The government announced the holding of the Toshaos conference, not the National Toshaos Council

Dear Editor,

From all appearances, the indigenous people of this country have become the subjects of the ruling party. This means that village meetings are no longer necessary, since the government will order the National Toshaos Council (NTC) to instruct village councils to make decisions at a national forum as it sees fit. This clearly was what happened in the case of the document that was drawn up to take to Mexico.

This time, the faithful subjects are again being called on to make decisions to speed up the process for the releasing of money granted to this country by Norway. The disturbing thing about this is that the Toshaos conference, slated for July 24-29, 2011 was announced directly by government, and not by the Indigenous People Commission and/or the National Toshaos Council. To the best of my knowledge, the indigenous people did not of themselves say that this was something they wanted. A postponement or boycott of this event would therefore be welcome.

Amerindians are only used as a tool to add numbers to the vote for the dominant races of this country. It is a constitutional requirement that a secretariat be established for the NTC, but so far this has not happened, and the council continues to make major decisions from under the wings of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, a different entity.

At this time land-grabbing is taking place at a rapid pace, the prices for timber are exceedingly high and gold is being sold at US$1,600 an ounce, and these resources among others are found in and around the lands of indigenous people. Till now nothing has been said about our land extensions.

Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)