1.Ecuador Update – March 23, 2006
2.What You Can Do
3.CONAIE Pronouncement, March 13, 2006
4.NYT: Ecuador’s President Declares a State of Emergency
5.Reuters: Ecuador calls emergency to quell Indian protest
1. Ecuador Update: Quito, March 23, 2006
With chants of: “Si firma el TLC, Palacios sin Palacio,” * and “No queremos, y no nos da la gana, de ser un colonia, nortamericana,” ** protests by Ecuador’s indigenous movement, small farmers, and civil society against the signing of the Andean Free Trade Pact (Tratado de Libre Comercio – TLC) and for the cancellation of Occidental Petroleum’s contract and its expulsion from the country continued into its tenth day today. Led by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), Ecuador’s national indigenous umbrella group, the movement has paralyzed commerce and transit in five provinces with marches, road closures, and occupations of critical infrastructure. The fragile government of Alfredo Palacios, put into power in April 2005 after a grassroots civil society movement ousted former military cornel Lucio Gutierrez, has attempted to beat back the nationwide strike with heavy military and police force and a declaration of state of emergency in the provinces of Tungurahua, Imbabura, Cotopaxi, Chimborazo, and Cañar, as well as the counties of Tabacundo and Cayambe, in Pichincha province, which includes Quito.
According to CONAIE, the NAFTA-style TLC will, “bring misery to our country, and something of this magnitude should be approved by all Ecuadorians, not only a handful of companies. Palacio’s government should not be signing the TLC behind our backs and against the will of Ecuadorians.” CONAIE’s principle concerns with the TLC agreement – which covers everything from agriculture, biodiversity and communication to services and intellectual property law – relate to the economic impact on small campesino and indigenous farmers. While major export oriented agro-companies are in favor of the TLC, it is the small campesino and indigenous farmers whose products are the backbone of the country’s internal consumption that will be hardest hit by the import of U.S. subsidized agriculture and risks of an influx of GMO agriculture. The agreement brings concerns about labor rights, security issues, health care, food sovereignty, and social and environmental costs to the forefront, and exposes the lack of public participation in decision making on issues that would substantially cede the country’s sovereignty and shape its society around neo-liberal market-driven schemes.
CONAIE’s second demand also relates to Ecuador’s sovereignty over its natural resources and economy. Occidental Petroleum (OXY) is known to many in the U.S. for controversies involving oil drilling on the homelands of the indigenous U’wa people of Colombia and the Achuar of Peru, as well as the beneficiary of massive U.S. taxpayer subsidy to the Colombian military for protection of their oil pipeline. In Ecuador, the company operates a 500,000-acre plus oil block on the rainforests lands of the Secoya indigenous people that overlaps into an extremely fragile rainforest protected area. OXY farmed out an 85% working interest in the block to EnCana, without government approval. This allowed the companies to reap bigger oil royalties by keeping the government from renegotiating a larger share for the state. Like ChevronTexaco, currently on trial here for egregious environmental crimes in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon spanning twenty years, OXY has become a national symbol of multinational corporate abuse in Ecuador. “Fuera OXY,” *** and other graffiti line Quito neighborhoods, and the company has invested heavily in television and poster ads to improve its image and keep its assets from being expropriated. While the contract dispute between the company and the country moves slowly through legal channels, the social momentum and political climate has become untenable for the government, and the survival of the current administration may depend on the company’s ousting.
Unlike indigenous and civil society uprisings in the past which culminated in massive concentrated protests in the capital city of Quito and led to the ousting of three presidents over the last nine years, these protests are dispersed throughout the country, in part due to the violent repression by military and police that has limited mobility. In Quito, the indigenous movement is now being joined by other social sectors, including high school and university students, and labor and religious organizations. Additionally, actions are being initiated by the forajidos, **** a term for Quito’s loose knit grassroots neighborhood groups. Formed during the ousting of Gutierrez, the forajidos took the streets and carried out autonomous actions, adding yet a new dimension and social force to Ecuador’s long history of street democracy.
There are currently several thousands indigenous peoples in Quito, including roughly two hundred Zapara, Kichwa, Huaorani, Shuar, and Achuar from the Ecuadorian Amazon who marched some 240 km from the jungle town of Puyo. Yesterday afternoon, the group marched to the National Congress to demand a pronouncement by the government. Although they were heard, no response from the government was given. Dialogue began late yesterday between CONAIE leaders and four government ministries in hopes of finding mechanisms for a permanent dialogue with President and an end to the state’s aggressive repression of dissent.
Ecuador’s indigenous groups and civil society need the support of the international community, both in urging the government to stop the violent repression of the peaceful protests and supporting the demands set forth by CONAIE.
