United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Comunidad Seque Jahuira, Asociación de Pueblos Indígena Originario Campesinos Qhana Pukara Kurmi, Cultural Survival
(April 2025)
Madam President, Indigenous sisters and brothers of the world present at this forum, please accept with much appreciation a fraternal greeting from the Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia.
My name is Pastor Carvajal. I am an Aymara Indigenous person and an Indigenous leader of my community called Seque Jawira in the department of La Paz, Bolivia. My territory, in the last 10 years, has been invaded by 23 mining companies dedicated to recovering minerals from mine tailings. Other large companies transport approximately more than 100 tons of minerals daily to my community. These companies use cyanide, mercury, arsenic, sulfuric acid, and other chemicals to recover the minerals. In 10 years, they have devastated my community, causing terrible damage to our territory and the environment. The contamination of water bodies, pastures, and productive lands has caused the death of our animals, causing us to go from being dairy farmers to being displaced. Human health has also been severely affected by the consumption of contaminated water.
Bolivian state institutions granted operating licenses, as well as environmental licenses, which were granted by the Ministry of the Environment without implementing the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent as Indigenous Peoples.
Despite the multiple complaints filed with the appropriate authorities, they have not been answered to date. The authorities' inaction has generated a hostile situation with the miners, who threaten and defame us, and we have suffered physical attacks on more than four occasions.
The waste from the 23 mining companies is dumped into a river in our community that flows into Lake Titicaca. This situation should cause an international scandal because it is the largest high lake in the world, and lakes guarantee life on the planet. According to the culture of the Aymara Indigenous nation, they are the origin of our life.
I am here, carrying the feeling of powerlessness and at the same time the dignity of my brothers and sisters, to raise our voices and denounce a painful and contradictory reality: the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is not being effectively implemented in my country. Bolivia, despite being one of the first States to formally incorporate the Declaration into its Constitution, has seen its collective rights violated.
We denounce the violation of Article 3, which guarantees the right of Indigenous Peoples to self-determination, and Article 4, which recognizes our right to autonomy and self-government. Our territories are being invaded without our consent, in clear violation of Article 32, which establishes that States must obtain our Free, Prior and Informed Consent before approving projects that affect our lands and natural resources.
Likewise, Article 26 of the Declaration is being systematically ignored because our right to tenure, possession, use, and control of our traditionally occupied territories is not respected.
Our territories, which are also territories of life and spirituality, have become territories of suffering. And when we speak out to defend them, we are criminalized, persecuted, or silenced, which constitutes a clear violation of Article 8, which prohibits any form of forced assimilation or destruction of our culture.
Therefore, we request the honorable members of the Permanent Forum:
- To urge the Plurinational State of Bolivia to fully and comprehensively comply with the articles of the Declaration that are already incorporated into the Political Constitution.
- That States be recommended to seek and implement development models that respect the human and territorial rights of Indigenous peoples, rather than destroying them in the name of development, and that Article 20 not be violated.
- That the Bolivian state be recommended to respect and fully comply with Articles 19 and 32, which establish that States must obtain our Free, Prior and Informed Consent in accordance with international standards.
- We respectfully ask the Permanent Forum to seek mechanisms to implement and constantly monitor its recommendations to Bolivia.
- Indigenous Peoples do not want speeches, we want justice, we want to exist forever.
Long live the Indigenous Peoples of the world!
