaluation of the environmental health of our Mother Earth.  This study, which was accomplished with the assistance of Indigenous Peoples, was completed this past spring and will be the focus of a two-day dialogue and set of presentations on the significance of the MA, and implications for local development strategies of our Indigenous Nations and human society as a whole.  A specific focus of our talks will concern the recognition, and protection of Sacred Sites of the Indigenous Peoples as a set of values and rights in the community development process in the Greater Southwest and the world.

The symposium events begin with a traditional welcoming and opening remarks at the Nahuacalli on Friday the 9th at 6:00 PM, located at 802 N. 7th Street in downtown Phoenix, and will continue into the evening. The agenda for Saturday morning the 10th will continue at the Nahuacalli, and at 1:00 PM the gathering will move to Pueblo Grande Museum and Archeological Park located at 4619 E. Washington Street.  Traditional closing ceremonies will be at 4:00 PM.

This event is the second in part a series of events being implemented along the trajectory of development for the TIANKIZCO project, a continental center of Indigenous Trade and Culture which is being led by TONATIERRA and located at the gateway to downtown Phoenix.  The annual anchor event of Indigenous Peoples Day March 12, 2006 is part of this series.

Protocols for participation are under the Principles of Community Ecology, with special invitation to elements of governance from tribal to local, municipal, county and state, that have overview to the responsibilities of environmental and ecosystem management and protection.

As a departure point for dialogue, the Nahuacalli has proposed discussion of the correlations evident in the Seven Global Currencies of the Indigenous Peoples - Life Sustaining Systems of Exchange and Reciprocity - An Evaluation Matrix for the Global Economy and Millennium Development Goals. 

Further information available at the TONATIERRA website: www.tonatierra.org and for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: www.millenniumassessment.org.

Please contact Tupac Enrique Acosta, Coordinator for more information at (602) 254-5230, or by Email : chantlaca@aol.com.     

- rsvp -

"We are also convinced that the experience of the MA will transform the nature of future environmental assessments.  ‘Scientific’ assessments, which privilege scientific knowledge over other types of knowledge, will now give way to ‘ knowledge assessments’ that recognize the value and legitimacy of many forms of knowledge held by different groups of people."

Presentation by Dr. Walter Reid at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Wednesday, May 18, 2005 | United Nations, New York, US http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/Article.aspx?id=65

An Evaluation Matrix of Evaluation for the Global Economy and Millennium Development Goals

The Breath of Life
The Water of Life
The Givers of Life
The Sustainers of Life
The Foundation of Life
The Sharers of Life
The Seed of Life