* “If the Andean Free Trade Pact is signed, Palacio without a palace”, referring to Ecuadorian president Alfredo Palacio and the history of the indigenous movement in forcing government leaders from power and fleeing the presidential palace.
** “We don’t want, nor do we desire, to be a North American colony.”
*** “OXY OUT!”
**** The term forajidos, technically meaning delinquents, was appropriated by groups of people who protested in front of Gutierrez’s home. After blaming his lose of sleep on a few ‘delinquents’ the groups grew and began to self define as forajidos—if it meant those that stood up for their country, their rights, democracy, and justice.
2. WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Write to the Ecuadorian government denouncing the violent state repression against CONAIE and other civil society representatives, support their demands, and let them know the international community is closely monitoring the situation:
Ministerio de Gobierno y policia:
informació[email protected]
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores:
[email protected]
Ministerio Público del Ecuador:
[email protected]
Call the U.S. Capitol at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your representative; tell them you think a NAFTA style U.S.-Ecuador deal is a bad idea.
Read Public Citizen’s Fact Sheet on AFTA:
http://www.citizen.org/documents/afta_fact_sheet_final.pdf
For more information:
www.conaie.org
www.amazonwatch.org
3. CONAIE PRONOUNCEMENT – MOBILIZATION IN DEFENSE OF LIFE
Quito, March 13th, 2006
The transitional government of Dr. Alfredo Palacio, contrary to the commitments it made last April when taking power, continues supporting the policies of its predecessor, Lucio Gutiérrez: handing over natural resources, in particular water and oil, to transnational corporations; involving our nation in our neighbor’s civil war; refusing to comply with the creation of a National Constituent Assembly demanded by all Ecuadorians due to the government’s ongoing commitment to the oligarchy and political strongmen; in addition to aspiring to the signature of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States despite widespread domestic opposition.
CONAIE has insisted upon transparency, participation, democracy and equity with all governments, and has fought for national demands because the indigenous peoples and nationalities have, above all, fought for the creation of a democratic and plurinational state for all Ecuadorians. We have proposed a new State model for the entire country, based in the recognition of the rights of all, a State that encompasses diversity within unity, in which economic democracy is as important as political and social democracy, all in a harmonic, tolerant and respectful manner. We have proposed the Plurinational State as the only guarantee for democracy in the widest sense possible, and the only opportunity for respect of the differences and diversity our continent is composed of.
For these reasons, CONAIE, complying with the mandate given to it by its grassroots communities, has decided:
1. To begin a national mobilization in different provinces throughout the national territory demanding that the government immediately remove itself from all Free Trade Agreement negotiations it is partaking in with the United States; the definitive expulsion of the Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY), the nationalization of oil; and the urgent creation of a National Constituent Assembly.
2. The continuation of the mobilizations has been reaffirmed in coordination with the provincial organizations: the taking of highways, popular assemblies and marches on Quito, in order to demand that the current political regime comply with the commitments it made in its capacity as transitional government.
3. Summon the Ecuadorian populace to support the national indigenous mobilization, and impel, in a most decisive manner, all actions in coordination with the social movements of the country.
4. Instruct the deputy block of the Pachakutik Movement so as to permit them to create the proper alliances and undertake necessary action in order for the Alfredo Palacio administration to be tried for treason, immediately removed from office, and push for the creation of a government which will urgently summon a National Constituent Assembly,
Signed and delivered in the city of Quito, March 13, 2006
Political Commission
Indigenous Nationalities and Peoples of Ecuador
CONAIE
4. NYT: Ecuador’s President Declares a State of Emergency
March 22, 2006
By JUAN FORERO
BOGOTA, Colombia, March 22 —President Alfredo Palacio of Ecuador declared a state of emergency late Tuesday as growing antiglobalization protests by thousands of Indians threatened to paralyze Latin America’s fifth-largest oil producing country.
Troops deployed to rural highland communities outside of Quito, the capital, cleared tree trunks and burning tires Tuesday, while firing tear gas at demonstrators. But protest leaders today vowed to press on.
The government’s move came on the ninth day of mounting protests that have closed off highways, leading to millions of dollars in lost commerce.
“We’re declaring the state of emergency to allow people to get back to work and the country to progress,” the presidential spokesman, Enrique Proaño, said on Ecuadorean television this morning.
The state of emergency prohibits marches, sets curfews and gives broad police powers to the government’s security forces in four of Ecuador’s 22 provinces, as well as in parts of Pichincha, the province where the capital is located. The authorities said they wanted to act to keep protesters from blocking access to Quito.
Still, indigenous leaders said the protests would continue. They demanded that the government back out of negotiations with the United States for a free trade agreement, saying such a pact would decimate rural farming in Ecuador.
