Report: WCPA at the World Without Walls Conference

Tiquipaya, Bolivia, June 20-21, 2017 Glen T. Martin

WCPA President

March 5, 2017, a group of Latin American and Caribbean countries known as ALBA-TCP met in Caracas, Venezuela. The issued a joint statement entitled “Let US Defend the Unity, Dignity, and Sovereignty of Our America,” which quoted Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez on the unity of Latin America and ended with a call by President Evo Morales to a global conference on “A World Without Borders and Universal Citizenship,” to be held in Tiquipaya, Bolivia, June 20-21, 2017. WCPA was alerted to these events by Leopoldo Alberto Cook Antonorsi, member of the WCPA International Advisory Board and President of the Venezuela Chapter. WCPA immediately responded with the following statement:

“The great truths taught by these leaders, resting on the common dreams of freedom, dignity, justice, and peace, are also recognized by the great leaders of Latin America as universal principles necessary for all human beings. The “Great Homeland” may be Latin America and the Caribbean, but it is also planet Earth. All human beings have the right to live in dignity, freedom, and sustainability on the Earth.”

Plans were immediately put in place for a WCPA delegation to this conference and an email sent to our Latin American contacts. Our WCPA delegation ended up as five persons: myself, Leopoldo Alberto Cook Antonorsi and Mario Mota from Venezuela as well as Roberto Magnani Valdez and Reynoldo Cuadros Anaya, Ph.D., from Cochabamba, Bolivia. It turned out to be an effective and dynamic delegation. All four of my colleagues contributed something special to our success, which would have been impossible without them.

Here Leopoldo (left) and Mario pose with a bust of Hugo Chavez on the University of Valle campus. They are holding Spanish version of Dada Maheshvarananda’s After Capitalism and the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.

I stayed in the Regina Hotel and Conference Center very close to the University of Valle where the conference was held. The hotel had many prominent guests who were attending the conference and we were able to take advantage of meeting with them in the hotel dining room. Reynoldo is a former Ambassador from Bolivia to the Organization of American States (OAS), located in Washington, DC. He knew personally many of the people staying at the hotel.

The first morning was a huge plenary session in the university coliseum and again in the evening of the second day. There must have been at least 2000 people in the coliseum each time, with groups chanting, waving flags, a rock band playing and professional dancers on the stage. These were huge rallies with a number of very prominent speakers from the governments of Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Columbia, El Salvador, etc. Keynote speeches were made by President Evo Morales and Ex-President of Ecuador, Raphael Correa.

Spanish Source: Resumen Latinoamericano

During the day, each day, there were four or five separate forums in which people democratically expressed the problems and issues (the first day) and then made proposals for solutions (the second day). We were invited to present our proposal on the second day: We proposed that a permanent forum be created for the Latin American countries to study the Earth Constitution and address the problems of a world without borders and universal citizenship within its framework.

We had with us 1000 5 x 8 inch cards with our proposal printed on one side and a description of the Earth Constitution on the other side. We had 600 copies of the last two statements made by WCPA concerning the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and President Trump’s world tour. We had 200 copies of our proposal in an elegant color form that included a diagram of the Earth Federation under the Earth Constitution. And we had 100 books in Spanish that included the Manifesto of the Earth Federation and the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.

Nearly all of this got distributed, along with a number of certificates that Reynoldo had printed up in which we honored dignitaries as “World Parliament Ambassador.” In the photo below, we are honoring Freddy Ehlers with one of these certificates. He is a former Minister of Buen Vivir from Ecuador. Yes, that is correct: a minister of the “good life.” He told us that Ecuador was a major influence in getting the UN Development Program (UNDP) to articulate development as the freedom of people to live meaningful and rewarding lives independently of how much wealth they may have.

On the left is Reynaldo Cuadros Anaya of Bolivia. In the center is Freddy Ehlers of Ecuador. On the right side are

Leopoldo and Mario from Venezuela

The morning of June 21st was the summer solstice that is the dawn of the cosmic new year of indigenous peoples everywhere. It was held outside the Regina Hotel and jointly conducted by an indigenous man and woman. Leopoldo, Mario, and I were there before dawn where the ceremony was conducted around a bonfire. As the sun rose over the mountains the entire group raised their arms to welcome its life-giving glory and the New Year.

At the end of the second day again the stage in the coliseum was packed with dignitaries, and again Evo Morales gave a stirring and passionate address. Indigenous people cheered, flags waved, and one began to understand the deep commitment to freedom and a decent world system for the entire “Mother Earth” and its creatures.

Speakers on the stage of the Coliseum

President Evo Morales speaking

We spoke with delegations from other countries as well as the large delegation from Venezuela that was present. We gave copies of the Constitution to delegates from Chile, Argentina, Columbia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Bolivia as well as the former head of the Communist Party of Italy. We had several interviews with the media, and Leopoldo and I were both invited to write articles for the official journal of the Bolivian government: La Migraña. I believe that Latin America is ready to hear our message and to consider moving

beyond continental solidarity to world solidarity. Let us celebrate another great step forward to WCPA and the Earth Constitution.