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<font size=4><b>Ecuador: Politics Closes Indigenous Shuar Radio<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>Written by Jennifer Moore <br>
Wednesday, 20 January 2010 09:49 <br>
<a href="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/2327-ecuador-politics-close-indigenous-shuar-radio" eudora="autourl">
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/2327-ecuador-politics-close-indigenous-shuar-radio<br>
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<br>
</a>“On January 28th 1995, when the cry went out that Peruvian troops had
attacked the Ecuadorian border, the whole country went into motion with
one heart. Now, when the Amazonian peoples cry out that multinational
corporations have invaded our territory, the rest of the country is
indifferent, apathetic, having declared a cold war...” - Father Juan de
la Cruz, following protests in late September, written October 2009
<br><br>
Father Juan de la Cruz is a Salesiano priest who has worked among the
Shuar indigenous people in Ecuador's southern Amazon for the last twenty
three years. Born in the area, De la Cruz accompanied the Shuar when they
fought for Ecuador against Peru in a border war in the 1990s. Today, he
says he “cannot remain silent” as they fight against oil and mining
multinationals that would threaten the health of their natural
environment and which has strained relations between the Shuar and the
government of President Rafael Correa. <br><br>
De la Cruz calls a recent decision by Ecuador's Communications Commission
to revoke a Shuar radio station's frequency “a grave error” and an effort
to undermine their struggle against oil and mining interests. He says the
radio 'Voice of Arutam' is the only station in the area “where you can
talk about the potential impacts of multinational companies and the
plunder of our territories.” <br><br>
On December 17th 2009, the National Communications Commission (CONATEL)
emitted a resolution deciding to cancel the contract for the frequency
belonging to the 'Voice of Arutam' station. Broadcasting from the town of
Sucua in the southern Amazonian province of Morona Santiago where the
Interprovincial Shuar Federation (FISCH) has their office, they first
began broadcasting in 1972 with support from Salesiano priests and with a
focus on bilingual education. The FISCH represents about 120,000 Shuar in
the southern Amazon. Arutam is the name of their spiritual guide.
<br><br>
CONATEL based its decision on statements broadcast live during interviews
with Shuar leaders in the context of mobilizations which took place late
last September. According to CONATEL, remarks broadcast on Radio Arutam
incited the Shuar people to violence and contravened an article in the
Radio and Television Law which prohibits “the promotion of physical or
psychological violence using children, women, youth or elderly people, or
that provides incentive for, carries out or motivates racism, sale of
sex, pornography, consumption of drugs, religious or political
intolerance and other analogous acts that affect the dignity of human
beings.” <br><br>
Protests in September took place across the country in opposition to
proposed water and education laws. The Shuar were also protesting
proposed oil and mining projects in the province of Morona Santiago. The
Shuar have long opposed the presence of US oil interests including ARCO
and Burlington Resources, as well as mining companies such as
Vancouver-based Corriente Resources which recently announced its sale to
a Chinese joint venture between the Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group
Holdings Co. Ltd. and the China Railway Construction Corporation. The
Shuar propose that the province of Morona Santiago be declared
“ecological” and that Corriente immediately leave the area, that all
mining concessions be annulled, and that indigenous territorial
circumscription be made effective.<br><br>
During police attempts to dislodge Shuar road blockades near the city of
Macas, one Shuar bilingual teacher, Bosco Wisum, was shot and killed and
over twenty police reportedly wounded. <br><br>
President Rafael Correa commended CONATEL's decision during a national
radio address in late December saying that “Radio Arutam called for
violence during the latest indigenous uprising, telling people to come
out with their lances laced with venom, and this cost us a death. How
many more deaths have to take place before certain community media are
held responsible?” <br><br>
Lawyer Mario Melo, an advisor to the Pachamama Foundation in Quito which
accompanies indigenous organizations in the Ecuadorian Amazon, challenges
the legal basis of the decision to close Radio Arutam. He asks why the
investigation targeted the radio station rather than the individuals who
made the remarks. Furthermore, he questions the quality of the
“extrajudicial” translation, which he says fails to consider how “the
Shuar language, like many others, incorporates metaphorical expressions
in everyday speech and that has to be understood in context.” He draws a
comparison with a soccer player being interviewed on a sports program who
says their team will “play to the death” in an upcoming game being
literally interpreted as inciting his team to violence. <br><br>
On Monday, the commission established to investigate the circumstances
leading to Bosco Wisum's death also published a critical response to
CONATEL's decision. They observed that the recordings upon which CONATEL
has based its decision were made by third parties, are of only a few
minutes in length and that their authenticity cannot be verified. They
add that two translations of the available tape differ significantly from
each other and that based on the available information “it is not
possible to determine whether or not the editorial line of the radio
station has promoted violence.” The commission urges the ordinary justice
system to consider the available evidence to see whether or not it might
implicate those who made the remarks. <br><br>
The Interprovincial Shuar Federation (FISCH) has appealed CONATEL's
decision. The results of its first appeal upheld the communication
commission's decision last week. Now, the FISCH await a further
pronouncement from the Constitutional Court of Pichincha, anticipated
this week. Should CONATEL's decision not be overturned, the national
indigenous movement led by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities
of Ecuador (CONAIE) has threatened the government with further
mobilizations. FISCH has said that they will make a decision about what
to do during their annual assembly in coming days. <br><br>
From the point of view of Father Juan de la Cruz, “The radio station has
never been subversive.” He concurs that individuals who may have made
inappropriate remarks be investigated, but that the entire station should
not be held responsible. <br><br>
Considering what other local radio stations were broadcasting in late
September, he further recalls an “extraordinarily racist and violent
radio program” intended “to denigrate the Shuar people.” He says a radio
spot was produced to pressure the Shuar to abandon their road blockades
without consideration for what motivated their protests and was stunned
by the manner in which they tried to “undermine, ridicule, and
maliciously criticize” them. <br><br>
Furthermore, for Father Juan, the radio station has become “part of the
identity of the Shuar people” and an essential part of daily life
as a means of transmitting messages between remote communities.<br><br>
Challenging insinuations that the Shuar seek to undermine national
interests, he believes, on the contrary, that “[Radio Arutam] has served
to forge the Ecuadorian nationality and to help the voice of the
Ecuadorian people be heard through the Shuar people, even beyond our
borders.” In recent years, the radio station has amplified its signal
through the installation of repeater towers that allow it to reach the
entire southern Ecuadorian Amazon and parts of northern Peru. In the near
future, it had plans to increase coverage toward the north as well.
<br><br>
“The radio station has always supported the spirit of our peoples and
their organization, so to take the radio away from them is to take away
their voice and a strength that they have,” concludes De la Cruz.
For this reason and given their critical stance in the face of future oil
and copper and gold mining, he sees multinationals at work behind
CONATEL's decision since they will be among the first to benefit.
<br><br>
The 'Voice of Arutam' continues to broadcast, pending implementation of a
final decision.<br><br>
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