RIGHTS-BOLIVIA: Spain Rewards Indigenous Group’s Achievements

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Mar 16 2000 (IPS) - Mobilisation and organisation were key in conquering native people’s rights in Bolivia, said indigenous leader Nicolas Montero as he received the prestigious Bartolomé de las Casas prize Thursday in Spain.

Montero heads the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Eastern Bolivia (CIDOB), an organisation made up of the country’s 36 indigenous groups.

The Bartolomé de las Casas Prize has been granted every year since 1991 by Madrid’s ‘Casa de América’ – an agency under the Foreign Affairs Ministry – in recognition of those who have made important social achievements in Latin America.

CIDOB’s characteristic conciliatory attitude and solidarity have allowed the organisation to develop intense and varied activities “through dialogue and due respect of the Constitution and the laws of the state,” said the Spanish prince, Felipe de Borbón, as he presented the award.

CIDOB, which represents fully half of Bolivia’s 7.6 million people, has won the land titles and consolidation of 15 million hectares, “equivalent to 30 percent of Spain’s territory,” Montero said.

Spain also recognised the organisation for its traditional organisational style – which played a role in the fact that the Bolivian government now has an indigenous policy, regardless of what party is in power, explained the leader.

Montero pointed out, however, that Bolivia is a multi-ethnic and pluri-cultural country in which CIDOB has proposed new ways of relating to the government, “putting aside confrontation and ideological speeches,” and presenting concrete demands and initiatives, whether they are political or technical.

Felipe de Borbón, who makes five or six trips to Latin America each year, said that “by knowing America we Spaniards can know ourselves better and become more universal.”

In addition, the people of Spain feel “more committed to (Latin America’s) causes, its development, its struggles with natural disasters, its political dialogues and the defence of its vital necessities.”

The prince also acknowledged the labour of the Indigenous Organisation of Antioquia (OIA), which represents the 16,000 people of the Emberá, Tule and Senú indigenous groups in Colombia, recognised by the prize’s jury with an honourable mention.

These groups initiated a process of social and political organisation in 1965 “as a result of the indigenous struggles that were occurring nationally to recover their land, obtain legal guarantees, reconstitute the indigenous councils and recover cultural identity.”

Through the OIA, the indigenous peoples “have erected themselves on the solid foundation of justice and, as a result, are authentic builders of peace, as there cannot be true peace where justice does not reign.”

Felipe de Borbón was applauded by the diplomats and non- governmental organisation leaders present at the award ceremony when he emphasised that “the first requirement for peace and justice is the strict respect of the most basic of human rights: the right to life.”

Life is endangered “not only when one is violently attacked, but also when one is not believed or not allowed to establish the necessary conditions to promote people with minimal means for sustenance to live a decent life.”

“These prizes are high praise, of course, for those who receive them, and encourage all of us to reflect on the value of human dignity and the merits of those who make an effort to hone and develop it (…), which is key to our common history,” the prince concluded.

The Bartolomé de las Casas prize is named after a Spaniard who joined Colombus on his third journey to the Americas in 1498. Appalled that the Spanish ‘conquistadores’ were abusing the native peoples, he became a champion for their humanitarian treatment, and was later ordained as a Dominican priest.