Agreements Of The Iii Encuentro Campesino Mesoamericano (Rural Convention Of Middle America)
21/07/2003
- Opinión
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
July 2003 The three Rural Conventions of Middle America that have been held so far (Tapachula, Managua and Tegucigalpa), have each represented a breakthrough in support, representation, participation, and wealth of proposals. We have always had a common history, common problems, shared experiences and thanks to these meetings we now also have a Middle America Rural Platform and a better mutual understanding and trust. However, the action plans agreed at these meetings are being carried out to a minor degree and the Liaison Committee, which we agreed to form at the Managua Meeting, has functioned very slightly. That is to say that this understanding between Middle American campesinos has not yet become a true regional organisation. Setting up this organisation and giving it a formal status is the most urgent task identified at the III Convention. To achieve this we have agreed the following: * To institutionalise the regional campesino coordination which will be called: * Movimiento Indígena y Campesino Mesoamericano (Moicam) (Middle American Indigenous and Rural Movement). * For the purpose of this alliance, we understand Middle America to include Central America (Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rice and Panama), Mexico (in its entirety) and the Caribbean. * Moicam will be formed only by grass-roots organisations. * Moicam will be a strategic, horizontal, broad, plural convergence and will always respect the autonomy of each one of the participant organisations. * Moicam's general principles are: – To resist neo-liberalism while constructing an alternative. – To promote protests with proposals. – To combine mobilisation with negotiation. – To ensure that the social struggle has a political impact. – To work to strengthen national, regional, continental and global alliances. * All of the themes of the Middle America Rural Platform are equally important, but for the subsequent 12 months the main areas of action, to be promoted jointly, will be those that follow: All of the actions concern all of the countries and organisations: however, some of these will be coordinated by those countries and organisations that can better manage these issues. * There are two transverse themes which cut across all the broad themes: gender and youth. * LAND: * Reclaim the land as part of nature: the land that sustains us is not merchandise. * Reclaim the land as territory of the original peoples: the right to the land of our ancestors. * Reclaim the land as a means of production: the land belongs to those who work it. * In particular promote the Integral Agrarian Reform, which not only includes access to the land but also public policies of commercialisation, financing, technical assistance, training and, in general, protection and promotion of the campesino economy. * Actions: To organise the "Week of the Earth" in all countries in Mesoamerica annually during April, commencing in 2004 and within the framework of the mobilisations promoted by the Vía Campesina. * COMMERCIAL TREATIES AND THE WTO: * Make known the terrible effects which commercial agreements are causing to the peoples of the weakest countries and in particular to their agriculture and campesinos. * Exchange experiences between countries which are suffering under different commercial agreements and which are fighting them, in particular the experience of Mexican campesinos in their fight against NAFTA. * Participate in the mobilisation against the WTO in September in Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico and undertake protest actions in each of our countries: boycott US products such as Coca Cola, Texaco, McDonalds, etc. * Participate in the III Hemispheric Meeting against the FTAA (Cuba). * WOMEN: * Promote the I Encuentro Mujeres Indígenas y Campesinas Mesoamericana (I Middle American Convention of Indigenous and Campesino Women). * Link into the already existing networks, of Asocode in CA, CLOC in the continent and of the Vía Campesina on a world level. * Promoters: Nicaragua, Honduras, Cuba and Mexico. * YOUTH AND GENERATIONAL SUCCESSION: * Promote the I Encuentro Juvenil Indígena y Campesino Mesoamericano (I Middle American Convention of Indigenous and Campesino Youth). * Promoters: Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras. * RIGHTS OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: * With the impetus of the traditional mobilisation during October, develop affirmative actions; occupation of borders, etc. * Promoters: Mexico, Nicaragua and Guatemala. * NATURAL RESOURCES AND BIODIVERSITY: * Join the permanent campaign of "La semilla criolla patrimonio de los pueblos al servicio de la humanidad". (Traditional seeds, heritage of peoples at the service of humanity). * Strengthen