UN General Assembly
2006

It is a source of great satisfaction to be here to represent my people, my homeland, Bolivia, and especially the indigenous movement. After more than 500 years of contempt and hatred for peoples once considered savages and animals — peoples who in some regions were condemned to extermination — we have come to right a historical wrong, to right the wrongs of 500 years, thanks to today’s awareness and the uprising and struggle for the rights of peoples. During the period of the Republic, when we were also discriminated against and marginalized, the struggle of peoples for life and humanity was never taken into account. Over the past 20 years, through the application of an economic model, neo-liberalism, the plundering of our natural resources and the privatization of basic services continued. We are convinced that privatizing basic services is the best way to violate human rights. Those minor considerations require us — and require me personally — to speak the truth here about the lives of families. I come to express this feeling for