Mongabay Series: Forests of the World
QUITO, Ecuador – Katy Mochoa marched through the streets of Quito on October 12, holding in one hand the corner of a giant flag of Wiphala, the rainbow-colored flag of the Andean indigenous peoples, and throwing his other fist into the air, shouting, “Killer Killers!While she and other protesters passed through government buildings.
Mochoa, one of dozens of indigenous leaders who came to the attorney general’s workplace to call for an investigation of 4 senior government officials for crimes against humanity for their role in the violent anti-austerity protests of 11 days in October 2019.
“There are many other people who were shot [heartbreaking fuel canisters] directly through the police and who went unpunished,” said Mochoa, a Kichwa indigenous woman from the Amazonian province of Napo in Mongabay.
The indigenous motion, the largest arranged framework, provided in last year’s protests, with its members showing up en masse not only to protest against the IMF’s austerity measures, but also against increased oil and mining activities in or around its territory. In the more than two years, President Lenin Moreno has promoted the Southeast Oil Round, an auction of foreign oil in the Amazon rainforest, which houses several indigenous communities that oppose these activities; it has also expanded oil extraction in Yasuní National Park, which also invades the intangible domain where two of the country’s undefied indigenous nations live.
Ecuador’s indigenous communities have a long history of organizing and protecting their territory. The uprisings, largely led by the movement, have led to the overthrow of 3 governments since 1997. In the more than two years, this struggle has moved to the judiciary, with nations like Waorani and Kofan effectively pursuing the law. government for seeking to sell its territory for oil extraction and mining, obtaining a transitional cessation of these activities.
“We’ll have to heal those wounds. This procedure is to heal us fairly. A failing society cannot move forward,” Mochoa said.
The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, CONAIE, has submitted the request for investigations with the Association of Victims of the National Unemployment Innocent Tucumbi, named after one of the Kichwa leaders killed in the protests of the year.
His lawyer, Carlos Poveda, says the two organizations make up 11 other people killed, 63 seriously injured and more than 1,300 arrested in protests, adding indigenous leaders who continue to face persecution today.
“The attacks came here from the state, from a chain of commandArray . . . it’s a felony for foreign human rights,” Poveda said at a pre-march press conference. It also violates article 89 of the Ecuadorian Penal Code, he added. .
His request to the Attorney General’s Office concerns an investigation of 4 state officials, in particular for their alleged role in the ordering and authorization of violence, adding President Lenon Moreno; The Minister of the Interior, Maria Paula Romo; Comptroller General of the State Pablo Celi; and the police commander, Hernandez Carrillo.
Poveda told Mongabay that if an investigation were not conducted, they would report to foreign agencies because the alleged crimes fall under universal jurisdiction.
The Ecuadorian government did not respond to Mongabay’s request for comment at the time of publication, but Romo publicly stated that the police had not used maximum force, but that violence and destruction came from protesters, who threw Molotov stones and cocktails and set fire to roadblocks. He also presented his new book, entitled October, Democracy under attack, on the day of the march.
Ecuadorian indigenous motion declared this month “Rebel October!”to commemorate last year’s uprisings, and to ratify its commitment to fight for its rights in the face of new neoliberal policies, according to CONAIE.
CONAIE President Jaime Vargas said the government had not only evaded justice from the 2019 protests, but had also used the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to put austerity measures into force and expand extractive activities that threaten indigenous territory, adding greater calls for foreign investment. in the mining sector. He also abandoned indigenous peoples because of the recent fitness crisis, he added.
“We will continue to fight until justice is done. And if they do not need to respond to the Ecuadorian people, there will be no freedom for this government,” Vargas said at a press conference on October 12, adding that a national mobilization is already planned in indigenous territories.
The day’s movements were one of the first indigenous rallies in Quito since the start of the pandemic in Ecuador in March. Protesters began in El Arbolito Park in central Quito, the epicentre of last year’s protests, where indigenous leaders participated in an ancient ritual around the Andean Cross, described on the sidewalk in seeds, cereals and flower petals, to commemorate last October’s sufferings.
Last weekend, the indigenous motion also organized a two-day commemoration occasion in the Kichwa network of San Isidro, Cotopaxi province, where it held workshops on state violence, strengthened the Aboriginal guard to ensure some security and autonomy in its territories, and venerated the last sick of the year through ancestral rituals.
