Land, housing, labor

Dear brothers:

From the commitment to defend Mother Earth, our popular sovereignty and the Good Living, the popular movements, artists and intellectuals of the world, concerned about the situation of destruction that deepens in the Amazon, territory of life, culture and peoples in resistance, we welcome with enthusiasm the development of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology, convened by Pope Francis in the Vatican between October 6th and 27th, 2019.

The Amazon region is at the center of a dispute of senses and opposal societal and economic projects, in the midst of a systemic socio-environmental crisis. The process of appropriation and exploitation of territories and common goods is marked by the advance of agribusiness, mineral and oil exploitation and the large infrastructure projects associated with them. Behind them, we recognize the presence of transnational corporations, financial capital and a deep armamentism complex, which seek to impose their economic interests above the livelihoods of Amazonian peoples.

The intensification of this project is expressed in deforestation, the illegal occupation of the territories for the exploitation of natural goods and the consequent expulsion of indigenous and peasant peoples. To accomplish this, violence, fundamentalism, racism, the criminalization of popular organizations, the persecution and murder of their leaders are legitimized. The fires initiated are consequence of the deep regression in the socio environmental protection frames.

Facing these challenges, we welcome the courage expressed in the proposals of the Instrumentum Laboris, a document that we know reliably was prepared from the listening of the peoples of the Amazon. We especially highlight the following points of the document suggestions:

● We encourage a Church that walks with the people, that acts and reacts in defense of our rights and the Amazon. In that sense, we highlight the spirit of denunciation against the predatory and exploitative model of the common goods, as expressed in the mentioned document.

● We agree with you that the defense of the territorial rights of indigenous peoples is an indispensable condition for advancing in a political perspective of the Common Good, the Good Living and an Integral Ecology.

● We also celebrate its commitment to agroecology, family, peasant and indigenous farming, communitarian and agroflorestal, which are essential ways to achieve Food Sovereignty.

● We value with you the promotion of a new ecological conscience, in the perspective of Good Living, that allows us to overcome a culture marked by consumerism, discarding, femicides and ecocide.

With the purpose of supporting and walking with you, we will perform the following actions during this Synod:

1. Global Action Day "Amazonia, Resistencia y Vida", October 12-18

2. Mobilization for World Food Sovereignty Day, October 16

We commit ourselves to travel this path together, this Synod being an important section of the path, an expression of communal solidarity that responds to the global situation of injustice, poverty, violence and exclusion in the Amazon. We wish the best fruits of this meeting, fruits that hopefully will nourish a walking Church next to the people.

Land, Labor and Lodge

Amazon, Resistance and Life