La Palabra de Tonatierra

Agosto 10, 2005

Salvador Reza Con dinero baila el perro, o el chango, o la gallina, es un dicho muy antiguo, pero cada quien le compone de acuerdo a su experiencia. En el EZLN según el Sup hay un gallo que se cree pingüino, “por su manera de andar.” Pero este Gallo creo que no baila por dinero, lucha pa’ defenderse y pa’ que no se lo echen al plato como a todos los pollos en los alrededores. O se lo comen los soldados o si no los del EZ. No se si será verdad, ya ven el Marcos tiene mucha imaginación, pero en la realidad maravillosa de la Selva y los Altos cualquier cosa puede pasar. Esas tierras parecen encantadas por la naturaleza, Chiapas es como descender al país de las mil maravillas. No que el desierto de Arizona no tenga lo suyo también. Las víboras abundan acá, así que mucho cuidado con las “forked tongues” como dicen los Lakotas. Forked Tongues son las lenguas largas en forma de serpiente. No porque la pobrecita serpiente sea mala, sino por el mal nombre que le dan con el aguijoneo y el chisme. El otro día iba caminando por el Macehualtepec, una montañita que la nombramos así porque es el guardián del Centro Macehualli. “Macehual” por lo de Macehualli, (El que merece por su esfuerzo y trabajo) y “Tepec” por lo del cerrito. Al ir caminando note una gobernadora, (no la Napolitano) una de esas plantitas hermosas que reinan en el desierto. Despedía ese perfume que nos llega cada vez que llegan los aguaceros, y radiaba de gusto con sus hojas bien verdes como diciéndome, “aguántate un poco después de la sequía vienen las lluvias aunque sea allá cada cinco a diez años.” Quizás ustedes no lo sepan pero algunas de esas gobernadoras estaban aquí cuando el primer europeo piso tierras Aztlanecas. Dicen los expertos que una gobernadora toma 200 años para llegar a la madurez. Fíjense la diferencia, en el reino del desierto se toma tiempo para ser gobernante pero acá cualquier hablador/a sube al poder sin tener que aguantar asoleadas, aguaceros, granizos, heladas. Sin esa experiencia es fácil dictar ordenanzas, enmiendas, o leyes con un Plumón. ¡Si! Con pluma en mano barren no solo con el Macehualli, sino con tanta plantita aspirante a vivir 200 años para darnos la aroma más deliciosa y limpiar la contaminación que dejamos en el desierto. Bueno, al grano y la gallina es suya. ¿O será la gallina que pone los huevos de oro? Esto de la Migración es negocio redondo, todos se hacen ricos al costo del indocumentado. Al Coyote le va bien, al migra no tanto pero tiene pa’ vivir, los políticos no se diga. El que quiere deportarlos le llueve lana pa’ ser electo y el que se opone también. Como me dijo alguien muy conocido. “Si esta ley de reforma de inmigración pasa, me hago millonario.” Y los del gobierno, pues reponen el déficit de la guerra de Irak y el Seguro Social con los Macehualli, que pagan impuestos pero nunca los recuperan. O pero no se les olvide los piratas que hacen dinero vendiendo no solo CD’s pirateados sino con la “Chueca” y hasta con las “Derechas.” Nomás que las buenas están fuera del presupuesto trabajador. Tengo entendido que algunos de allá de China pagan hasta cuarenta mil por mica. ¿Que les parece? A todo mundo le va bien, pero en las esquinas y en los centros de trabajo el que hace sesenta al día se siente afortunado. Algo no cuaja en esta relación. Y como dice la canción, “arrieros somos y en el camino andamos y cada quien tendrá su merecido…” Aunque algunos se enojen, “porque no aprovechamos el momento pa’ juntar harta lana.” Nosotros como la plantita gobernadora, le apostamos a las siete generaciones. ¿A ver quien sigue aquí en 200 años? Hay unos de carrera corta y otros de carrera larga. ¿De cual es usted?

"Indigenous Peoples joining anti-globalization protests.''

Article: Indian Country Today
www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096411352
Posted: August 04, 2005
by: Nilo Cayuqueo / Abya Yala Nexus

''It's a hypocrisy that the Canadian government is sponsoring that event while they are opposing and denying the indigenous rights in all the international conferences, and their oil, mining [uranium], logging, water and other corporations are taking advantage of the globalization, plundering natural resources and contaminating the environment.''

Luis Macas, Confederation of Indigenous Nationalites of Ecuador -
CONAIE www.conaie.org

''The United Nations, in the last session of Human Rights in Geneva, recommended to the Canadian government to make efforts to improve the lives of Native peoples who are the poorest of the poor. Yet, the Canadian government has been successful in co-opting the indigenous leadership by creating a well-paid Canadian Aboriginals bureaucracy and is now trying to export this model to Latin America.''

Arthur Manuel, a Shushwap from British Columbia, Canada : Indigenous Network for Economies and Trade - INET http://topics.developmentgateway.org/indigenous/rc/ItemDetail.do~1037804

Declaration of Quito 1990

The situation of Indigenous Peoples is subject to national policies which serve the economic Interests of foreign powers, (who In turn] promote national governments which benefit a small minority. In order to remain in power, these governments utilize diverse economic, political and ideological Instruments - education, religion, the media, and different "development" projects which do not harmonize with the reality of the people.

It is urgent that we denounce and disclaim the shadow organizations created by governments in order to divide legitimate Indigenous organizations.

