"May We Dream of a Better Future?"

The following letter was sent by 180 Indigenous people of the world's largest wetlands, the Mato Grosso Pantanal, to the Inter-american Development Bank, regarding the Bank's support for studies for the Paraguay-Paraná Hidrovía industrial waterway, and for the Pantanal project, both of which will have environmental and cultural impacts on the region, and both of which are being designed and implemented without consultation with the traditional inhabitants of the region.

Aquidauana, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, January 27, 1996

We, the Guatos, Terena, Kaiowa, Bororo, Umotina, Pareci and Kinikinao are the traditional peoples that the Great Creator chose to live in and protect this region of the world. Throughout time, our ancestors taught us to live in harmony with the waters, birds, and plants, as a way of giving thanks and nurturing this gift for our wellbeing.

With the arrival of the white man came the roads and the railroad, and then came diseases and new customs which were unknown to us. This was the new civilization.

IDB is now financing a large-scale project under the Pretext of developing the southern cone. We know that this project is part of a new re-organization of the world economy, which will truly attend only the ambitions of unscrupulous businessmen, where egotism, nepotism, and political rivalries reign and only the fittest survive.

In this context of the decadence of "modernity," we Indigenous peoples were never considered, and were instead only victimized.

We were never consulted, but we recommended that this type of ambition must be halted for the good of humanity. Their money must not disrespect and destroy the homes of our people and of the Great Creator.

Our role is to serve the memory of our people and of the Great Creator. Our role is to serve the memory of our ancestors and of our traditions and to defend the Pantanal, because only in this way can we go forward towards the future in search of a better life.

At the First Meetings of Indians of the Pantanal, the Indigenous voice asks: Why do they want to destroy the natural waterway? Who is going to benefit? Who is going to become rich with this? Up to what point is the IDB aware of the threat of destruction and empoverishment which the large-scale projects bring for our people.

We appeal to the Bank to be clear and transparent in its proposals, because our villages are worried. Will we be victims? Or may we dream of a better future?

For more information, contact: Rios Vivos Secretariat, Campo Grande, Brazil; tel: 55-67-724-3230; fax 55-67-724-9109; email: ecoabrmspant@ax.apc.org

Source: Abya Yala News (Journal of the South and Meso American Indian Rights Center, SAIIC), vol. 10, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 29.