MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivian VP nominated for UN top position

Choquehuanca’s ancestral knowledge and qualifications were highlighted

Bolivia’s Unity Pact, representing 36 indigenous-peasant nations, has nominated Vice President David Choquehuanca as an indigenous candidate for UN Secretary-General during the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York. The nomination aligns with the Latin American and Caribbean region’s turn for the position.

”We bring as candidate for secretary general our brother David Choquehuanca, who is currently our vice-president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, so that he can assume the position (...),” Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia (Cidob) President Justo Molina said while insisting that an “indigenous brother” with ancestral knowledge and trajectory, “of course fulfilling all the requirements,” was desirable in this position.

He also called for the Permanent Forum to support the Amazonian Mechanism of Indigenous Peoples in incorporating their perspectives into the region's future. Additionally, he requested action from the Amazon Joint Mitigation and Adaptation Mechanism to ensure the sustainable and integrated management of forests, both overseen by the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO).

Meanwhile, Lucio Quispe, executive secretary of Bolivia’s CSUTCB, proposed renaming the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to the Permanent Forum of Indigenous Peoples, emphasizing direct participation without intermediaries like NGOs. Additionally, he urged the UN General Assembly to hold an annual Mother Earth Assembly and convene a Mother Earth Summit in 2030. Quispe also argued that the name of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues should be changed to “Permanent Forum of Indigenous Peoples.”

“We as indigenous peoples would have to participate with our own identities as indigenous peoples,” he also stressed.

“It is very important to value the principles and values that our ancestors, our grandparents, have left us and that we must recover, value around the world. That is why we want to value that knowledge, those codes of Living Well,” insisted Germán Laura of the National Council of Ayllus and Marks of Kollasuyo (Conamaq), who invited all the Indigenous Peoples of the world to promote the recognition of modern sciences and ancestral and millenary sciences alike.

In addition, Guillermina Kuno, leader of the Bartolina Sisa National Confederation of Indigenous Native Peasant Women of Bolivia, requested international support for the inclusion of the voice of the Permanent Forum in the critical review of the coca leaf and underscored that the Wiphala should be recognized as a symbol of harmony, balance and complementarity with Mother Earth. She also advocated for the creation of the International Day of Indigenous Women.