the reclamation and protection work of traditional seeds against the Transnationals' plans to patent them. * Reject GM seeds and GM produce: promote the production of agricultural produce and healthy livestock: and promote the consumption of national products. * Promoter: Costa Rica. * FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: * To give recognition to experiences that combine the reclamation of knowledge of the peoples in the production of food with the incorporation of advanced sustainable technologies. * Proposals for public policies for the protection and promotion of food production (Mexican experience of the Acuerdo Nacional para el Campo). * Promoters: Nicaragua, Cuba. * MIGRATION: * To participate in the Convention of Migration in Michoacán, Mexico, in December 2003. * Declaration of the III Convention demanding an end to the Mexican government's repressive, persecutory and inhuman attitude towards Latin-American migrants, on a par with or worse than US immigration police. * Commitment of the campesino organisations of Mexico, Costa Rica and Guatemala to the defence and denunciation of unjust treatment towards campesino migration. * Participate in the Middle American Migrant Network. * DEFINITION OF PRIORITIES AND COMPLETION OF THE CAMPESINA PLATFORM: * Update regional diagnosis. * Give more concrete and specific contents to the proposals of the Rural Platform with the aim of making actions and demands more concrete. * Promoters: Mexico and Cuba. * In order to be able to develop these activities a Liaison Committee will be incorporated, with communication, coordination, monitoring functions among others. The Committee will be formed by a representative from each country, selected by common agreement by all the organisations participating in the Movement. This Committee will then be able to form a working committee. While the Committee is being set in motion, Honduras and El Salvador will provisionally undertake liaison functions. * The themes indicated above were also covered in the work groups and in one of the plenary sessions, so the resolutions of the aforementioned groups contain the fundamental aspects of the plans; this resolution includes only the general outlines. The IV Encuentro Indígena y Campesino (IV Indigenous and Campesino Convention) will be held in approximately one year's time in the Republic of El Salvador. We expect this meeting to be Moicam's first, which will depend on whether the agreements we have made today are put into practise.
July 2003 The three Rural Conventions of Middle America that have been held so far (Tapachula, Managua and Tegucigalpa), have each represented a breakthrough in support, representation, participation, and wealth of proposals. We have always had a common history, common problems, shared experiences and thanks to these meetings we now also have a Middle America Rural Platform and a better mutual understanding and trust. However, the action plans agreed at these meetings are being carried out to a minor degree and the Liaison Committee, which we agreed to form at the Managua Meeting, has functioned very slightly. That is to say that this understanding between Middle American campesinos has not yet become a true regional organisation. Setting up this organisation and giving it a formal status is the most urgent task identified at the III Convention. To achieve this we have agreed the following: * To institutionalise the regional campesino coordination which will be called: * Movimiento Indígena y Campesino Mesoamericano (Moicam) (Middle American Indigenous and Rural Movement). * For the purpose of this alliance, we understand Middle America to include Central America (Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rice and Panama), Mexico (in its entirety) and the Caribbean. * Moicam will be formed only by grass-roots organisations. * Moicam will be a strategic, horizontal, broad, plural convergence and will always respect the autonomy of each one of the participant organisations. * Moicam's general principles are: – To resist neo-liberalism while constructing an alternative. – To promote protests with proposals. – To combine mobilisation with negotiation. – To ensure that the social struggle has a political impact. – To work to strengthen national, regional, continental and global alliances. * All of the themes of the Middle America Rural Platform are equally important, but for the subsequent 12 months the main areas of action, to be promoted jointly, will be those that follow: All of the actions concern all of the countries and organisations: however, some of these will be coordinated by those countries and organisations that can better manage these issues. * There are two transverse themes which cut across all the broad themes: gender and youth. * LAND: * Reclaim the land as part of nature: the land that sustains us is not merchandise. * Reclaim the land as territory of