The president of the powerful Conaie Indian confederation, Luis Macas, told a group of foreign reporters today that protesters also wanted Ecuador to wrest control of the oil industry from foreign multinationals like EnCana and Occidental Petroleum. While protest leaders said their purpose was not to remove President Palacio from power, they demanded that the government revamp itself.
“We are concerned about the state of emergency, but we will continue the protests,” Mr. Macas said.
Political analysts say that the Indians have been unable to gain wide backing in Quito or other large cities, nor are they united in their demands. But the movement remains potent, threatening for a government that is chronically weak.
“Ecuador has shown in the past that it does not have the ability to establish public order,” said César Montúfar, a political analyst at the Simon Bolivar Andean University in Quito, in a phone interview. “So even though you have a state of emergency, the mobilizations are the same, and you don’t see that the government is in a position to apply force and establish public order.”
The tiny country of 13 million has long been rocked by protests, with three Ecuadorean presidents toppled by political turmoil since 1997. The latest was Lucio Gutiérrez, who in April 2005 was removed from office by the Congress in the wake of a series of protests against his heavy-handed rule and unpopular austerity measures.
Mr. Palacio, a cardiologist who had been the vice president, took over and immediately signaled that his government would be different, with less focus on the kinds of free market reforms that have been rejected by many Latin Americans. “From today, we will restore a republic with a government of the people,” he said in a speech on the day he took power.
But with neighboring Colombia and Peru agreeing to free trade pacts with the Bush administration, Mr. Palacio’s government had made securing a trade deal with Washington a priority. A key problem has been that Mr. Palacio has little backing for any of his initiatives.
“This is a government that’s extremely weak,” said Adrián Bonilla, a political analyst at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Quito. “The president doesn’t have a bloc in Congress to offer support, there’s no political force to offer support, there’s no support from any economic or social group.”
Mr. Palacio, though, has vowed to continue with trade talks, including a final round of negotiations with the United States on Thursday.
Carla D’Nan Bass contributed reporting for this article from Quito.
5. Reuters: Ecuador calls emergency to quell Indian protest
Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:49 PM ET
By Carlos Andrade
QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) – Ecuador declared a state of emergency in five central provinces on Tuesday to try to control renewed protests by thousands of Indians demanding the government quit U.S. free-trade talks this week.
Interior Minister Felipe Vega announced the measure after Indian peasants intensified blockades on key roads in at least eight highland regions in protests that have cost Ecuador millions in lost commerce since they began last week.
“The president took this decision after exhausting all other options for dialogue,” Vega told reporters.
The state of emergency forbids public gatherings and marches and sets curfews. Troops earlier this week reinforced security along major highways leading into the capital.
The protests were the latest test for President Alfredo Palacio, a cardiologist with little political backing who says he will not halt the trade negotiations. A strike this month by workers at state company Petroecuador trimmed crude output.
Ecuadorean and U.S. officials will meet in Washington on Thursday for the trade talks. Ecuador’s Andean neighbors, Colombia and Peru, have already signed deals.
Indian protesters fear the trade pact will damage their livelihoods and way of life. Since protests began nine days ago, indigenous leaders have threatened to take their fight to the capital but so far only small groups have reached Quito.
“We are going to continue with the protests,” Gilberto Talahua, an Indian leader and organizer, told Reuters after the emergency announcement.
The government declared emergency in the highland provinces of Cotopaxi, Canar, Chimborazo, Imbabura and parts of Pichincha, where Quito is located.
HISTORY OF TURMOIL
Palacio, who came to office 10 months ago after Congress fired his predecessor, has faced a series of strikes and protests from provinces seeking more financing from the state before presidential elections in October.
Three Ecuadorean presidents have been forced out by turmoil in the unstable Andean country since 1997.
After centuries of discrimination by an elite, Indians organized to help overthrow President Jamil Mahuad in 2000. The movement has lost some momentum due to infighting, but is still a powerful voice for indigenous people.
Government officials said they were probing participation of foreign nongovernmental organizations in the demonstrations. Indians leaders deny charges their protests are funded by foreign governments or groups.
Speaking from Caracas, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dismissed suggestions from an Ecuadorean lawmaker that he was financing the simmering Indian protests.
Chavez, a socialist ally of Cuba who opposes U.S. free-trade deals, has become a focal point for many resurging left-wing movements in South America. He says his self-styled revolution counters U.S. policies. Washington accuses him of being a destabilizing influence.
“This is not the Venezuelan government. I believe this is the conscience of the people who have decided to live and be free,” Chavez said referring to the protests.
Indians make up an estimated 30 percent of Ecuador’s total population of 13 million.
(Additional reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Quito and Patrick Markey in Caracas)
