30th Extraordinary Meeting of Corregidores of the Isiboro-Securé Indigenous Territory and National Park

Resolution No. 1

REJECTING THE PASSAGE OF THE VILLA TUNARI–SAN IGNACIO DE MOJOS HIGHWAY

THROUGH TIPNIS AND

RESISTANCE TO THE APPLICATION OF LAW 222 IN OUR TERRITORY1 CONSIDERING: That the Gatherings of Corregidores2 of the Yuracaré, Tsimane, and Mojeño-Trinitario people of the Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS), numbers XXVI, XXVI, XVIII, and XXIX,3 held from 2008 through 2011, informed of the State's intention to plan and construct the Villa Tunari–San Ignacio de Mojos highway crossing TIPNIS, decided in those events, autonomously and in application of their usos y costumbres,4 their categorical rejection of the highway because it would be an attack on its territorial integrity, its conservation of high biodiversity, and the socio-cultural development of the indigenous peoples who ancestrally inhabit it; decisions which were ratified by the Subcentral TIPNIS, the title- and rights-holder to the territory, the Subcentral Sécure, the Central of Ethnic Mojeño Peoples of Beni (CPEMB), and the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of the East, the Chaco, and Amazonía of Bolivia (CIDOB); CONSIDERING: That the Bolivian state has never taken into account (and even less consulted) these decisions rejecting the construction of the highway through our territory, and to the contrary has carried on approving a series of juridical acts such as Supreme Decree 26996/03 [of 2003], Law 3477/06, the Base Document for Contracting of 28 February 2008, and Law 005/10, through which it has carried forward invariably and without our consultation or participation, the highway project which irremediably would pass through our territory, against our express and manifest decision; CONSIDERING: That the glorious Eighth Indigenous March, carried out by the 36 indigenous peoples of the lowlands and highlands of Bolivia obtained the approval of Law 180, which establishes that which we had already decided autonomously, through our own authorities and in our own organic and constitutionally recognized institutions, expressed in Article of the Law, which states, "that the Villa Tunari–San Ignacio de Mojos highway shall not cross TIPNIS, nor shall any other;" That the National Government, immediately after signing this Law, impelled a mobilization composed of persons and organizations who do not have the right to decide about TIPNIS, demanding of itself the annulling of Law 180 and approving on 10 February 2012 the Law 222 on Consultation with the peoples of TIPNIS; That this law was not previously consulted with the three peoples who inhabit TIPNIS; is not freely [chosen], but rather is being imposted by force; is not informed, insofar as there is manipulation of information concerning the reach and effects of this law, which are hidden by the state; and that same state never shared with us all the information about this project, and does not deal in good faith because the State seeks to include persons who have renounced their rights to decide over [the fate of] the lands collectively titled to the communities of TIPNIS, and finally does not seek any accord or consent.5 It thereby transgresses Article 30, Paragraph 2, item 15 of the Constitution, as well as the Article 6, paragraph 1(a) of ILO Convention 169 (Law 1257 in Bolivia) and Articles 3 and 4 of the united Nations Declaration on the

1 This translation by Carwil Bjork-James, a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology, City University of New York Graduate Center. All notes by translator. 2 The Corregidor or Corregidora is the chief official of an individual community, a chief magistrate as well as a transmitter of traditions. The term was formerly only used in Moxeño communities, where the officeholder required outside political appointment, but is now used by all three indigenous peoples and officeholders are selected by the communities themselves. 3 The resolution of the XXIX extraordinary meeting, held in 2010, is available at http://woborders.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/resolution-by-indigenous-communities-of-isiboro-secure-rejecting-cochabamba-beni-highway/ 4 Literally “uses and customs,” this term refers to indigenous traditional governance procedures, long recognized by Spanish colonial and Latin American law. 5 This sentence is constructed to contrast with the national and international norm of free, prior, and informed consent.

Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Law 3760 in Bolivia), as well as the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court on Human Rights and of the UN Special Rapporteur on the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples; That Law 222 is being applied forcibly, without our consent, intimidating us with soldiers entering arbitrarily into our communities, without coordination much less authorization of our organization (the Subcentral TIPNIS), offering gifts, motors, living supplies, and other gifts, to try to change our decision inscribed in Law 180 of Protection for TIPNIS, which prohibits the construction of the Villa Tunari–San Ignacio de Mojos highway through our territory; That we have heard once again a presentation of the Strategic Environmental Impact Study (EEIAE), performed by the National Protected Areas Service and the Vice-Ministry of the Environment, an organ of the Ministry of Environment and Water, which was also presented at the previous 29th Ordinary Congress of Corregidors that took place in San Pablo de Isiboro in June 2011, and which demonstrates how disastrous and devastating constructing the highway through TIPNIS would be for our territory, its ecosystems, and our systems of life as a people; THEREFORE: We, this 30th Extraordinary Gathering of the Corregidores of TIPNIS, in use of the functions attributed to it in our Organic Statute, as the maximum decision making body, and in the framework of usos y costumbres, recognized constitutionally and internationally, and in full unanimity, DECIDE AND RESOLVE:

1. To ratify all the resolutions which reject the construction of the highway, and reiterate clearly, overwhelmingly, and definitively that the Villa Tunari–San Ignacio de Mojos highway shall not pass through any part of TIPNIS, as this project would imply the definitive alteration of our ways of life and our cultural reproduction, the disappearance of our ecosystems, and the total devastation of our territory, our "big house."

2. To ratify the full active effectiveness and constitutionality of Law 180 of 24 October 2011, and its

Regulation as agreed and approved by the government on 4 December 2011 through an act of commitment where the full exercise of all rights of exclusive use and of benefitting from natural resources were guaranteed.

3. To reject Law 222 and to emphatically reject its implementation, for being a norm that was not

consulted and that is illegal and unconstitutional, which violates the rights of indigenous peoples, the territorial and collective rights established in various national and international norms that form part of the Constitutionality Block established in the [Bolivian] Political Constitution of the State.

4. General mobilization in our territory to resist and/or to repel the implementation of Law 222 on the

part of the Government, through strategies that will be defined organically and that shall be applied in every one of the communities of TIPNIS.

5. To demand that the Plurinational State of Bolivia pull out the boats, vehicles, and all vessels of the

Armed Forces that are circulating on the rivers of TIPNIS without our authorization and/or prior coordination with the Subcentral. Should these actions persist, communities acting in defense of their rights shall proceed to decommission any that contravene this Resolution.

6. It is reiterated to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and functionaries of this institution, as well as the

various ministries that seek to implement the unconstitutional and arbitrary Law 222, the warning that vessels and means of transport, objects, etc. will be subject to decommissioning and consequent destruction by the corregidors and communal authorities.

The Presidency and Directors of the Subcentral remain charged with the carrying out of this resolution. Given in the community of Gundonovia—TIPNIS, Beni department, on the 18th day of March of the year 2012.

[Signed by representatives of 40 TIPNIS communities,

the Central Pueblos Étnicos Mojeños del Beni, and the Subcentral TIPNIS, and notarized]