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<font size=3>A New Wave of Criminalization Against Social Movements in
Ecuador<br><br>
<br>
Written by Jennifer Moore <br>
Wednesday, 14 July 2010 17:51 <br>
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Ecuador's anti-mining and indigenous movements are denouncing renewed
attempts by the Correa Administration to criminalize dissent. Over thirty
people, including top leaders of the national indigenous movement, are
being investigated for allegations including terrorism and sabotage as a
result of their participation in protests related to controversies over
gold and copper mining, as well as water and indigenous rights.<br>
<br>
President of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador
(CONAIE) Marlon Santí and several others were summoned just days after a
Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA) was held in northern Ecuador at
which indigenous rights were at the top of the agenda. The CONAIE
protested the June 24 and 25 summit, questioning why ALBA would address
indigenous rights without representation from important indigenous
organizations such as theirs.<br>
<br>
Coming on the heels of an eleven-day march from the Amazon to the capital
of Quito in commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the first major
indigenous uprising in Ecuador, several thousand people participated.
They wanted to deliver a communiqué to indigenous President Evo Morales
of Bolivia who was present for the ALBA meeting, detailing their concerns
about being excluded, as well as worries about market-based solutions to
climate change and continued dependence on extractive industry that
President Correa is pursuing and which they fear puts at risk at risk the
lives and livelihoods of affected indigenous and campesino communities.
When it became clear that they would not be able to meet with Morales,
they retreated and gathered in a nearby park.<br>
<br>
According to lawyer and professor Mario Melo, who cites documents
pertaining to the preliminary investigation, Santí and others have been
accused of terrorism and sabotage for breaking through a police line and
for a pair of handcuffs that allegedly went missing during the scuffle.
Incredulous that this would be enough to warrant a charge of terrorism,
Melo believes that the criminal investigations are meant “to intimidate
and demobilize the organizations and their leaders.” (1)<br>
<br>
National Assembly Member of the indigenous Pachakutik party Lourdes Tibán
also questioned how it is possible that the indigenous leaders could be
charged in this way when the National Assembly just passed a resolution
to declare June 21st a civic day of commemoration for “the great
contributions that the indigenous movement has made over the last twenty
years.” She recalls a situation from 2007 in which a provincially elected
leader from the Pachakutik party was similarly charged following protests
related to redistribution of oil revenue and then later found innocent.
(2)<br>
<br>
Marlon Santí calls the rationale for the investigations “ridiculous,” but
affirms that he will participate in the legal process. (3) He adds,
however, that “there are underlying issues to be debated and we won't be
silenced by these investigations.” (4) Tensions between the national
government and the national indigenous movement have been building over
the last couple of years. In recent months, the CONAIE, in alliance with
other indigenous organizations including the National Federation of
Indigenous, Campesino and Afro-Ecuadorian Organizations (FENOCIN) and the
Ecuadorian Federation of Evangelical Indigenous (FEINE), have been in an
ongoing dispute with the national government and legislative assembly
over a proposed new water law. (5)<br>
<br>
For his part, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa accuses the indigenous
leaders of violence, saying, “It's impossible to dialogue with [such
people].” Although Correa spearheaded the Declaration of Otavalo, (6)
signed by ALBA leaders, which promises to build societies that respect
the rights of indigenous peoples and those of African descent and which
ratifies their commitment to the UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples, he dismisses CONAIE's demands, saying they just want
to bring him down. He warned CONAIE's leadership against interpreting
their charges as political persecution and says, “Here, like in Venezuela
and Bolivia, there are various groups conspiring against our
governments.” (7)<br>
<br>
The number of people facing serious criminal investigations, however, has
grown in recent weeks. In addition to national indigenous leaders under
investigation, about thirty activists and community leaders in central
and southern provinces are being processed for similarly grave
allegations in relation to longstanding conflicts with Canadian- and now
Chinese-financed gold and mining companies. In two cases, charges of
terrorism and sabotage pertain to recent protests against gold mining
operations. Another case from 2006-2007 involving twenty activists was
also reopened.<br>
<br>
<b>Going back on past advances<br>
</b> <br>
The situation represents a step back for the small Andean nation that
enshrined the right to protest, rights for nature and the right to water
within its 2008 Political Constitution. It is also fitting to recall that
the National Constituent Assembly granted amnesty in March 2008 to over
350 activists facing a range of criminal charges as a result of their
opposition to mining, oil and hydroelectric projects. Political allies,
however, such as then President of the National Constituent Assembly
Alberto Acosta, who helped bring about the amnesty and who backed
struggles for expanded rights within the constitution, have grown distant
from Correa's Alianza Paíz (Country Alliance) political movement.<br>
<br>
Ecuadorian human rights and environmental organizations deemed March 14,
2008, when the National Constituent Assembly issued the amnesty, a
“transcendental day.” (8) The then Constituent Assembly President Alberto
Acosta called the decision “a very clear message that the manipulation of
the justice system in order to exert pressure on certain social processes
cannot be permitted.” (9) The official press release referred to
activists as “compatriots” who are “leading protests in defense of their
communities and nature, in the face of natural resource exploitation
projects.” (10) Today, Alberto Acosta, also past Minister of Mines and
Energy under Correa, calls accusations of terrorism and sabotage against
activists, “tremendously shameful,” adding that “they have no basis in
justice or a democratic judicial system.” (11)<br>
<br>
Also under renewed threat are organizations that support social movements
