My Controversial Report on the 3rd Indigenous Leaders Summit of the Americas held in Panama Central America April 14-15th 2009

The 1st Indigenous Leaders Summit of the Americas was held in 2001 in Ottawa, Canada, North
America, the second was in 2005 in Buenos Aires, Argentina; South America, and the 3rd was just
concluded on April 15th 2009 in Panama City, Panama; Central America
.
Controversy tends to follow anything that seeks to advance the long denied rights of the Indigenous
Peoples of the Americas - a Hemisphere that with the sole exception of Bolivia (which FINALLY has
an Indigenous President and government) - STILL suffers to varying degrees under Colonialism &
Neo-Colonialism - 517 years AFTER the arrival of Columbus and the ensuing Genocide, Ethnocide and
Ecocide he (and subsequent Euro-centric plunderers) unleashed in the 'New World'.

At the opening ceremony held in a conference room at the Hotel Riande Continental in Panama City on
April 14th 2009 the opening prayer was said by a respected elder of the local Kuna Tribal Nation.
The influential leader Mrs. Beverly Jacobs of the Native Womens' Association of Canada, was the first
speaker to address the 100+ Indigenous Leaders from North, South, Central America and the Caribbean
gathered.

This was followed by a video address by his Excellency Jose Miguel Insulza - Secretary General of the
Organization of American States (OAS), and this was presented on his behalf by her Excellency
Abigail Castro de Perez - Ambassador and representative of the OAS in Panama.

The Third speaker was her Excellency Patricia Lagan-Torrel - Ambassador of Canada to the the
Republic of Panama; the governments of Canada, the USA, and Spain provided funds to make the 3rd
ILSA possible and the OAS provided logistical support in no small part by tireless workers such as Mr.
Luis Toro and Ms. Jessica Grebeldinger - both great friends to the cause of Indigenous rights.

Fourth to speak was the well known indigenous Lawyer Hector Huertas of the Kuna Tribal Nation of
Panama, and one of the key points he raised was the fact that "Everyone must realize that the United
Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a 'minimum standard' - not a be-all and end-all
for the inherent and undeniable rights of Indigenous Peoples of the world; so the American
declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples (still being created) CANNOT fall below the rights
enshrined in the UN declaration - which is global in scope".
* Readers should note that the UN declaration being referred to was passed by a vote of support of
every UN member state EXCEPT the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia - but soon thereafter
the Australian government changed and the new administration quickly adopted the Declaration
leaving 3 isolated 'Democratic hypocrisies' still in opposition.

Fifth and last to speak was the veteran respected Grand Chief Edward John - political executive of the First
Nations Assembly (of Canada) Task Group, and he provided a wealth of information to the appreciative
audience gathered, but his most memorable statement - and one that reverberated around the room to
enthusiastic support was when he thundered: "This 'Human Prosperity' theme of the OAS Heads of State
Summit to follow us immediately in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago CANNOT be implemented for the
benefit of the non-indigenous citizens of the OAS states at the expense of OUR Indigenous peoples - because for far too long that is EXACTLY what has been happening!".
The Grand chief went on to state "We have taken 40 cases against the government of Canada to the
Supreme Court of Canada and we have won ALL of them, yet the government of Canada still refuses
to comply with the rulings of their own Supreme Court!"

As I sat in the audience, as a Barbadian by birth of Guyanese Lokono-Arawak descent, and cognizant
of the fact that I was part of the planning committee for this 3rd indigenous Leaders Summit of the
Americas and head of the communications sub-committee (my tenure expired as of 6.30pm on April
15th 2009 when the Summit officially ended), I was saddened to hear that the Governments of
Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil - were still frustrating the efforts of the Indigenous Caucus in
the draft American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People's process, when I had attended the
last OAS session in Washington DC a few months ago the USA and Canada had dropped out of the
process entirely - which is an act guaranteed to sabotage any progress we hope to make on that front
due to the 'Consensus' requirement within the OAS.

