Dominican Republic: XIII Peralta Verde 2024 Youth Camp echoes calls to defend peasants’ rights

With over 70 youth and community members representing 11 organizations from 9 provinces, along with delegates from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Japan, and three national agricultural institutions, the XIII Peralta Verde Youth Camp successfully took place in Peralta municipality, Azua Provice, Dominican Republic.

Over three days, we engaged in a program aligned with our slogan and the realities of rural life. The central objective of the Peralta Verde Youth Camp is to continue strengthening the unity of rural and urban youth with an agroecological approach focused on food sovereignty and integral and popular agrarian reform, rooted in the agenda of peasants’ rights.

This XIII edition continued to serve as a platform for community exchange, where peasants shared their experiences in production, cultivation, and the historical processes of peasants in the Peralta municipality and across the country. Discussions also focused on planting and protecting the Jura River basin to promote water production as part of ongoing programs within the camp’s area of influence.

With active participation from the youth, guests, and community members, we engaged in debates on various topics: the involvement of youth in the peasant movements of the Dominican Republic; the continuous recovery and care of water sources in our communities; gender equality from the perspective of challenging cultural patterns and stereotypes that violate women’s rights; the fight for self-determination and sovereignty of our peoples; active participation in decision-making spaces; the need to deepen political, ideological, cultural, historical, methodological, and popular education processes through contextual analysis; promoting agroecology as a tool in the fight for food sovereignty; and advancing peasants’ rights and implementing programs to mitigate climate change in the region.

Camp Proposals and Resolutions:

• Continue promoting the study of Dominican Republic’s history, as discussed in this event, particularly the Restoration War and the participation of youth in this significant historical event.
• It was resolved that this event should be registered with the Ministry of Youth, the Ministry of Environment, and the Ministry of Agriculture, so it becomes part of their strategic planning and agenda for the coming year.
• Encourage youth to document their life stories to be edited and published, contributing to national and international knowledge, with attention to their art and cultural context.
• Strengthen production in the area by incorporating crops that ensure organic production, water conservation, and reforestation through an organized proposal and agroecological awareness.
• We denounce the forest fires and indiscriminate logging occurring in the central mountain range of the Dominican Republic, which contribute to global warming and climate change.
• Rural and urban youth unite in the alliance for the right to social services, which are currently a priority in both rural and urban areas.
• We call on the public works department, specifically the rural road rehabilitation department, to continue maintaining the Peralta-El Pinal rural road and its surrounding areas. We commend the work of the community and associations on these connections and propose that these hardworking communities deserve a proper road.
• We commit to holding a rural-urban youth meeting this year in Fondo Negro, where an action plan and a coordination space for rural-urban youth in the Dominican Republic will be established. We also plan to hold preliminary meetings leading up to the camp to ensure greater integration of youth organizations into these experiences.
• We aim to establish an alliance with the local government and institutions to enhance the ecotourism resources of the municipality and continue promoting local development.
• The Peralta Verde Youth Camp advocates for solidarity, unity, equality, resistance, and a commitment to continue supporting the campaigns led by La Vía Campesina and CLOC, including those with Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti, Palestine, and all countries within the global peasant agenda. We condemn the militarization and displacement of land workers and rural communities.
• The Peralta Verde Youth Camp expresses solidarity with the Bolivarian people of Venezuela, who not only resist attacks from landowners but also endure the harsh economic blockade orchestrated by imperial powers with the complicit support of the bourgeoisie.
• We embrace agroecology as part of our political demands, incorporating technical training for our youth (IALA Mama Tingo) to support and educate peasants in their territories, alongside the training proposed to the San Miguel association and community members in coordination with the Environmental Commission of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD).

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