Live from Quito, Ecuador
Here’s a very interesting first person account of the indigenous uprising happening in Ecuador from a close friend of RAN, Kevin Koenig of Amazon Watch:
The country is about to burst at the seams. There have been provincial strikes and road blocks since i got here. Although they subsided over the weekend, they’re gaining strength again, and the repression has been brutal.
There is now a state of emergency called in five provinces, with more to come tomorrow. The two demands of CONAIE, the national indigenous group, which is finally starting to be joined by other social sectors and universities, are: NO to the signing of the TLC, spanish acronym for the Andean Trade Pact, and the nullification of OXY’s contract and essentially the expropriation of their operations.
Never in my wildest dreams would i ever have thought that OXY would become the focal point of an entire nation, and it now looks like it has become such a flashpoint for the GoE that any offers by OXY to re-negotiate its contract or offer Ecuador more money are moot. I don’t think this government will survive without kicking OXY out.
The grassroots radio stations are calling on the forajidos, the loose
knit community neighborhood groups responsible for the ousting of Gutierrez last April, to auto-convocarse (self mobilize and autonomous actions) to the streets in protests neighborhood by neighborhood, because large marches are now prohibited by the state of emergency, and they’ve been getting crushed by the military and police. It’s in incredible organizing model which we have a lot to learn from. We’ll have to see what happens. But this country is never short on excitement.
The New York Times caught up on the story today with this story out of Bogota.
Background on RAN’s work with the U’wa indigenous community and their fight against Occidental Petroleum (OXY) is at Project Undergroud.
10 Responses to “Live from Quito, Ecuador”
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March 23rd, 2006 at 12:33 pm
Having lived in Ecuador, I can’t really say I’m at all surprised. I could hardly take a weekend trip to the mountains without seeing tires on fire in the middle of the road over bus fare, America, gas prices, you name it. And this was in the late 80’s to the early 90’s. My favorite (not) was when the student protestors would take their home-made bottle rockets and launch them horizontally at the onlooking crowds to clear a path for march. Nothing short of crazy.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Here’s the NYT piece http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/22/international/americas/22cnd-ecuador.html (use bugmenot.com for login).
April 10th, 2006 at 6:59 am
Hello -
I’m headed to Ecuador next week to begin a summer’s work with some Shuar communities on a reforestation/ethnobotanical documentation project for their land south of Puyo. (a Shuar political leader & I initiated it last December - you can check out our plans at http://www.tiriruk.org). I’m curious how these events will shape/direct my time there and would love your feed back both on current indigenous rights issues in Ecuador (obviously a rising topic & relevant to the communities I am working with) as well as any suggestions you have of contacts for technical and/or financial support for the reforestation work itself. If you’re in Quito, any chance you’d like to get together & share a beer?
Erica
April 25th, 2006 at 9:24 am
Hello admin, nice site you have!
May 2nd, 2006 at 4:57 pm
Best site I see. Thanks.
May 3rd, 2006 at 9:55 am
Friends of the Earth has just kicked off a campaign covered the local resistance to a Canadian mining company (we’ve got a site with video up at ascendantalert.ca). The villagers there are pretty impressive at organizing despite death threats, intimidation and attempted bribery. I definitely agree with Brant that our own grassroots movements could learn from the Ecuadorians (minus the bottlerockets that Eighthourlunch talked about…).
May 4th, 2006 at 6:20 pm
Alleen onder Glamour versta ik wat anders maar dat moet kunnen.
May 14th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Best site I see. Thanks.
November 26th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
PREVED!
November 11th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Hi again — since I last posted, the website has changed. You can check out our reforestation project at http://www.seedsdream.org/. All the best to everyone. Erica