the original peoples: the right to the land of our ancestors. * Reclaim the land as a means of production: the land belongs to those who work it. * In particular promote the Integral Agrarian Reform, which not only includes access to the land but also public policies of commercialisation, financing, technical assistance, training and, in general, protection and promotion of the campesino economy. * Actions: To organise the "Week of the Earth" in all countries in Mesoamerica annually during April, commencing in 2004 and within the framework of the mobilisations promoted by the Vía Campesina. * COMMERCIAL TREATIES AND THE WTO: * Make known the terrible effects which commercial agreements are causing to the peoples of the weakest countries and in particular to their agriculture and campesinos. * Exchange experiences between countries which are suffering under different commercial agreements and which are fighting them, in particular the experience of Mexican campesinos in their fight against NAFTA. * Participate in the mobilisation against the WTO in September in Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico and undertake protest actions in each of our countries: boycott US products such as Coca Cola, Texaco, McDonalds, etc. * Participate in the III Hemispheric Meeting against the FTAA (Cuba). * WOMEN: * Promote the I Encuentro Mujeres Indígenas y Campesinas Mesoamericana (I Middle American Convention of Indigenous and Campesino Women). * Link into the already existing networks, of Asocode in CA, CLOC in the continent and of the Vía Campesina on a world level. * Promoters: Nicaragua, Honduras, Cuba and Mexico. * YOUTH AND GENERATIONAL SUCCESSION: * Promote the I Encuentro Juvenil Indígena y Campesino Mesoamericano (I Middle American Convention of Indigenous and Campesino Youth). * Promoters: Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras. * RIGHTS OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: * With the impetus of the traditional mobilisation during October, develop affirmative actions; occupation of borders, etc. * Promoters: Mexico, Nicaragua and Guatemala. * NATURAL RESOURCES AND BIODIVERSITY: * Join the permanent campaign of "La semilla criolla patrimonio de los pueblos al servicio de la humanidad". (Traditional seeds, heritage of peoples at the service of humanity). * Strengthen the reclamation and protection work of traditional seeds against the Transnationals' plans to patent them. * Reject GM seeds and GM produce: promote the production of agricultural produce and healthy livestock: and promote the consumption of national products. * Promoter: Costa Rica. * FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: * To give recognition to experiences that combine the reclamation of knowledge of the peoples in the production of food with the incorporation of advanced sustainable technologies. * Proposals for public policies for the protection and promotion of food production (Mexican experience of the Acuerdo Nacional para el Campo). * Promoters: Nicaragua, Cuba. * MIGRATION: * To participate in the Convention of Migration in Michoacán, Mexico, in December 2003. * Declaration of the III Convention demanding an end to the Mexican government's repressive, persecutory and inhuman attitude towards Latin-American migrants, on a par with or worse than US immigration police. * Commitment of the campesino organisations of Mexico, Costa Rica and Guatemala to the defence and denunciation of unjust treatment towards campesino migration. * Participate in the Middle American Migrant Network. * DEFINITION OF PRIORITIES AND COMPLETION OF THE CAMPESINA PLATFORM: * Update regional diagnosis. * Give more concrete and specific contents to the proposals of the Rural Platform with the aim of making actions and demands more concrete. * Promoters: Mexico and Cuba. * In order to be able to develop these activities a Liaison Committee will be incorporated, with communication, coordination, monitoring functions among others. The Committee will be formed by a representative from each country, selected by common agreement by all the organisations participating in the Movement. This Committee will then be able to form a working committee. While the Committee is being set in motion, Honduras and El Salvador will provisionally undertake liaison functions. * The themes indicated above were also covered in the work groups and in one of the plenary sessions, so the resolutions of the aforementioned groups contain the fundamental aspects of the plans; this resolution includes only the general outlines. The IV Encuentro Indígena y Campesino (IV Indigenous and Campesino Convention) will be held in approximately one year's time in the Republic of El Salvador. We expect this meeting to be Moicam's first, which will depend on whether the agreements we have made today are put into practise.
https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/108014