Last year’s protests saw everyone from industry trade unionists, academics and feminists on the streets, denouncing the IMF’s austerity measures, basically ending the fuel subsidies that families have long relied on, in a country where the minimum wage is less than $400 per month.
Thousands of indigenous men, women and young people have left their homes in the Andes or the Amazon rainforest to protest in the capital against austerity measures and the expansion of oil and mining activities on or near their territory, others protested from their communities and blocked roads. across the country, curbing the economy.
The protests, however, ended on October 13 when indigenous leaders met with government officials, who agreed to cancel austerity measures, repair fuel subsidies, and paints with social organizations to locate cost-cutting measures. Other social organizations created the People’s Parliament, which proposed a number of economic options, which included raising taxes for wealthy Americans and businesses and depriving banks, prioritizing communities and smallholders over food sovereignty, permanently postponing all oil and mining activities, and switching to renewables. energy, among others; however, their proposals were never accepted through the government.
A year later, Aboriginal leaders say they used the pandemic to take the same austerity measures they promised to cancel, and included a few more.
For more than 8 months, as Ecuador grapples with the global economic crisis and its own foreign debt problems, President Moreno has “liberated” fuel prices, necessarily eliminating the subsidies that other people fought so hard for last year. , and has cut $ 98 million. . 32 public universities. Mass layoffs in the public and personal sectors have seen Ecuador’s unemployment and underemployment rate skyrocket to over 80%, which does not come with those running in the casual sector.
In his income-generating efforts, President Moreno has also followed new regulations to facilitate the cultivation of oil palms and has actively requested foreign mining investments, two major threats to indigenous tropical forest lands. The sector’s target is to increase mining GDP by 75% and mining exports by 200% by 2024. More than 15% of Ecuador’s territory is currently under mining concessions, with the largest projects in the southern Amazon region and already causing clashes with local Shuar communities.
“We already told the government”no,” there are ways, but extractivist logic is still present,” Mochoa said as he walked down Amazonas Street in downtown Quito. “With more concessions, mining or oil, this will lead to more social conflicts. “
The indigenous motion is not alone in its demands, as industrial unions, casual workers, students, unpaid civilities and feminists also took to the streets through the pandemic during minor demonstrations in Quito and Guayaquil, also major in October.
“All these economic measures implemented through the national government are intended solely to comply with IMF orders,” CONAIE Vargas president said on Mongabay. “Today, about a million Ecuadorians are out of work. action over the coming months.
Vargas also said that indigenous territories were “forgotten” by the pandemic, accusing the government of making no effort to provide COVID-19 evidence or more fitness care to remote communities.
“Thanks to the Pachamama, thanks to the jungle and medicinal herbs, we have been allowed to deal with this crisis,” he said, the word Kichwa for Mother Earth. “But the government has not arrived, with pills or tablets, in the Aboriginal territories.
Since April, Aboriginal communities have filed various lawsuits against the government for not protecting them, including the Waorani network that has sued the government for increased assistance, COVID-19 testing, and coordination with indigenous communities seeking quarantine in remote locations to involve the Kichwa Federation also sued the government and oil corporations guilty after a large oil spill in the Amazon rainforest infected two major rivers , the only source of water for thousands of families seeking quarantine.
In early October, communities also stated before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on “the scenario of vulnerability and legal uncertainty to ensure the collective rights of indigenous peoples in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador,” they note. .
Vargas said indigenous communities across the country, from the Andean coast to the Amazon, have manifested themselves in their territories and are in a position to sign up for a national motion and “return stronger in October. “
“We have to protect ourselves,” Mochoa said in Mongabay, marching on October 12. “We are fighting with dignity, but the government does not care, because the IMF establishes its own situations and that affects us. “
Headline image: Kichwa demonstrators accompany a march to commemorate last year’s protests San Isidro, Cotopaxi, October 10, 2020 Photo via Kimberley Brown.
View feeds
Mongabay is a data reading service on conservation and environmental sciences, we have that of users like you. DONATE HERE.
Mongabay is a non-profit platform based in the US. But it’s not the first time On conservation and environmental sciences. Our EIN or tax identification number is 45-3714703.
Every day, Mongabay newshounds bring you news of nature. If you like this purposely and impact-oriented journalism, put on an auxiliary member.