Solidarity with the indigenous Paikoneka women

The Paikoneka Indigenous Organization of San Javier (CIP-SJ) and the Paikoneka Indigenous Women's Organization (OMIP-SJ), along with their 60 affiliated communities, declare a state of emergency and permanent alert due to the threat posed by the mayor of San Javier, Armando Barbery Landivar. In an act of abuse of power and blatant discrimination against the municipality's Indigenous communities, he intends to seize Paikoneka property: the Prenatal Center for the Indigenous Communities of San Javier, built with UPRE funds during the previous administration. The municipal authority, under the pretext of contributing to the fight against COVID-19, decided to take over the Prenatal Center without consultation and convert it into a hospital for COVID-19 patients, using municipal land titles that supersede the Indigenous people's property titles. In doing so, the authority is violating the legal rights recognized by current institutions and protected by the Constitution. This attitude demonstrates a flagrant violation of the laws governing his own conduct as a municipal authority and a complete lack of respect for the dignity of the Paikoneka communities. The women of the San Javier communities and their organizations issue a desperate cry for solidarity with the people, and particularly with Indigenous women, so that it may be heard in Bolivia and the world, preventing this assault that disregards the rights of Indigenous peoples, violates ILO Convention 169, and endangers the lives of women who, pregnant and with a small child in tow, walk for hours from their communities to reach the town where the gynecologist is located. He often tells them to "come back tomorrow," something impossible for them due to the long distances, their precarious situation that prevents them from paying for transportation twice, and the reality of being alone in their homes. It's worth remembering that the Paikoneka Indigenous Central has frequently faced threats of takeover by local authorities, who have even set fire to its facilities as a form of humiliation against those who dared to fight for their territory and to break the resistance of Indigenous communities in the face of the denial of their political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights. Now, Armando Barbery Landivar has found the perfect pretext: combating the coronavirus in the Indigenous community's home and its Prenatal Center. The issue is sensitive; no one can oppose the intention to defend life in the context of a pandemic. But we must ask ourselves: what about the lives of Indigenous women? What about the new Indigenous people who will come to strengthen the culture—a culture that, incidentally, is sold as folklore by the very same authorities who boast of a cultural heritage that belongs to others? The Prenatal Center is a place of refuge, rest, and awaiting childbirth. More than a property, the center represents a victory for the reproductive rights of women and the Indigenous peoples to which they belong. If this authority's desire to defend life is legitimate, why build new facilities and prolong the treatment of those suffering from COVID-19? Why not adapt the facilities at the Cattlemen's Association headquarters? Why exploit the meager resources of the Indigenous people? The Human Rights Platform of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, condemns these actions and calls on all social forces and movements defending human rights to unite and condemn the assault on the property of the Paikoneka Indigenous communities. These hard-won gains are rights that are not lost during periods of transition or with a change of government. We condemn the criminal violence with which the women who were keeping vigil to protect their Prenatal Center were attacked. STOP AUTHORITARIANISM AND DISCRIMINATION! WE REJECT THE COLONIALIST ATTITUDES OF THE MUNICIPAL AUTHORITY OF SAN JAVIER IN THE FACE OF THE ASSAULT AND THREATS. WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN.