"You are me, I am you" - Declaration and principal agreements of the V Jubilee South Regional Assembly
DECLARATION
JUBILEE SOUTH/AMERICAS V REGIONAL ASSEMBLY
Guatemala 2019
Tzk' at "You are me, I am you"
We, representatives of 18 organizations from 13 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, participated in the V Regional Assembly of Jubilee South/Americas, in Guatemala from April 1 to 4, 2019.
Reconnected in the spirit of our grandfathers and grandmothers of the original peoples of Abya Yala, we seek to recover the continuity of the Web of Life that has been fractured by development models that violate our bodies and our mother earth.
We remember with deep pain our companions Berta Cáceres, from Honduras; Roli Escobar, from Guatemala; Dina Puente, from El Salvador; Samir Flores and Betty Cariño from Mexico; Sergio Rojas, from Costa Rica and Marielle Franco from Brazil, among many others, murdered for defending human rights, the rights of peoples, their territories and nature. Their memory strengthens us and accompanies us during this gathering.
We see with great indignation the imperialist interference in our region and the direction that many of our governments are taking towards the political right, militarization and a deepening of the neoliberal model that gives priority to corporate interests over the rights of peoples to a full life and the care of nature for present and future generations.
The growing institutionalized violence demonstrates that a real war is being waged for control over territories, against the indigenous peoples, peasants, indigenous Garífuna, Afro-Americans and Caribbeans, to consolidate the extractivist model of megaprojects and agribusiness that displaces people, contaminates nature and places at risk their ways of life. We are particularly concerned about the growing violence in Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Brazil.
Corrupt governments, captured by corporate power, are driving the neoliberal model, free trade agreements and the privatization of strategic sectors such as water and energy. Faced with peoples' resistance to this model and its impacts, those who defend rights are criminalized and judicialized, territories are militarized both by the State and by paramilitary groups linked to the corporations. This situation has provoked new waves of migration with its serious consequences, as well as the rise in femicides and all other forms of violence against women, children and girls.
Most of our countries face greater financial indebtedness, in many different forms and conditions. It is no longer just the big banks and International Financial Institutions, but a diversity of institutions, countries, and private actors involved in the processes of indebtedness and financialization that condition budgets, rights, and public services as well as the very model of production and consumption. These illegitimate debts are being paid through austerity and looting, the sacrificing of peoples and the earth.
After analyzing the regional context, the organizations that constitute the Jubilee South/Americas network commit ourselves to strengthening our networking in defense of our peoples, urban and rural territories, and nature, against all forms of illegitimate indebtedness and its devastating projects of privatization, extractivism, mega infrastructure, agribusiness and others. We will also deepen the struggle against imperialist, capitalist, colonialist, patriarchal and racist domination. In this sense, we share the demands of the different peoples now struggling in defense of their territories and food sovereignty, for the non-privatization of water and energy, the right to the city and decent housing and other struggles to restore the web of life.
We denounce the murder, criminalization and judicialization of activists and rights’ defenders and demand a stop to all forms of persecution and intimidation against peoples´ struggles for their territory and identities and all human, collective and nature rights. We hold the governments responsible for all these violations and demand that they fulfill their duty to guarantee the rights of peoples to live well in harmony with mother earth.
We reject the new agreements of the governments of the region with the International Monetary Fund, as in Argentina, Ecuador, Haiti and Nicaragua, which impose austerity measures on our peoples. We also denounce the role that the Fiscal Control Board is playing in promoting structural adjustment in Puerto Rico.
We demand that the budgets of our States give priority to the common good and that they stop indebting peoples and nature. We demand the integral reparation of affected peoples and restoration of affected ecosystems, destroyed by credits and projects that have generated social and ecological debt. We also reject the promotion of the green economy and other false solutions to face the climate crisis.
We call on all organizations and individuals not to allow any type of violence against our bodies and our mother earth, and to be in solidarity with the struggles of indigenous communities for the right to their community and ancestral territories.
We reject the blockades against Cuba, Venezuela and Puerto Rico; we advocate for peace in the face of war and for the autonomy, self-determination and sovereignty of all peoples. We reject any attempt at imperialist military intervention in the region. We strongly support the Haitian people who are struggling for their autonomy after fifteen years of military occupation.
With this Declaration, the organizations of Jubilee South commit ourselves to recovering the continuity of the web of life that means respect for diversity and plurality, reciprocity and the care of our bodies, peoples and Mother Earth, for this and future generations.
Tzk'at "You are me, I am you"
WE DON'T OWE, WE WON'T PAY.
WE THE PEOPLES ARE THE CREDITORS.
JUBILEE SOUTH/AMERICAS, GUATEMALA APRIL 2019
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PRINCIPAL DECISIONS OF THE V REGIONAL ASSEMBLY
JUBILEE SOUTH / AMERICAS, GUATEMALA, APRIL 2019
In a gathering of political, spiritual and collective construction and celebration of its 20 years of struggle, the V Assembly of the Jubilee South/Americas Network was held from April 1 to 4, in Guatemala City. Social activists, community leaders, women's networks, members of the network participated to identify joint emancipation strategies.
Areas of action
During the Assembly, the following areas of action were defined in response to the need for convergence among the different organizational expressions, multiple processes, experiences and initiatives, in the current context that evidences the need to integrate efforts, advance in diversity,
Ø Strengthening the Jubilee South/Americas Network
Ø Overcoming the processes of indebtedness
Ø Socio-environmental and climate justice and the rights of nature
Ø Defense of rights in the face of criminalization, judicialization and militarization.
Regional coordination
The structure and composition of the Operative Coordination Committeewas ratified, this being integrated as follows:
Ø Andean Region: Ecological Action - Ecuador
Ø Southern Cone Region: Jubilee South Brazil - Brazil
Ø Mesoamerica Region: RACDES (Network of Community Environmentalists of El Salvador) - El Salvador
Ø Caribbean Region: PADPA (Haitian Platform of Advocacy for an Alternative Development) – Haiti
The Assembly also ratified that for the following period the Jubilee South/Americas Regional Secretariat will continue to operate from the organization Intipachamama Education for Development Association, Nicaragua, under the coordination of Martha Flores.
The Jubilee South/Americas network, without a doubt, is a space of networking that allows progress in the processes of integration and regional construction from a perspective in which peoples are the main protagonists of their struggles and the builders of popular power.
