Final Declaration – Lekil Kuxlejal-Ich’el Ta Muk’
We are and will continue to organize ourselves as communities of Buen Vivir!
From near and far, our steps were found in these Mayan lands of San
Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico; we have been walking from
our
lands and from our different nations to live and build together the nation
of Buen Vivir!
We set out from our native and indigenous communities from Asia: Nepal,
India; from the Americas: Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Peru,
USA, Brazil and from Africa: South Africa and Zimbabwe.
We met in this learning exchange, which we called: Lekil Kuxlejal-Ich’el
Ta Muk’ (Buen Vivir with respect) to walk together and learn from
each other. Our objective was to exchange our knowledge, practices and
solidarity, to strengthen Food Sovereignty and the Buen Vivir of our
peoples.
With our united steps and heart full of joy and hope…
WE OPENLY DECLARE
We will continue to strengthen the recuperation of the knowledge of our
grandfathers and grandmothers, between men and women, between youth
and children, to fight for our autonomy. We will commit ourselves to
protect the land “Pachamama” because she is our mother and from there
we came. Everything we are and have, we owe it to her. We owe her
respect.
The capitalist system and its neoliberal policies are causing us a global
crisis that affects us all, especially Mother Earth. We live in a cruel war that
makes us invisible, which imposes fear and makes us lose our ancestral
knowledge, our indigenous clothing, and contaminates water, earth and
air, causing a global crisis that puts at risk all humanity and our planet,
that is, life itself.
With pain in our hearts, we suffer and live the dispossession of our
territories by extractive and transnational corporations that promotes
forced migration, which generates extreme poverty, where our sons and
daughters stop studying or change their roots for the search of a better life
that is urbanized with a capitalist vision, where our homes are destroyed,
women are trafficked, and we have no health, we have no freedom of
expression; and we become consumers, without land, without water,
without local native seeds, and without freedom. This is achieved almost
always by the complicity of the authorities.
We demand from our governments and transnational
corporations the following:
• Stop the privatization of our natural resources and our cultures!
• Make reparation for damages caused to Mother Nature, to
indigenous peoples, peasant farmers and punish the exploiters!
• Let our voice be heard in the public policies!
• Recognize our right to decide our own path and our selfdetermination!
• Stop the violence and discrimination against women; recognize their
struggle and the rights of women and youth for Mother Earth!
We do not want an agriculture that is dependent and killing the
environment!
Our goals to continue our learning exchange are:
• We want to share our knowledge and our experiences to advance
Buen Vivir.
• We want to fight and build our autonomy with food sovereignty and
have the right to the self-determination of our peoples.
• Enforce food sovereignty, ancestral practices, local seeds and agroecology
as a way of life and organization in our laws.
• Recognize the work and struggle of women and young people in
defending our territory, in practicing agroecology and transferring
knowledge and wisdom to the next generations.
We return to our lands with our hearts filled with the dreams of the
Zapatista communities, the life lessons of the Sumidero Canyon, the example of JTatic Samuel Ruiz and the many experiences of each and one of the participants.
“VIVA LA UNIDAD DE LOS PUEBLOS ORIGINARIOS”
“LONG LIVE THE UNITY OF OUR NATIVE AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES”
***********************
Organizations participating in this learning exchange
Lekil Kuxlejal-Ich’el Ta Muk’
BRAZIL
1. Movimento Camponês Popular (MCP)
2. Movimento dos Trabalhoradores Rurais sem Terra (MST)
GUATEMALA
3. Asociación de Mujeres Ixpiyakok (ADEMI)
4. Asociación Femenina para el Desarrollo de Sacatepéquez (AFEDES)
5. Asociación para la Promoción de Salud y el Desarrollo Socio-
Económico (APROSADSE)
6. Comité Campesino del Altiplano (CCDA)
7. Comité de Unidad Campesina (CUC)
8. Instituto para la Superación de Miseria Urbana (ISMUGUA)
9. Red Kuchub’al
10. SERJUS
HAITI
11. Mouvman Peyizan Papay (MPP)
HONDURAS
12. La Via Campesina – Honduras
INDIA
13. GRAVIS, India
MEXICO
14. Alianza Crecer Juntos Sitalá
15. Alianza Toj Óolal
16. Caritas de San Cristóbal de Las Casas
17. Centro de Apoyo Educativo para la Comunidad
18. CAE: Circulos de Alimentacion Escolar
19. Coordinación Diocesana de Mujeres (CODIMUJ)
20. Consejo Regional Indígena y Popular de Xpijul
21. Desarrollo Económico Social de los Mexicanos Indígenas (DESMI)
22. Educación por la Paz (EduPaz)
23. El Hombre Sobre la Tierra
24. Enlace Civil
25. Inesin
26. Ka Kuxtal
27. Ñepi Behña
28. Pastoral de la Madre Tierra
29. Ser Mixe
30. UNMIC
31. Unión de Organizaciones de la Sierra Juárez de Oaxaca (UNOSJO)
32. U’yits Ka’an
33. Uyool Che’
NEPAL
34. ASHA Nepal
35. Women Awareness Center Nepal (WACN), Nepal
PERU
36. Asociación ANDES
37. Federación Nacional de Mujeres Campesinas, Artesanas, Indígenas,
Nativas y Asalariadas de Perú (FENMUCARINAP)
38. Grupo Género y Economía
39. Red Ñuqanchik Marionijei Noshaninka
SOUTH AFRICA
40. South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA)
41. Surplus People Project
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
42. El Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas (CATA)
43. Farmworker Association of Florida (FWAF)
44. Grassroots International
45. Thousand Currents
46. Urban Tilth
47. US Food Sovereignty Alliance
48. W.K.K.F.
ZIMBABWE
49. Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers’ Forum (ZIMSOFF)