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Open Letter to the World Social Forum</div><div id="artsubline" class="articlepage" style="width: 525px; font-family: Minion, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-decoration: none; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; ">
In Regards to the Presence of President Rafael Correa</div><div id="line" class="artline" style="width: 525px; height: 4px; padding-top: 5px; "><img src="http://www.ubnoticias.org/images/hor_line.gif" width="529" height="4" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; "></div>
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CONAIE</div><div id="artdate" style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; ">February 10, 2009</div><div id="artdate" style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; "><br></div><div id="artdate" style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; ">
@ <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; "><a href="http://www.ubnoticias.org/en/article/open-letter-to-the-world-social-forum">http://www.ubnoticias.org/en/article/open-letter-to-the-world-social-forum</a></span></div>
<div id="art" class="artcontainter" style="width: 525px; z-index: 1; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; "><div id="artdatline" style="position: relative; top: 0px; float: left; font-weight: bold; ">Quito - </div><p style="font-family: Minion, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; ">
Brothers and Sisters of the World Social Forum:</p><p style="font-family: Minion, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; ">In regards to the announcement of the participation of the President of the Republic of Ecuador, Rafael Correa in the World Social Forum to be held the city of Belem, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (<span class="caps">CONAIE</span>) declares:</p>
<p style="font-family: Minion, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; ">1. Its <span class="caps">OPPOSITION</span> and <span class="caps">REJECTION</span> of the presence of Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador, in a space which has historically been used for the creation of alternatives and to guarantee the rights and lives of the [Indigenous] Peoples. It cannot be a pulpit for a President with positions full of racism, machismo, paternalism, discrimination, sexism and violence. The President of Ecuador violates our fundamental rights and deeply threatens our indigenous organizations and institutions. The Correa regime promotes the exploitation of oil in the territory of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation, destroying the full exercise of their right to free self-determination and creating a situation of genocide. President Rafael Correa, Minister of Government Fernando Bustamente, Minister of Internal and External Security Gustavo Larrea and Secretary for Indigenous Peoples Manuela Gallegos, have taken divisive, racist and threatening positions against the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples and their dignity. The end of the long night of neo-liberalism announced by President Correa has not ended – to the contrary the night has darkened and is getting much longer in Ecuador.</p>
<p style="font-family: Minion, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; ">2. <span class="caps">CONAIE</span> denounced emphatically the repression that we—the indigenous communities resisting privatization of our territories, biodiversity and water—suffered. We have been the object of persecution and our right to social resistance has been criminalized. When we demand respect and that our rights be guaranteed, we the Presidency of the Republic and its ministries have accused us of being “terrorists,” “ignorant,” “delinquents,” “fundamentalists” and “infantile.” The repression has been exceptionally bad in communities such as Dayuma, Molleturo and Cuyabeno, where the armed forces used helicopters, tear gas and high-caliber weapons. They assaulted women and children indiscriminately. The government of Rafael Correa imposes laws favorable to large-scale mining in indigenous territories, repeatedly ignoring and flagrantly violating the Law of Consultation established by the Article 169 of the International Labor Organization and the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights.</p>
<p style="font-family: Minion, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; ">3. <span class="caps">CONAIE</span> has opposed Rafael Correa regime laws favoring extractive industries, such as the large-scale Mining Law and the project for a Law regarding bio-fuel development and genetically modified products, legislation that does guarantee food sovereignty. We alert the Forum that the rhetoric and practices of the Citizens’ Revolution in Ecuador, is lifted and imposed ignoring and violating fundamental collective rights guaranteed by legally binding international institutions. We alert the forum that the rhetoric Ecuador’s current regime—that of the Citizens’ Revolution, of Socialism of the Twenty-First Century—is used an ideological argument in whose name the dignity and rights of our peoples are repressed and threatened.</p>
<p style="font-family: Minion, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; ">4. The <span class="caps">CONAIE</span>, within the framework exercising our fundamental rights as Peoples, urges the Global Indigenous Movement to call on the World Social Forum to:</p>
<p style="font-family: Minion, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; ">A. Within the spirit of the World Social Forum, declare the President of Ecuador<em>persona non grata</em>. The Forum is beholden to the legitimacy of our demands, our rights and those of the [Indigenous] Peoples of the World and in this context we should not and cannot risk its legitimacy and credibility.</p>
<p style="font-family: Minion, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; ">B. Suspend any <span class="caps">WSF</span> events to be attended by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa Delgado and make public its condemnation of rights violations being suffered by us and all the Peoples comprising Ecuadorian society.</p>
<p style="font-family: Minion, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; ">5. <span class="caps">CONAIE</span> reinforces its democratic spirit, promoting peace and an unrelenting defense of the rights of our peoples and of Mother Earth, and reinforces its promise with the noble cause of the constructing of societies that guarantee the rights of all the Peoples of the planet.</p>
<p style="font-family: Minion, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; ">“We are like the straw of the <em>páramos</em> (highlands), when they pull us up, we grow once more and, as straw, we populate the world.”</p>
<p style="font-family: Minion, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; ">“We the Indigenous Peoples are not part of the problem, we are part of the solution.”</p><p style="font-family: Minion, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; ">
“Racism is immoral and miserable in all of its forms, and those who practice it are as well.”</p><p style="font-family: Minion, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; "><em>Presented and signed in Quito, January 26, 2009</em></p>
<p style="font-family: Minion, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; ">For the Governing Council of <span class="caps">CONAIE</span></p><p style="font-family: Minion, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; ">
Marlon Santi</p></div></span>