Indigenous Alliance of the Americas on 500 Years of Resistance - Quito, Ecuador 1990
Commission on Indigenous Organization, Experience, and Means of Communication and Coordination
http://www.nativeweb.org/papers/statements/quincentennial/quito.php

TREATY OF TEOTIHUACAN

The TREATY OF TEOTIHUACAN is a mutual commitment, empowered by the Jurisprudence of Indigenous International Law in four aspects:

• Spiritual Alliance,
• Political Solidarity
• Cultural Understandings, and
• Economic and Commercial Agreements of Exchange- POCHTECAYOTL across the continent

At the Summit of Teotihuacan, the obsidian stone point of the arrowhead appeared in our hands, the direction of flight for the Arrow of Destiny was given by the Elders, and with the strength of our Youth the Bow of Nations was drawn. The battle for Hope was won, but along the way we came to realize the extent of the challenges ahead, both internal and external to our families, communities, Nations, Pueblos, and indigenous organizations. This is good. We must know where we are at in order to get to where we must be.

www.cumbrecontinentalindigena.org
CompraCumbres : Canadian government plan to buy off Indigenous Leadership

Indigenous peoples build their own strategy at
the fourth Summit of the Americas

Preparations for the fourth Summit of the Americas, where the heads of all states in the Americas except Cuba will meet, are underway. It will take place Nov. 4 - 5 in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

In the fold of globalization, the heads of state in the Americas, including President Bush, will gather to discuss and sign new economic and political agreements. Led by the United States and Canada, the propagators and driving forces of these summits, it takes place every four years. The first summit was held in Miami in 1994.

Also being organized - with economic and political support from the Canadian government, the Assembly of First Nations of Canada and the Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Argentina - is the second Summit of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, to take place in Buenos Aires one week before the presidents' summit.

The first summit of indigenous peoples, also sponsored by the Canadian government under the theme ''Indigenous Peoples Connecting to the New Economy,'' took place in Ottawa in March 2001 three weeks before the third Summit of the Americas, held that year in Quebec City.

Many indigenous organizations from across the continent are in disagreement with the planned official indigenous summit in Buenos Aires, which they see as being manipulated by the Canadian government. These groups have decided to organize a more independent indigenous summit in Mar del Plata (420 kilometers to the south on the Atlantic coast) on Oct. 30 and Nov. 1, three days prior to the presidents' summit.

In Argentina, The Mapuche Confederation of Neuquen, the Indigenous Commission of the Argentinean Lawyers Association of Argentina (CJIRA), in consultation with important indigenous peoples' organizations such as the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC), the Kuna Congress of Panama and about 20 more organizations of the Americas, including American Indians from the United States and Canada, are involved in the organization of the independent summit and have made a call to other indigenous organizations of the continent to come to Mar del Plata.

Some history: In March 2001, under the invitation of the Assembly of the First Nations and entirely financed by the Canadian government, about 170 delegates from Latin America traveled to Ottawa to attend the Indigenous Summit of the Americas. The indigenous delegates from Latin America attended in good faith; but after studying the draft document in the agenda submitted by the AFN, they expressed the suspicion that the intention of the Canadian government appeared to be to make indigenous delegates endorse globalization agreements such as Free Trade Area of the Americas.

The document assumed a positive presentation of economic policies that are very controversial and often opposed by many southern indigenous organizations. The assumed theme of the conference was found in the title: ''Indigenous Peoples Connecting to the New Economy.'' The indigenous delegates reported that the draft would undermine their rights and rewrote large portions of the document; later, they were displeased to find that their final document, which they wanted to hear discussed, was severely softened before presentation to the heads of state.

Also, indigenous delegates from Latin America were disappointed at and frustrated with the arbitrary and strategically intrusive decision from the far North to hold the Indigenous Summit of the Americas three weeks before the president's summit. To facilitate the expense for Indian delegates, the southern groups had agreed to an indigenous meeting within days of the nation states' summit. The northern decision confused their own strategies, which was to lobby the presidents; it also impeded them from joining the thousands of people who gathered in Quebec to protest current economic globalization policies.

When asked why the change of dates, an official from the Canadian government who wanted to remain anonymous said bluntly: ''The Canadian government will pay for the meeting but does not want indigenous peoples joining anti-globalization protests.''

The official indigenous summit in Buenos Aires, with a more than half-million-dollar budget funded by the Canadian government, will display hundreds of cultural indigenous performers, youth, women, elders and business people, plus high-tech demonstrations. Then the delegates will return to their countries, because there is no arrangement made for them to travel to Mar del Plata to join the civil society forums.

