Representatives of 25 indigenous peoples from around Argentina signed a joint declaration in demand of basic rights after holding a national summit in Buenos Aires last week.
“No more sisters or brothers must be killed or abused for defending their land and Mother Earth!”, declared the statement.
The declaration called for the repeal of Argentina’s anti-terrorist law, which it stated was used to “penalise indigenous leader who claim their rights in defence of their territories”.
Indigenous leaders were joined by Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel in a march to the Casa Rosada (Photo via Resistencia Qom)
It also demanded that charges be dropped against indigenous leaders acting to defend their land, and called for President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to meet with representatives from Formosa that have been camped in downtown Buenos Aires for more than 100 days.
“We have come from our territories to demonstrate that indigenous communities and cultures are still alive, so as to leave future generations a life based on our principles and values,” read the declaration, which was presented on Friday after a three-day summit that gathered indigenous leaders from 17 provinces around Argentina.
“We preserve our own history, autonomous education, traditional medicine, common law, language, and ancestral mandate that is passed from generation to generation.”
The statement added that by not respecting the rights of its indigenous peoples, the Argentine government is violating dozens of national laws and international agreements, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Argentina’s national constitution.
It all urged all indigenous peoples in Argentina to unite to “face the reality we are living.”
“Whether we come from the north or south, east or west, we are fight to become free people again, autonomous and on our own land, and exercising the right to self-determination.”
Refused Entry
On Friday, indigenous leaders led a march from the protest camp on Av. 9 de Julio and Av. de Mayo to the Casa Rosada to present the joint declaration, but were not received by government officials.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, who joined the march, criticised the administration for refusing to meet the protesters.
“We requested entrance [to the Casa Rosada] to hand in the conclusions from the Summit of Indigenous Peoples: they blocked out entrances and wanted us to hand over the document through the barriers,” wrote Pérez Esquivel after the march.
“Furthermore, showing a clear racist attitude, they offered to let me come in to leave the document on behalf of the indigenous peoples, but without the others – something that I obviously did not accept.”
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