La Paz – President Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first Indian head of state, told some 10,000 people here Thursday that Oct. 12 – variously celebrated as Columbus Day or the Day of the Hispanic World – has become “liberation day” for the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
In a speech attended by leaders of Indian communities from 12 different countries who are in Bolivia for a conference, the Aymara president said that the Europeans who began colonizing the New World 514 years ago had set out to “exterminate the indigenous peoples” who now have begun their own liberation.
“On this Oct. 12, before the so-called Day of the Race, after the Day of Disgrace, now it’s the Day of Liberation, a day of dignification for our America, for Alya Yala (the word for America in the Quechua Indian language), beginning with Bolivia,” said Morales in La Paz’s Heroes Square.
The government-sponsored rally drew some 10,000 people, a figure far below the 100,000 expected, according to authorities’ remarks on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, at the time of the rally, the Spanish Embassy offered its usual Oct. 12 reception at the army officers club, an event attended by Labor Minister Alex Galvez and by the top commanders of the armed forces.
At the reception, Ambassador Juan Francisco Montalban said that the Bolivian president and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had both spoken about a “strategic alliance between the two countries” and he offered a toast to an increase in cooperation and good relations between the two peoples.
In his speech, Morales also asked the indigenous peoples to involve themselves in finding solutions to their problems, and he called on the governments of Europe and the United States to accept “fair trade” with the countries of the Americas to stop the region’s high rate of emigration.
The Bolivian government organized the rally to support Morales, who has been harassed since last week by strikes and protests by groups that had been his allies amid insistent rumors of a brewing coup attempt.
But two of the latent social conflicts were resolved on Thursday, and Morales dismissed the coup talk as rightist propaganda meant “simply to terrify.”
“This cultural democratic revolution – with Evo Morales or without Evo Morales – will go forward. Nobody’s going to stop the change in Bolivia. Nobody’s going to stop the Constituent Assembly and the nationalization of our natural resources,” the president promised.
