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Ecuador’s Water Rights Presidential Candidate
Ecuador’s first round of presidential elections took place on Sunday, February 7, leaving three finalists for the second round (yet to be defined, by a vote count): a self-appointed socialist, Andrés Arauz Galarza; an indigenous environmentalist, Yaku Pérez; and a banker, Guillermo Lasso. Yaku Pérez has shown in the days following the election that there…
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Manufacturing Critical Geography for Social Struggle and Resistance
Interview with Gabriela Ruales, member of the Critical Geography Collective in Ecuador How was the Critical Geography Collective (Colectivo de Geografía Crítica) formed and what role do you play in accompanying indigenous peoples in the defense of their territories and against extractivism? The Colectivo de Geografía Crítica emerged in 2013, approximately 2012-2013, and was created…
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Precautionary Measures against Ethnocide: Strategic Alliances Push for the Protection of Indigenous People
On April 7 a catastrophic oil spill in Ecuador polluted the Coca and Napo Rivers where 27 thousand indigenous and 90 thousand mestizo people depend on for drinking water and fishing. It was a predictable industry-provoked disaster that geologists and environmentalists long warned about: the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant was generating heavy erosion near…
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Ecuador: Agrarian revolution in the midst of crisis COVID
With the COVID-19 crisis, the Ecuadorian nation state, like many other failed states, panicked and its reactions were late, with omissions and negligence towards its civilian population. For example, two months ago, salaries to state workers were suspended , but they have not stopped paying the foreign debt, nor have they suspended oil and mining…
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Ecuador: The State Should Buy Food Supplies Directly From Campesinos
“Due to the health emergency that we are experiencing, the State must take measures to suspend the payment of credits, not only for agricultural activity but for all economic activities in Ecuador,” Leónidas Iza, here during a conversation in Loja. (Diego Vaca / MICC Communication) FROM THE EDITORS: In the face of the pandemic, indigenous…
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Indigenous nations in Ecuador declare “state of exception,” denounce neoliberal and extractivist policies on sovereign lands
In a stunning act of defiance, the largest indigenous organizations in Ecuador—CONAIE and CONFENIAE—declared a “state of exception” on sovereign indigenous lands, to reject military and policie presence on their terrorities and the right to detain such forces if they were to illegally enter or use repressive tactics on their lands. They did so after…
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"Our spears are no longer enough to protect our territory." Legal triumph of the Waorani people on oil exploitation in the Amazon
After years of struggle and resistance, the Waorani communities created a territorial mapping on the biodiversity of the region that comprises its territory, led by the community and organization in the field, the Waorani Peoples of Pastaza , who have joined together to defend their ancestral territory: the last areas free from oil extraction and…
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Indigenous Women Sing to Fight for the Amazon and for their Way of Life
It was 1973 when the first barrels of Texaco oil was carried on a large military procession from the northern Amazon in Ecuador to the seacoast for its processing and export. The parade included sullen indigenous women sitting above a tank, taken from their territories and families, most likely forcibly. The promotional video shows people…