From: "Congreso Kuna" Subject: comunicado de la nación kuna Date sent: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 Panama, January 25th 2000 CONGRESO GENERAL KUNA WE THE KUNAS THINK AND SAY: The people of Kuna, who were among the first people of Abia Yala (America), demonstrate in these critical hours for both the indigenous and non-indigenous peoples, their total solidarity with those who, tired of demanding their rights from a fraudulent, militaristic, elitist oligarchy, which oligarchy has in fact appropriated the rights and goods that were originally property of the Indigenous People, and now of all the People of Ecuador; the people of Ecuador have decided to assume, for the new millenium, the direction of their own destiny, to which they plainly have every right. In effect, the people of Ecuador and the rest of Abia Yala have long been mocked by these elite who have invented, for their own benefit, the rules of the imperialistic political games in all our countries, through which the different groups take their turns at power, calling this "democracy." (In this manner they can faithfully follow the hereditary colonial line of thinking of Europe, which came from the ancient Greek idea, where democracy was the rule of an elite oligarchy.) The same groups show their fraudulence by bowing to the wishes of the United States of America, through the military, to betray the their country. Because, what is "the nation," but the supreme rights and aspirations of the people of that nation, in this case, the people of Ecuador, which, through the recent government and admittedly ephemeral military and civil system that was run by an Indian, carried out the mandate of the majority. We, the Kuna people, together with the people of Panama, have seen our partisan struggles crowned with success::the first, the Proclamation of Tule of 1925: we Panamanians have recovered our Canal and all of the adjacent areas. We have managed, at last, at the end of the Twentieth Century, to achieve our sovreignity over all our territory . We advance with dignity, and we understand that we must now make up for lost time, and achieve our full liberty, and self-determination. We must establish a system that can utilize the talents and abilities of the Panamanian people, and employ the riches of our National heritage, without waste or destruction. At this point, in order not to be indifferent to our brother and sister peoples, we say to the people of Ecuador, in this crucial moment of history: we are with you. And we demand of the new authorities of the country: No more repression of the people. We demand furthermore that the well-being of their leaders be assured. But most of all, that they must overcome the economic and social prostration with which the majority of Ecuador struggles, guided by a vision of a future in which all Ecuadorians can come together in dignity, for the common welfare, and where all the citizens, without exclusion, may participate in the construction of the society. And we demand that they that they do not allow outside intervention in their internal problems. We also ask the aid of our government and all of our politcal and social sectors, as well as of all the good people of our country, that they demand: No more repression of the Ecuadorian people! Assure the safety of their leaders, and the freedom of opinion of the citizens! And utter condemnation of outside interference in the internal conflicts in Ecuador Panamá, 25 de enero del 2000