An official of the Indigenous Affairs Ministry of the Canadian government, now working for the AFN, was appointed executive secretary of the Indigenous Summit. Last year in an informal talk in New York, he stated that, ''We, Aboriginals, are not to get involved with anti-globalization protesters.'' He also mentioned that a document will be elaborated in Buenos Aires and that a delegation of indigenous representatives chosen at the Indigenous Summit in Buenos Aires will travel to Mar del Plata to deliver the document to the presidents' summit.

Last March, when the conflict between indigenous organizations in Argentina stalled progress because of the issue with the Canadian government, a delegation from the Canadian Ministry of External Affairs of the Canadian government traveled to Buenos Aires to try to convince them to reconcile their differences and work together for the success of the summit.

Community-connected representatives of indigenous peoples from the Americas have strong and very pressing issues. We are concerned about the economic globalization strategies conducted by transnational corporations who are exploiting and taking away indigenous peoples' land and territories, most often with the complicity of nation-state governments. Many of those projects are still financed by multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, private commercial banks and other international financial institutions.

At the same time, indigenous leaders who are defending their rights are repressed and even assassinated by military and paramilitary groups. The war against terrorism driven by President Bush after 9/11 has been adopted by governments to criminalize the peaceful demands of indigenous peoples, accusing them of terrorist activities against democracy. Amnesty International, in its 2005 reports, states: ''The war on terror is a new source of abuses of human rights; it is threatening to expand to Latin America, targeting indigenous peoples that are demanding autonomy and protesting market policies and neo-liberal globalization.''

In our estimation, the Canadian government went a bit far this time in trying to divide the indigenous movements and separate them from many potential allies among genuine and representative civil society organizations who are demanding justice and want to build a more democratic and inclusive society. We agree with the Ecuadorian Indian leader, Luis Macas, who said recently: ''It's a hypocrisy that the Canadian government is sponsoring that event [the official indigenous summit] while they are opposing and denying the indigenous rights in all the international conferences, and their oil, mining [uranium], logging, water and other corporations are taking advantage of the globalization, plundering natural resources and contaminating the environment.''

In the indigenous summit's agenda in Buenos Aires, the AFN features an indigenous business summit. There will be hundreds of cultural performers and they will offer ''The Powwow of the Americas.'' This too is typical of Northern Indians/Southern Indians relationships. The pow wow is a folkloric activity and cultural element of the Native peoples of parts of Canada and United States but it is not engaged at all by indigenous peoples in Latin America. We indigenous peoples have to build unity between North and South, but paternalism and political manipulation gets in the way of our understanding, even among Indians.

Arthur Manuel, a Shushwap from British Columbia and former chief, said: ''The United Nations, in the last session of Human Rights in Geneva, recommended to the Canadian government to make efforts to improve the lives of Native peoples who are the poorest of the poor. Yet, the Canadian government has been successful in co-opting the indigenous leadership by creating a well-paid Canadian Aboriginals bureaucracy and is now trying to export a model to Latin America.''

http://www.cumbrecontinentalindigena.org
Email: cumbrecontinentalindigena@yahoo.com.ar

Nilo Cayuqueo, Mapuche from Argentina, is the co-director of Abya Yal Nexus for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples based in Oakland, Calif. He can be reached at nilocayu@earthlink.net.

Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Organizations Mar del Plata

POLITICAL DECLARATION
and CALL to the INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF ABYA YALA
( North, Central and South America)
October 30, 31 -November 1, 2005
Mar del Plata, Argentina

The resistance and historical struggle of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas in defense of their territories and cultural identity today extends to every corner of the continent. Throughout the hemisphere, the Indigenous Peoples movement of self-determination confronts the contemporary neoliberal-capitalist model of colonization, a model attempting to consolidate an imperial project of domination and unlimited plunder. This economic model of expropriation and genocide has absolutely no loyalty whatsoever to human cultural identity or nationality, but is supported by those countries trying to reinforce their hemispheric power base in pursuit of global hegemony: the U.S. and Canada.

Across the centuries, two political blocs can be identified clearly in what has been an endless conflict of colonization: on the one side, a consortium of economic interests without identity or nationality but with governments in open collusion, and on the other, the Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala. Presently, between these two central protagonists in this historical conflict appear the 34 States of Central and South America. It is a time of decision. The Government States must either distance themselves from North American hegemony or, replicate the master’s policies of oppression and repression within those States. The choice is clear: Either to subordinate the respective national economic resources to the U.S. corporate interests or, to assert sovereign policies, together with their Peoples, in pursuit of sustainability.