who question the country's economic development model. In March 2009, the
Quito-based environmental organization Acción Ecológica (Ecological
Action) had its doors temporarily closed when the government revoked its
legal status, sparking national and international outcry. More recently,
during a national radio address earlier this month, Correa issued a new
warning to organizations that receive international support: “These
little gringos (North Americans) come here with their bellies full to
convince the indigenous that they shouldn't extract oil, nor operate
mines. They give them money, achieve their goal and then go, leaving the
indigenous more poor than ever before.” Correa suggested that those who
intervene in the indigenous movement's struggle could be expelled from
the country. (12)<br>
<br>
Correa's suggestion that Ecuador will be left impoverished without mining
echoes earlier public relations campaigns by Canadian-financed mining
companies in Ecuador, such as Corriente Resources (recently sold to a
Chinese joint venture) whose “Fair Deal” and “Poor without Copper”
slogans were once broadcast on prime-time television and distributed with
in national publications. The difference today is that Correa promotes
greater state control and redistribution of benefits.<br>
<br>
Vague promises that gold and copper mining will be environmentally
responsible, however, still fail to reassure indigenous and
non-indigenous communities at the local level who are concerned about the
potential impacts of gold and copper mining on forests and water, and
thus on their lives and livelihoods. In other words, they believe that
with mining they could be impoverished. “I’ve heard Rafael Correa’s
discourse,” said Marlon Santí in a recent interview with Canadian
researcher Jeffrey R. Webber, “that we’re sitting on a mountain of gold
and that it would be stupid not to exploit it. But this is short-term
thinking, thinking only in the present. What about our future?” (13)<br>
<br>
<b>Entrenches conflicts<br>
</b> <br>
Unfortunately, rather than helping to address points of difference over
natural resource management between the indigenous movement and the
central government, and between local conflicts and national economic
imperatives, the current wave of criminal investigations against social
movement leaders like Santí represents a further entrenchment of these
conflicts. With the balance of power currently in state and company
hands, whereas mining companies for instance are guaranteed protection of
their operations under the new mining law, these accusations serve to
marginalize the voices of indigenous and campesino organizations that
historically have had to struggle for any rights that they have won,
urging them to keep fighting.<br>
<br>
<i>Jennifer Moore is a Canadian independent journalist who has been
reporting from Ecuador for several years.<br>
</i> <br>
<b>Notes:</b>
<ol>
<li>Melo, Mario, 1 July 2010, “Organizaciones Indígenas ecuatorianas en
indagación previa por el delito de terrorismo”
<li>CONAIE, July 1st 2010, “Pachakutik denuncia criminalización del
movimiento indígena”
<li>CONAIE, July 1st 2010, Video recording of press conference;
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghx_Zkj5Wgs">
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghx_Zkj5Wgs</a>
<li>CONAIE, July 7th 2010, Video recording of press conference in Quito,
Ecuador;
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Bnt4TBFHM">
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Bnt4TBFHM</a>
<li>See Upside Down World, May 7th 2010, “Ecuador: The Debate in the
Streets”
<a href="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/2483-ecuador-the-debate-in-the-streets-">
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/2483-ecuador-the-debate-in-the-streets-</a>
and Upside Down World, May 18th 2010, “Decision delayed over Ecuador's
new water law”
<a href="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/2495--decision-delayed-over-ecuadors-new-water-law">
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/2495--decision-delayed-over-ecuadors-new-water-law</a>
<a href="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/2495--decision-delayed-over-ecuadors-new-water-law">
</a>for more information
<li>ALBA, June 25th 2010, “Declaración de Otavalo: Cumbre ALBA-TCP con
Autoridades Indigenas y Afrodescendientes”;
<a href="http://www.alianzabolivariana.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6544">
http://www.alianzabolivariana.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6544</a>
<li>El Ciudadano, June 26th 2010, “Presidente Correa; El diálogo está
agotado con la dirigencia indígena”;
<a href="http://www.elciudadano.gov.ec/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14317:presidente-correa-el-dialogo-esta-agotado-con-cierta-dirigencia-indigena&catid=1:actualidad&Itemid=42">
http://www.elciudadano.gov.ec/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14317:presidente-correa-el-dialogo-esta-agotado-con-cierta-dirigencia-indigena&catid=1:actualidad&Itemid=42</a>
<li>Ecumenical Human Rights Commission (CEDHU), Accion Ecologica and the
Regional Foundation for Human Rights Assistance (INREDH), March 14th
2008, “Carta de Reconocimiento”
<li>Alberto Acosta, March 13th 2008, Press conference
<li>Sala de Prensa Jose Peralta, March 14th 2008, Boletin 633, “Alrededor
de 357 ciudadanos se beneficiaron de este recurso”
<li>Upside Down World. Jeffrey R. Webber, July 12th 2010, “Ecuador's
Economy Under Rafael Correa: Twenty-First Century Socialism or the New
Extractivism? - An Interview with Alberto Acosta”;
<a href="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/2586-ecuadors-economy-under-rafael-correa-twenty-first-century-socialism-or-the-new-extractivism--an-inteview-with-alberto-acosta">
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/2586-ecuadors-economy-under-rafael-correa-twenty-first-century-socialism-or-the-new-extractivism--an-inteview-with-alberto-acosta</a>
<li>Hoy, July 10th 2010, “ONGs que intervengan en política serán
expulsadas, dice Correa”;
<a href="http://www.hoy.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/ongs-que-intervengan-en-politica-seran-expulsadas-dice-correa-418108.html">
http://www.hoy.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/ongs-que-intervengan-en-politica-seran-expulsadas-dice-correa-418108.html</a>
<li>Global Research, Jeffrey R. Webber, July 13th 2010, “Indigenous
Struggle, Ecology, and Capitalist Resource Extraction in Ecuador”;
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20118">
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20118</a></font>
</ol><br><br>
<br>
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