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Women of the Rainforest: Voices Against Violence
In the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon, where the rainforest is our mother and refuge, indigenous women sustain life, memory, and resistance. They are the guardians of our territories, of traditional medicine, and of the word. That resistance, however, faces silent and brutal violence every day; a violence interwoven with patriarchy, structural discrimination, and neglect…
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Ecuador: Indigenous Women Speak Out on Abortion Rights
FROM THE EDITORS: Patricia Yallico from ACAPANA hosts the show “Insurrectas,” a show posted regularly on their social media. We are featuring this conversation below with Paolina Vercoutere of the Otavalo people and Ana Cristina Vera of Surkuna, an organization that fights for women’s reproductive and access to abortion rights. In April of 2021, Ecuador’s…
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Ecuador: Communication Law Reform Threatens Communal Rights
FROM THE EDITORS: In Ecuador, one of the first legislative actions of conservative President Guillermo Lasso has been to attempt to reform Ecuador’s Communication Law. By highlighting “freedom of expression” as an individual right, the new law would supersede rights already won under the Communication Law, which guarantee the right to information and communication as…
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Ecuador: Indigenous Party and Organizations Call to Boycott Presidential Elections
FROM THE EDITORS: Ecuador is again in turmoil. The only indigenous party, Plurinational Unity Movement Pachakutik (MUPP) List 18, born from popular resistance in the 1990s, and most national indigenous organizations have publicly called people to void their vote, “Vote Null,” in the next round of presidential elections set for April 11. (Voting is compulsory…
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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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The Right to Voluntary Self-Isolation
Voluntary self-isolation has been practiced for millennia by uncontacted peoples, so as not to be victims of the devastating consequences of Western civilization and progress. Several intergovernmental organizations have recognized this legal right and survival strategy of peoples to protect their land and territory, as a way of protecting themselves against genocide, colonization, and the…
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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…