QUITO, Nov 1 (IPS) - The Continental Assembly of Peoples of the Americas, meeting Friday in the Ecuadorian capital, exhorted the region's governments to reject the Free Trade Area of the Americas, saying it will harm their cultures and the environment and deplete natural resources.
In the final declaration of the indigenous meet, titled "Mandate from the Peoples", the delegates set new dates for "cultural-territorial resistance and affirmation" to fight the hemisphere-wide FTAA.
The indigenous activists see the economic approach of the FTAA as the same that "was implemented in 1492, when the pillaging of our wealth and of our natural resources began," said Evo Morales, who was a presidential candidate in Bolivia's elections in June.
"What they are seeking now is simply to deepen that model, which is based on free imports and is a policy aimed at concentrating wealth in the hands of a few," the Indian leader told IPS.
The Continental Assembly of Peoples was held in Quito in parallel to the seventh FTAA ministerial-level conference, which drew foreign affairs and trade ministers from the 34 countries that are involved in creating the free trade zone -- all nations of North and South America and the Caribbean, except Cuba.
The preparatory meetings that took place this week were surrounded by massive street protests, with violent police crackdowns dispersing some of the demonstrations.
Morales, who took part in the Assembly of Peoples, said the promoters of the FTAA are not interested in environmental conservation, in contrast to the native communities of the Americas, whose cultures are based on living in harmony with nature.
"The economy should be subordinate to the preservation of the planet," a fundamental value of "the indigenous movements, whether Quechua, Aymara, Guaraní, Aztec, Quiche or Mapuche, because we live in a direct relationship with Mother Earth," he said.
"In the world of the indigenous peoples, we seek to produce for the common good, in the context of reciprocity and solidarity, something the FTAA completely cancels out," Morales added.
It is proposals like those of the FTAA that brought crisis to Latin America and have triggered the "resistance of Indians and of social movements," and are fomenting its expansion, said the former presidential candidate, who lost the Bolivian elections by just 1.5 percent of the vote.
Despite their rejection of FTAA, the indigenous communities maintain open dialogue aimed at integrating the countries of Latin America, as has always been proposed by the region's ethnic and social movements, he said.
The final document of the Assembly, signed by indigenous, environmental, peasant and trade union organisations from more than 20 countries, asks the governments of the Americas what "integration" they are talking about, if their economic policies "are disintegrating and eliminating" the original communities of the area encompassed by the FTAA.
"What integration are you proposing if the basis of your approach is competition, the desire to accumulate and obtain profit at any price, inequality, disrespect for peoples and cultures, and the aim to unite us all in the market and in consumerism," said the indigenous delegates gathered in Quito.
"What integration are you proclaiming if the first and fundamental interrelation of every human being is with Mother Earth and you fail to realise it," states the declaration.
Leonidas Iza, president of the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), warned that implementing the FTAA could mean the privatisation of such basic services as water and the invasion of genetically modified agricultural products.
"Inequality will bring with it the destruction of the ancestral cultures and the ethical values that continue to subsist, and will even end up dismantling the nation states and turn them into incorporated colonies," stated Iza.
The indigenous leaders who participated in Friday's Assembly reaffirmed the "autonomy and free territorial, cultural, political and governmental determination" of their peoples, vindicating their "territories and the collective right to biodiversity."
"We indigenous peoples do not permit patents or other private property rights over life and traditional knowledge, because for us they are of a collective nature, inalienable and inter- generational, and they are linked to the notion of our ancestral territories."
"As such, we indigenous peoples have decided not to compete in the system of the globalised market," stated Felipe Quishpe, of Bolivia.
"We create and maintain terraced farmland, we farm without chemicals, we enrich the soils by using complementary crops. With this approach we both maintain genetic diversity and strengthen the agricultural system against plagues and the imponderables of nature," he said.
Quishpe added that many indigenous communities implement "renewable, non-polluting forms of generating energy, and are exploring other renewable energy technologies, like bio-gas and solar energy."
The final declaration of the Assembly of Peoples concludes with the proposal for a referendum across the Americas so that citizens can express whether or not they support the creation of the Canada- to-Tierra del Fuego free trade zone.
U.S. sociologist James Petras, who attended the Assembly as an observer, told IPS he is convinced that his country is promoting the FTAA because there are still economic areas in Latin America that cannot completely control, such as the petroleum industry in Venezuela and other economic sectors in Ecuador and Brazil.
"The big illusion of the FTAA for Latin America is to achieve access to a market of 800 million people, but that dream is based on the United States favouring true free trade, which it does not," said the sociologist.
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