Earth Equity News-April 24, 2008

President Morales Addresses U.N. Forum on Indigenous Issues. Galdu.org, April 24, 2008. "Bolivia's President Evo Morales came to the UN Headquarter in New York Monday to open seventh session of UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, [where] more than 2,500 representatives of the world's 370 million indigenous people are gathered... He denounced such companies as 'exploiters' of his country's natural resources, which he said belong to Bolivians. Since his election in 2006 as the country's first indigenous leader, Morales has been battling opponents of his plan to take state control over Bolivia's oil and gas industry. He said there were only 300 million dollars in oil and gas revenues in 2006 when he took office, and he has been able to raise the amount to nearly 2 billion dollars this year to distribute them to Bolivians... Turning to the UN meeting on the indigenous people, Morales called on the world body to recognize their diverse cultures and needs, an appeal that he had made on several occasions in the past two years, using his high profile as an indigenous head of state. The Bolivian leader said he encountered numerous obstacles to his reform plan, saying that he cannot change 500 years of culture in two years as president. The UN has provided an official forum for the estimated 300 million indigenous people around the world. The meeting at UN headquarters was expected to attract about 2,500 participants from all regions in the next two weeks to discuss climate change, cultural diversity and living conditions of indigenous people. Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues was to continue discussion on the convention on the rights of indigenous peoples, with an emphasis this year on climate change." [Editor's note: CCC Cofounder, Fr. Paul Mayer, has been representing CCC at the Permanent Forum.]