Rabinal, Guatemala, January 8, 2013

Brothers and Sisters of the First Nations of Canada
We send you our cosmic energies and hope that “Uk’uux kaj, Uk’uux uleew – Heart of the Sky, Heart of the Earth”, protect you in these times of “legal storms” that the Canadian authorities inflict on you, and which we have been suffering in Latin America for so many years.
We, the indigenous educators from throughout the Americas (Abya Yala) energetically reject the policies of expropriation and we declare “NULAS IPSO JURE” any law in the Americas which attacks our Mother Nature, since it is she who sees us born, grow, reproduce and die, and who protects us with her womb. It she who nourishes us with her original foods – not genetically modified ones – and who baths us with the crystalline waters of her rivers and streams. Who would mistreat this loving force?
We, as citizens of the first peoples, and indigenous educators, do not wish to disturb the peace. We are not terrorists. We are educators and we teach love for nature and the importance of acting in harmony with her.
The Guatemalan poet Otto René Castillo wrote. “Here, no one cries, here we only want to be human – to eat, to laugh, to fall in love, to live – to live our lives and not die….” This is what we seek: to live our lives. But we can only do this if we care for and protect our “Qachuu Aloom – Mother Nature”, just as you are doing at this moment in Canada.
Enough with “terracide”, enough with laws that threaten nature in order to squeeze out the last riches, leaving behind a cloud of horrible scars. Whenever this happens, there are thousands of sons and daughters of the earth who will step forward to defend her – not with violence, but with just and pacific struggles, including hunger strikes, because it is the only way our message can awaken the consciences of our other brothers and sisters, and even those of the perpetrators.
“May everyone rise up, may no one be left behind .” Popol Wuuj. Sacred book of the Maya K’iche’ of Guatemala.
Continental Indigenous Educators’ Network – REI, a component of IDEA
Guillermo Chen.
Mayan Alliance for Popular Education, AMEP-GUATEMALA.
Coordinator of the Continental Indigenous Educators’ Network.