The undemocratic 'Consensus' is the De-facto modus operandi among OAS states, this 'consensus'
system requires that every state must be in complete agreement with EVERYTHING being proposed to
be adopted by the OAS - otherwise it is ultimately rejected.
This might sound almost noble in theory to those who do not have to face 'semantic skulduggery' - for
time and time again we see certain states using the most petty and ridiculous arguments such as the
placement of a comma or hyphen etc. to say "We do not agree with the placement of the comma in that
sentence so we cannot support the text being proposed." Thereby ensuring that our efforts are frustrated
by ever more delays and 'consensus' cannot be reached so the indigenous rights we are fighting so hard
for are denied once again.
To further expose the 'consensus' deception - it would be akin to not allowing any American
presidential candidate to win office unless 100% of all votes cast were for a particular candidate....I ask
you - is that what you call democracy? Is is truly absurd for the countries who traverse the globe
meddling in other countries internal affairs in the name of 'Championing democracy' to be the SAME
countries who do their utmost to ensure that a majority vote democratic process is NOT allowed to
exist within the OAS system.

In truth and in fact the 'Consensus' system being forced by the powerful in the OAS - was devised
specifically to ensure that the Neo-Colonial States of the Americas (not their willing or unwilling
citizenry) are ALWAYS in a position to dictate their self-serving agendas to those they consider to be
their 'subjects'.
With the exception of Guyana, the Caribbean States disrespectful lack of interest and attendance at the
vast majority of OAS sessions concerning Indigenous Peoples of our Hemisphere is another disturbing
factor in our quest to eventually see the American Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples
officially and legally come into existence, for we foresee a worrying scenario whereby the Caribbean
States (who in large part are dependent in one way or another on the USA and Canada) being strong-armed
into voting AGAINST our declaration by using the argument that "They are not sufficiently
informed to make a decision in support of the Declaration"....if the Caribbean states would wake up and
show some interest and make the same effort as ALL the Latin American States have been for many
years - they would know enough to make an informed decision - of course this would require
Caribbean governments to ACTUALLY care about Indigenous Peoples, a falsehood they are fond of
publicly stating - but in my opinion - based on their actions is not yet the case in reality.

Take a critical look at the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago as but one example, they are holding the
5th Summit of the Americas - yet the government of Trinidad and Tobago STILL refuses to officially
grant their Indigenous 'Carib' People (the only ones they 'officially' recognize) even 1 square foot of land titled to them - and this is land that in reality - and according to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which the Government of Trinidad and Tobago voted to approve - has belonged to the Carib (and other indigenous Trinidadian) people BEFORE any of the Colonial era ethnic groups who all came subsequently and usurped the traditional territories of the Carib People (same can be said of the Red Caribs of Sandy Bay in St. Vincent).

Take a glance at Suriname - who's constitution does NOT even recognize the existence of the 20,000+
Indigenous Amerindians in that country! Do you think any Caribbean head of State has ever raised this
glaring injustice being perpetrated by the government of Suriname on it's native peoples in violation of
International Laws and Human Rights Conventions? Not a word from any of them, their CARICOM
heads of state cocktail party get-together's is of far more importance obviously.Verily, we take
hypocrisy to unprecedented levels in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
In the 90+ paragraphs of the OAS 5th Heads of State Summit Declaration only TWO have passing
references (not even entire paragraphs)to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, one about Education,
and the other about Health...what does this tell you about the 'equitable treatment' these two-faced
politicians claim to want for their 'indigenous brothers and sisters'?.
The Indigenous Caucus of the Americas is only being permitted one brief address to the OAS Heads of
State - then like dutiful servants we must leave the room, not even being permitted to sit as official
observers as we were granted in previous OAS Summits.

Our ONLY hope now is that full blooded Amerindian President Evo Morales of Bolivia or President
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela - who is of mixed Amerindian descent, will use their time at the podium to
remind the world that we Indigenous STILL exist, that the conquest of the Americas has NOT yet
ended, and neither has our resistance to it!

There is a glimmer of hope for the future - because in the legal apparatus of the OAS a simple majority
democratic vote CAN be held to pass a document such as the Draft American Declaration on the rights
of Indigenous Peoples - IF 'weaker' countries are willing to stand-up to the high and mighty in our
Hemisphere and make that Clarion call for such a vote.

It was not always this way, the Government of Antigua and Barbuda gave up it's seat to the Indigenous
Caucus many years ago and very early in the process - an act which allowed us to have a seat at the
table and raise our issues, and the Government of Dominica's UN Ambassador Gregoire tirelessly made
the rounds in the UN general assembly to champion Indigenous Rights and garner support for the UN
Declaration which was eventually passed!

We shall see which of our leaders today actually has some courage and sense of justice.