Cusco Declaration

The organizations representing the Quechua, Kichwa, Aymara, and Mapuche nationalities and peoples, as well as the Cayambis, Saraguros, Guambianos, Koris, Lafquenches, Killakas, Urus, Larecajas, Kallawayas, Chuwis, Chinchaycochas, K´anas, and other original Indigenous peoples of the Andean region gathered together in Cusco from July 15 to 17, 2006, during the First Tantachwi / Founding Congress of the Andean Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations, proclaim to our brothers and sisters in our communities, ayllus, markas, cabildos and other organizational forms of our peoples; as well as to the oppressed and exploited people of the Andean countries and to international public opinion, the following Declaration that summarizes the sense of our debates and our objectives drawn up in this First Congress / Tantachwi.

We reject the new strategy of capitalist and neo-liberal colonization through Free Trade Agreements (FTA), whose goal is not simply to regulate international trade, but above all to impose new mechanisms of subordination of the old nation-state, including by limiting the controls on abuses by multinational corporations, under the pretext that these are equivalent to indirect expropriations that would be denounced in foreign tribunals, without public control and beyond national laws and society. The history of exploitation continues: after imposing on us "independent" creole states that maintained the same colonial system of exclusion; now, one hundred years later, in spite of these being failed States, they accept imperial control, especially for the pillaging of our natural resources: water, minerals, hydrocarbons, wood, and biodiversity, among others.

We note that this neo-colonization reveals the failure of the political, economic, and social structures of the so-called “Nation-State,” of the mono-cultural state, that were formed and continued acting on the basis of the exclusion of the wide diversity of Andean peoples, nations, and communities; and that they have not been able even to establish much less defend the societies, economies and cultures of the Andean countries, nor even their own internal markets.

We affirm our social and cultural pride, based in our wisdom, knowledge, values, ethics, technologies, in our harmony with mother nature, history and our own spiritualities; and which is expressed in resistance based in practices of solidarity, duality, complementariness, reciprocity, against social control under any type of authority, as living sources of the alternatives for the reconstruction of new foundations for the Andean nations. This is even more urgent, now that these states are ever less national and less democratic after more than one hundred years of work by powerful groups allied with global capital and its agents.

We are founding in this historic meeting, again under the cry of Túpac Katari, “I will return... and be millions,” the Andean Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations consisting of ECUARUNARI (Confederation of the Kichwa Nationalities and Peoples of Ecuador), CONACAMI (National Confederation of Communities of Peru Affected by Mining), CONAMAQ (National Council of Ayllus and Markas of the Qullasuyo of Bolivia), CITEM (Coordinating Body of the Mapuche Identities and Territories), ONIC (National Indigenous Organization of Colombia), CCP (Peruvian Farmer Confederation); CNA (National Agrarian Confederation); and with the fraternal participation of organizations that will be indicated in the future, and under the ancestral principles: Ama Sua (Honesty), Ama Llulla (Truth), Ama Quella (Hard Work), Complementary Duality, Reciprocity, Equity and Solidarity.

The First Congress of the Andean Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations proposes the following Andean Indigenous Agenda so that with it, an institutional and political debate can proceed in our countries. Enough already that others translate and interpret us or that our participation is to comment on the agenda of others (World Bank, IADB, CAN, States, Ministries, NGOs). It should be the other way around: now we invite them to debate the sentiment and the proposals of our peoples.

Territoriality and Natural Resources
· To declare the intangibility of the territories of Indigenous Peoples.
· No to privatization or commercialization of the water and mother earth.
· To articulate strategies for the struggle to expel multinational corporations from our territories.

Pluri-National States and Other Institutions
· The re-foundation as pluri-national states that include us and are based in the principles of equilibrium and equality of conditions, rotation, reciprocity and redistribution.
· The reconstruction of the territories and institutions of Indigenous Peoples.
· The holding of Constituent Assemblies with representatives from the Ayllus, Markas y Communities, done neither via traditional parties nor elections.

Collective Rights and Self-Determination
· The signing, ratification and application of Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), and that each state presents reports on the completion of this process.
· Respect for our autonomy and our own ways of organization and our government, which must be recognized through a new social contract.
· The enforcement of our collective rights to: culture, identity, health and education according to our uses and customs.
· The enforcement of the right to consultation and consent in all policies and projects related to natural resources

Reconstitution and Integration of the Peoples and Nationalities
· Towards the confederation of the Nationalities and Indigenous Peoples of Tawantinsuyo and Abya Yala.
· Development of Bilingual and Intercultural Education to obtain models of self-reliance and fair trade between Indigenous Peoples.

Indigenous Political Participation
· Indigenous political participation in national processes, based in the work of the communities, so that they can direct and make decisions.

We reiterate that the structure of the Andean Coordinating Body collects the communal and indigenous principles of collective control, the rotation, “To Command Obeying,” unity in the diversity represented by the delegates of the organizations of each one of the member countries.

We call to the exploited, oppressed, and marginalized men and women, farmers, coca growers, river-dwellers, Afro-Americans, slum-dwellers, ranchers, squatters, informal sector workers, students, workers, intellectuals; and all other social groups in the many types of organizations in the city and rural areas, that resist neo-liberal capitalist savagery, to unite for a liberation of all against all types of exploitation and oppression for which this Indigenous Agenda is one input, we invite them to analyze and to come to articulate the widest processes of unity in diversity.

We reject all forms of interventionist and militaristic policies, of state political persecution against leaders and indigenous authorities, for raising their voice in favor of the rights of Indigenous Peoples and denounce the selective murder of indigenous leaders. We say NO to the criminalization of the struggles of indigenous peoples and social movements.

We propose that all international institutions (multilateral, UN and others) stop making us invisible and substituting us, and that they take into account our rights and that in particular the Andean Community of Nations and MERCOSUR, in all their processes and decisions, respect our Collective Rights including to consultation and consent. Equally we demand that the World Trade Organization (WTO) respect our rights to land, autonomy, and to our intellectual and cultural patrimony, and its trans-generational collective character.

We ratify our endorsement and active participation in the processes of international alliance, like the Americas Social Forum, the World Social Forum and the Third Continental Summit of the Indigenous Peoples that will take place in March 2007 and for the articulation of alternatives to the neo-liberal system under the banner of “Another World Is Possible.”

We reiterate our solidarity with the social processes and progressive governments of Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia as they look to open new alternative paths for the indigenous communities, as well as our demand for the liberty to all of the social activists from around the world.

It is resolved that the Second Tantachwi/ Congress of the Andean Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations will take place in Quito, Ecuador.

They cut our branches, leaves... but not our roots.... and now we return!
Ten Times they struck us.... ten times we will rise!
Cusco, July 17, 2006

Tomás Huanacu Tito
Presidente del I Tantachwi/Congreso

Andean Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations
ECUARUNARI Confederación de las Nacionalidades y Pueblos Kichwas del Ecuador
CONACAMI, Confederación Nacional de Comunidades del Perú Afectadas por la Minería
CONAMAQ, Consejo Nacional de Ayllus y Markas del Qullasuyo de Bolivia.
CITEM, Coordinación de Identidades Territoriales Mapuche
ONIC, Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia
ONPIA, Organización Nacional de Pueblos Indígenas de Argentina
Consejo Nacional Aymara de Chile
CCP – Confederación Campesina del Perú
CNA- Confederación Nacional Agraria
CSUTCB – Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores y Campesinos de Bolivia
Federación Nacional de Mujeres BARTOLINA SISA del Qullasuyu.