The 3rd Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities will be held in Tecpán, Guatemala, capital of the Kekchikel Kingdom and located 87 kilometres west of the country’s capital. This is the sight of the great IXIMCHÉ, a city that was burned down by Spanish invaders at the order of Pedro de Alvarado, when his request for a tribute of gold from the indigenous people was not fulfilled. In spite of the brutal repression of that time, the plundering of their lands and the repression in the 1980s, the Mayan, Xinca and Garífuna peoples—now expressed as the Mayan Convergence Waq\'ib Kiej—and other regional organizational groups, will receive with open arms the delegates of the indigenous peoples and nationalities of the continent, in order to share their history and experiences of resistance and struggle.

The history of struggle and resistance of indigenous peoples, which began at the same time as the invasion of our territory more than five hundred years ago, continues to be an unresolved problem in most of the States of Abya Yala.

The organizations of the indigenous peoples of America have convened as the Continental Committee for the organization of the 3rd Summit, a space to undertake the structural problems caused by colonialism, repressive governments, implementation of the Free Trade Agreements and the recent globalization of economies. These are issues that directly and drastically affect the lives, customs, cultures and surroundings of individuals, communities and peoples.

Resistance to the model

The hemisphere has launched great struggles against globalization, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the Free Trade Agreements, and indigenous peoples and nationalities have been those most affected by these policies. The FTAA, a project of the United States, is nothing but that country’s territorial expansion, with aims of plundering our natural resources, biodiversity and cultural wealth for international companies to patent. Only with unity, struggle and resistance of the peoples, projects like the FTAA and those of the World Trade Organization, which treat agriculture and food like any other merchandise, have been defeated and stopped.

It is suspected that with the daily struggles of the peoples, "Another America Is Possible," using as an example the steps that the Andean countries are taking. The indigenous territorial policies of these countries exhibit the same general guidelines that were ratified in the ILO Agreement 169, incorporated in their respective Constitutions and extended in various ways within national forest, environmental and biodiversity legislation. Although the legal details of the territorial policies that exist in each country are different, all recognize that access to and possession of territory by indigenous peoples is a fundamental right; also that the State’s protection of their territory should be of high priority and should ensure its permanence. In addition, the governments share a legal definition of territory as, “the diversity of uses that have been traditionally given to the communities and Indigenous Peoples according to their cultural patterns.” Nevertheless, these advances do not result in the total respect of territorial rights, nor of the resources or the biodiversity existing within them.

In most countries today, indigenous peoples suffer persecution, threats and death. Mapuche brothers and sisters of Chile are persecuted by the western justice system; many are jailed and some have undergone house arrests. In Colombia, leaders and communities are kidnapped, go missing and are assassinated by the counterinsurgent policies of the government, or die in the crossfire of drug trafficking, paramilitary, military and the insurgency. In Guatemala, anti-riot groups evacuate Mayan communities constantly, in order to hand over this communal and national land to the supposed landowners.

The development model in the hemisphere goes against the logic of indigenous peoples and nationalities. While for us nature as a whole is part of life, to coexist with and to respect, the States impose models of plundering and overexploitation for the accumulation of capital. The national States do not have a vision of the future, and are selling natural resources without control to international companies, behind the backs and against the will of the peoples. This, of course, has resulted in big confrontations because it puts their lives and future in danger, not only those of individuals, but of nature and the planet as well.

Recovering the dignity of peoples and not submitting to the dictates of international financial associations are only outcomes of the struggles and resistance of indigenous peoples. This implies an effort of advocacy, organization, training and ample information for the people, so that they can actively and conscientiously participate, as a fundamental principle of structural changes. As a result, indigenous peoples will have full power and recognition in the medium and long term.

The debate at the Summit

The Summit, unquestionably, will contribute to the recognition and exercise of the rights of the indigenous peoples of Abya Yala. It will situate the specific issues of indigenous peoples and nationalities in international discussion groups and debates, and will make visible the demands of the various peoples and their organizations, contributing to the re-founding of the States at the national and continental level. It is urgent that these peoples and nationalities obtain real power in order to stop their extermination; whether by the policies of assimilation, the abandonment and indifference, or by the gradual but irreversible policies of dispossession and evacuation.

The main themes are revealing, as is the dimension of problems and concerns of the indigenous peoples nationalities of the continent, but they are also proposals and alternatives in construction, because they were composed in a series of meetings among outstanding leaders.

This debate offers sustainability because it makes up the agenda of indigenous peoples and nationalities of the continent and their organizations. Being self-convened, there are no forces that manipulate or use it for their own interests. It is a very important contribution to the debates that the social movement has been developing throughout the last decade, in the heat of global, continental, regional and national social forums. In addition, it will strengthen regional and thematic debates.


Main Themes:

1. Land and Territory
2. Natural Resources
3. Autonomy and Self-determination
4. Diversity, Pluri-nationality and Integral Development
5. Knowledge and Intellectual Property
6. Bilateral and Multilateral Organizations (O.A.S., United Nations, WTO)
7. Identity and Cosmovision
8. Alliance Strategies
9. Organization and Political Participation of Women
10. Democracy, Nation-States and Indigenous Governments
11. The impact of Neoliberal Globalization and Militarization in our Territories
Sub theme: Criminalization of Struggles of Indigenous Peoples
12. Indigenous Peoples and Communication
13. Childhood and Youth
14. Indigenous Legal system and access to Justice
15. Globalization and Economic Alternatives for Peoples

A Summit of this magnitude at the historical moment in which it is taking place, would not accomplish much unless actions and commitments of leaders, organizations, peoples and nationalities are established. The panorama and correlation of forces will have to change.

The central watchword of the Summit, From resistance to power for Indigenous Peoples, challenges "western democracy". Those excluded from power, those subjected to underdevelopment, the oppressed, “the defeated", today intend to leap into power. Without a doubt, this does not fit within government molds of "conquerors" and "colonialists". The CIA, during the administration of George W. Bush, indicated that the danger in Latin America is no longer the leftist guerrillas, but the natives. The neoliberal empire will call the struggle and resistance of the indigenous peoples and nationalities terrorism, in order to justify its repressive activities, because the subversives stayed in history.

Indigenous peoples and nationalities have not been conquered, nor overcome. They only want to live with dignity, to coexist with all, to be respected as human beings and for all their surroundings to be respected. It is necessary to listen to their messages and their voice, which emanates from the soul of the hills and mountains.

- Juan Tiney, Maya native, is a leader of the National Indigenous and Farmer Coordination (CONIC) of Guatemala.