It is in this context that the Canadian Government is presently orchestrating an “Indigenous Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina”, a week before all of the Presidents of the Organization of American States, including President Bush, gather in Mar de Plata, Argentina in November. We cannot accept this manipulation and intrusion by the Government of Canada while Canadian transnational companies continue to exploit and pollute our territories and, jointly with the U.S., are in the forefront of the imposition of inhuman regimes of economic globalization across the continent.

The “summit” being orchestrated by Canada is an attempt to manipulate Indigenous organizations into meeting in Buenos Aires a week before the Presidents’ Summit at a distance of almost 300 miles from Mar del Plata, far removed from the decision making processes and with a prefabricated agenda that is safely depoliticized and mostly folkloric in content. The indigenous delegates will be unable to travel to Mar del Plata. The intention is clear: to divide the Indigenous Movement and to separate us from those sectors of civil society and popular organizations going to Mar del Plata to debate the future and to denounce the unjust globalizing policies imposed upon our continent. With U.S. political support, Canada is brazenly funding the Buenos Aires event, an overt act of attempted manipulation, colonization and control over the indigenous movement at a continental scale.

For that reason, we call our brothers of the Indigenous Organizations of the Continent not to be manipulated by a “summit” which will only serve the political and economic interests of the government states of the North. As relatives, we invite all Indigenous Nations to join forces to attend our own Indigenous Summit in Mar del Plata to genuinely deliberate about our future, and from there to send a clear message to all the governments and civil society across the continent.

The Chiefs of State of the 34 states will be meeting on November 4th and 5th in Mar del Plata, Argentina, at the IV Summit of the Americas, organized by the OAS. The center of attention in this event, the main items on the agenda – where we as Indigenous Peoples cannot be absent – will be the mechanisms for control and exploitation of the wealth of our territories, biodiversity and traditional knowledge.

From this agenda we can expect the tools for pillage and destruction to be honed, greasing the path for compacts under the W.T.O., reinforcing the so-called Free Trade Agreements, including promoting the imposition of the FTAA, while new threats will be created making payment of the fraudulent national external debts impossible. We can expect accelerated militarization across the region to contain and repress resistance, along with the criminalizing of our just demands and the imposition of privatization of the main public services. In all, we shall face the deepening of existing poverty, inequality, and marginalization. Fundamentally, we as Indigenous Peoples are confronted with a pogrom of advanced ideological extermination, intent on the destruction of any cultural position that will cast doubt upon the economic hegemony of the northern countries.

For these reasons we call now to our Nations, Pueblos and Organizations to mobilize across our continent from one shore to the other. We shall emerge from the valleys and pampas, from the forests and deserts, from mountains and snow-capped peaks, for the world to witness and listen. We shall arrive from our territories where biodiversity is a way of life, a way of life nowadays threatened by invasion, where ecological devastation must be reversed for the well being of the entire planet.

This is not a new struggle. We assert with dignity and give full historical value to our collective history as a movement of Indigenous Peoples of the entire continent. We recall for clarity and with self determination the First Continental Encounter of Indigenous Peoples in Quito, Ecuador 1990, the Second Continental Encounter of Indigenous Nations, Pueblos and Organizations in Temoaya, México - 1993, as well as the First Continental Indigenous Summit of Teotihuacan, México - 2000, and the Second Continental Indigenous Summit, Abya Yala, held in Quito, Ecuador - 2004.

To confront the impunity of centuries of systematic violations by the colonizers, we have always relied upon the strength and the power our elders and ancestors. It is their teaching to venerate and preserve Mother Nature, which is source of all life. Over millennia, we have created the political, cultural and social institutions of our Nations and Pueblos, realizing in the present a practical and spiritual alternative to the dehumanizing regimes of globalization.

With this responsibility in our hands, in facing the current situation, our analysis must be crystal clear:

On what basis can the U.S. and Canada legitimize the imposition of “free trade agreements”, such as the Central American Free Agreement - CAFTA, the Free Trade of the Americas - FTAA and other trade regimes upon the Indigenous Peoples, we who have sustained our nations for millennia with economies of reciprocity, redistribution and complementarity with nature?

