HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 24 (acn) The Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of the Americas (ALBA) begins today in the Ecuadorean city of Otavalo with the purpose of prioritizing issues related to native peoples and Afro-descendants.
    
According to Granma newspaper, four commissions are scheduled to discuss topics related to culture, racism, climate change and foreign trade among peoples.
 
“The creation of a pluri-national and inter-cultural State goes beyond the ethnic factor and it will require the contribution of all sectors of society,” said Ecuador’s Peoples Minister Alexandra Ocles.

Native peoples and Afro-descendants “are sectors excluded from all spaces, and particularly from politics,” she told reporters.

Ocles will participate along with Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca in the main discussion of the event: “Analysis of the Transition from the Colonial State to Models of Plurinational, Intercultural and Multicultural States.”
 
It is expected that participants will create a council of native and Afro-descendant authorities that will work within ALBA.