HAVANA (Radio Havana Cuba) -- October 12 marks 518 years of European intervention on our continent, and the beginning of a painful process which dramatically changed the history of native peoples, victims of the dispossession of their territories, the destruction of their social fabric, their customs and culture.

No one knows the exact number of inhabitants in 1492, in what was later called the Americas, but the number ranged between 13 and 150 million people. The truth is that by the end of the 17th century, 80 percent of the natives had been wiped out, representing a real demographic catastrophe.
Among the causes of this huge loss of life were the annihilation of entire settlements during the conquest of their territories, hunger, over-exploitation, and the transmission of diseases. Smallpox alone destroyed entire communities.
With the narrow intellectual concept of time, religious customs and native cultural items were systematically destroyed by a fierce fanaticism. Very few documents and buildings survived, but some evidence still exists that allows the accurate reproduction of the scientific developments achieved by advanced cultures like the Maya and Inca societies.
Stripped of their main resources, entire settlements were exploited for centuries, first in the interests of the colonialists, and later by local oligarchies and big transnational companies.
Today, the consequences of the conquest, colonialism and neo-colonialism can be seen with crude reality in many places of the continent.
In the United States, tens of thousands of indigenous people still live on reservations as third or fourth-class citizens.
You only have to look at the case of the Sioux-Chippewa leader Leonard Peltier, who was given two life sentences, unjustly convicted of killing two federal agents on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation, where there are important deposits of uranium and coal.
No firm evidence was presented against Leonard Peltier, however he has been in jail since 1977. And there was been no investigation of the deaths of 250 members of his ethnic group, murdered by police agents during the same events.
In some countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Colombia and Peru, indigenous people are the most deprived sector of the population, and disease, illiteracy and racial discrimination feed on them.
Nevertheless, in many places there have been positive changes. Since 2002, President Hugo Chavez established in Venezuela October 12th as the Day of Indigenous Resistance, and a ministerial department was created to examine and resolve the problems of native peoples.
In Bolivia, for the first time in the history of that country, an indigenous president was elected -- Evo Morales. This event opened the door to begin to vindicate the ancient communities and cultures.
Today, we remember José Martí’s words when, in April of 1884, he asked: “Can’t you see that the same blow which paralyzed the Indian, paralyzed America? José Martí rightfully understood that the Americas will only begin to move forward when the indigenous people are granted their full and inalienable rights.
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