What mechanisms and safeguards will be effectively implemented to guarantee the survival of our peoples in such a multi-national corporate market-driven world, where power is more and more concentrated and controlled by macroeconomic powers?

What model for the State must we demand, when the diversity we represent (cultural-biological and geographic) is targeted within the same strategic ecosystems where the “competitive” natural resources are located?

How shall we implement our continuing diversity, as reflected through our systems of collective identity, with our communally legitimized institutions, built upon legal principles supported by millennia of development? How shall we confront the dominant models of civil relations based on racism, colonization, corruption, clientelism, and the “partyocracies” of the empresarial democracy of the States?

We must emerge with self determination from the context of centuries of colonization, challenging the OAS as a regional organization of the United Nations system, in violation of the right of “Self Determination” of Peoples as proclaimed by UN General Assembly resolutions 1514 and 1541 (1960).

Towards that goal, we now propose the transformation of the present Government-States in our hemisphere to in Pluri-National Status with implemented policies recognizing and supporting our rights to exercise:

Self Determination as Indigenous Peoples, being Nations and Pueblos of prior historical existence in the continent, preceding the establishment of the modern states now recognized within the OAS.

Full Control of our territories, which we claim by history and by inalienable legal right, undiminished and in the context of the present.

Models of our own development based on our traditional forms of knowledge and practices that will guarantee our peoples’ survival, the perpetuation of our Nations in harmony with our environment, in happiness and equilibrium.

Autonomy in political, juridical, fiscal, territorial and cultural affairs.

Today we face a formidable challenge, which calls for us as Indigenous Peoples to connect and articulate in common with those social and cultural movements of the continent struggling for diversity in opposition to the monopoly regimes of “free trade”. We shall join with those who also resist against violence and relocation, with those resisting removal from their homelands and cultural and physical repression; we shall join with those who continue to create the world in spite of the regimes of colonization and impunity.

We now share this message with our indigenous relatives across the continent, with the goal to meet in Continental Summit at Mar del Plata from October 30th to November 1st as Indigenous Peoples and Organizations

MARICIWEU – JALLALLA – KAUSACHUM! Todos Unidos Avanzando! ! ALL AHEAD TOGETHER !

Por ONIC – Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia - LUIS EVELIS ANDRADE CASAMA
Por AIDESEP – Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana Perú, HAROLDO SALAZAR ROSSI
Por Kus-Kura, Proyecto Ecológico Kan Tan- COSTA RICA José Carlos Morales
Por el Comité Inter-Tribal, BRASIL, Marcos Terena
Por el Enlace Continental de Mujeres Indígenas –ECMI: Margarita Gutiérrez
Por Wara-BRASIL Azelene Kaingang
Por Congreso General Kuna, Panamá, Representante Provisional Héctor Huertas
Por CIDOB – BOLIVIA, Presidente de Confederación Indígena del Oriente Boliviano, Saúl Chávez
Por la Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas de Ecuador–C.O.N.A.I.E.- ECUADOR Luis Macas
Por Indigenous Environmental Network – I.E.N., ESTADOS UNIDOS, Tom GoldTooth
Por TONATIERRA - AZTLAN, Tupac Enrique Acosta
Por Abya Yala Nexus, ESTADOS UNIDOS, Nilo Cayuqueo
Por el Consejo de Organizaciones Lencas de Honduras, COPINH – HONDURAS, Salvador Zúñiga
Por Organización Fraternal Negra de Honduras, OFRANEH - HONDURAS.
Por Comisión de Juristas Indígenas en la República Argentina – C.J.I.R.A.- ARGENTINA, Dr. Eulogio Frites – Dr. Eduardo Nieva
Por la COORDINACION DE ORGANIZACIONES MAPUCHE – ARGENTINA, Jorge Nahuel, Werken – Huilipan Verónica, Werken -

Secretaría de la Cumbre Continental de Pueblos y Organizaciones Indígenas
Lavalle 437 4º ‘B’. (CP 1047) Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires –
Tel./Fax: 0054 11 4326 2940
E-mail: cumbrecontinentalindigena@yahoo.com.ar cumbreindigenabyayala.org