The economic globalization, consequence of the neoliberal politics, that extend over the whole planet has imposed and continues to impose cruel processes of human and environmental exploitation, whose consequences are a progressing inequality, violence and war. Governments in Latin America justify the introduction of means of neoliberal inspiration in the social, political and economic area with the argument that they are absolutely necessary in order to achieve development and democracy.
The structural changes resulting form this process preoccupy us, particularly if we must observe that the sovereignty of the states over their territories and economy each time grows weaker as well as that values and principles both humane and spiritual, that guarantee the equilibrium and respect towards nature do disappear.

Our social organization hails from a millennium, notwithstanding, in the past 30 years we have created organizations of political representation just like the West. In these years of public life we have mustered collective efforts and this way achieved to sensitize the national and international opinion in respect to our problems and today we continue the process of institutional strengthening and consolidation. In this sense different strategies are being employed: the horizontal participation of the members, taking the demands of the indigenous communities in to account as the first level, passing to the federation as second level, the regionals as third level, the national organizations as fourth level, the COICA as fifth level and International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests is considered the last level, because as affirmed by COICA , the organization of the Amazonic peoples:” We do not oppose ourselves against development or the search for new alternatives for the survival of humanity, but yes, we want this development to respect our way of life, our cultural diversity, our ancestral wisdom, our collective knowledge and that they be interrelated in a truly sustainable process.

Currently our forces are directed towards fortifying the exchange among ourselves as indigenous peoples and the recognition of the challenges that as such we have to face and of the necessity to find strategic allies to face the processes that affect the Indigenous peoples collectively, like e.g. the guarantee of the compliance of our rights on the international level. Embedded in this framework is the Project of the Convention of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which has been discussed for more than 20 years in the UN and up to date was not approved; The policies of globalization that affect all the people and among them us, in Latin America this is the case with the Plan Colombia 1 and 2; the Andean Initiative, FTAA, FTA, NAFTA, WIPO, WTO, the Plan Puebla Panama, the international companies, that exploit humans and the environment, as well as many others that assault our indigenous territories and the life of our peoples.

The Indigenous organizations COICA, COIAB, APOINME and UNISUR of Brazil conjointly with other organizations of the Indigenous Movement of the continent like CICA and the International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests and national organizations, like CONAIE and ECUARUNARI (Ecuador), ONIC (Colombia), ONPIA (Argentina) and CONADI (Chile) have convened at the II Continental Summit of the Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities and for the first time a working table of the Indigenous Peoples at the Social Forum of the Americas had been formed, in which the problems that affect indigenous peoples collectively as well as our desire, in the face of the challenges that the current reality subjects us to, are being addressed. Presently, we want to amplify the radius of involvement towards other social sectors of the world with a direct participation at the World Social Forum in January 2005, which for us constitutes an encounter that decrease the borders between peoples and other social sectors, a rewarding experience that will help to broaden the horizons, hearts, thoughts and dreams.

Our dreams are directly connected with the protection of our territories, this is the multidimensional center that involves not only the physical terrain, but also the underground, the spirituality, the living beings like animals and plants that he earth hosts, the sacred sites, as well as the ancestral histories the previous, the present, and the following, vital connection and the basis of our existence. We constitute a great cultural variety extended over the entire continent and it is these diversity that we want to bring to The Puxirum of Arts and Indigenous Knowledge to the World Social Forum, the space that reflects upon all that has been constructed and sustained during the centuries, from our own perceptions and from our conditions as actors of our past and future.