AWASQA

  • 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…

  • Indian Was the Name Used to Subjugate Us, Indian Is the Name by Which We Will Be Liberated

    FROM THE EDITORS: During the October 2019 protests in Ecuador led by indigenous groups and social justice organizations, politicians made openly racist statements, replicated by the media and promoted by social networks, that deeply polarized the country. Below we share a clear response to racist comments made on a popular podcast, raising calls for inquiries…

    Singing Hip Hop in Native Languages to Reclaim Identities

    Musical expressions are liberating and help build resilience. Some musical expressions have managed to unleash social change and others, to shape identities and resistance, but above all music is contributing significantly to keeping Native languages ​​and expressions alive. Indigenous languages ​​are living, active languages ​​that grow and are renewed, for example, when young people take…

  • Photo credit: Ecuarunari

    Ecuador: Activists Hold Funeral, Seek Justice During Popular Assembly

    In an unparalleled demonstration of resistance, defiance, and power, indigenous people in Ecuador held a popular assembly all day Thursday, October 10, to reject police/military repression to the protests that began eight days ago to pressure the Ecuadorian government to end FMI’s neoliberal economic policies tied to a US$4.2 billion fund.  Repression was the norm…

  • Indigenous people walk towards Quito. Photo credit: Radio Iluman

    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…

  • MONITO OME GORONTE ENAMAI Foto: Resistencia Waorani

    "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…