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TITLE: Ecuador Wakes Up Under A State Of Emergency |
AUTHOR: |
ORG: Accion Ecologica in Ecuador and Project Underground |
DATE: February 3, 2001 |
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This morning, February 3, 2001, Ecuador woke up under a State of Emergency. Under this arrangement, freedom of association has been suspended, private homes can be invaded, and citizens can be detained without warning. In short, the Ecuadorian people have lost their constitutional rights. The State of Emergency, under the Law of National Security, declared Friday night by the government of Gustavo Noboa, is the latest step in a series of acts of violence and repression undertaken over the past week. The State of Emergency in Ecuador is reminiscent of the methods implemented by various dictatorships during tragic moments in the history of Latin America. This latest step by the government is clearly aimed at punishing the indigenous people, who have demanded an end to the violence and a epeal of economic policies which have brought the country to the brink of destruction. The economic policies include, among other things, the construction of a new oil pipeline, the spurring along of the mining industry, privatization of the water supply, an increase in taxes, the return of kerosene as a fuel for home use, and an increase in the bus fares. The new indigenous uprising, which began last week, has included the blockading of the nation's highways and a march of 10,000 indigenous people from the countryside in the Capital of Quito. Currently, 6,000 indigenous activists are concentrated inside the Universidad Politecnica Salesiana, surrounded and constantly attacked by the police every time they try to march from the university campus. In the face of this situation, and the refusal of the government to enter into a dialogue, 50 activists from the indigenous and peasant communities, who grow and provide the country's food, have decided to launch a hunger strike, as a way of being heard. Every hour, 50 more indigenous people will join the hunger strike. Ironically, the business sector of the country, such as the flower cultivators, have supported the violence and "hard repression" out of fear that they will lose export business for the 14th of February - Valentine's Day. Paradoxically, a new delegation of the International Monetary Fund are in the country - how shameful! - having to evaluate another failure of their economic policies. In Ecuador, we need your help - letters, telephone calls, public declarations and any other type of actions which let the government know that the world is watching. These acts of international solidarity are a way of preventing even worse abuses and violations of the fundamental rights of the Ecuadorian people, and a protest against institutionalized racism against indigenous people. ACCION ECOLOGICA - ECUADOR Letters should be sent to:
Doctor Gustavo Noboa PRESIDENTE DEL ECUADOR Fax No.: (593 2) 580 735
Senor Jorge Manrique MINISTERIO DE GOBIERNO Fax No. (593 2) 580 067 Senores
EMBASSY OF ECUADOR IN YOUR COUNTRY [Ambassador Ivonne A-BAKI 2535 15th Street NW Washington, DC 20009 telephone: [1] (202) 234-7200 FAX: [1] (202) 667-3482]
Please send us a copy at: (593 2) 529287 / 527583 Or to verde@hoy.net
Forwarded mail is below. Original
Yesterday, February 1, women from a variety of social movements occupied Ecuador's Consejo Nacional de Modernizacion (CONAM--the "National Council of Modernization") in opposition to the government's structural adjustment policies and in solidarity with the national uprising led by The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). They rejected the policies of the IMF citing a string of dire consequences: inflation, corruption, deforestation, pollution, and economic inequality, and pointed to the delegates from the IMF as the real cause of the country's problems. Currently the government of Ecuador is threatening arrest not for the IMF but for leaders of social movements. The leader of CONAIE was arrested on January 31, but released today under a writ of habeus corpus. The government has threatened a crackdown on "all subversive agents who are responsible for fomenting destabilization." In their letter to the IMF, activists demand to know if "this threat [is] also a condition imposed by you." Activists are urgently requesting messages of support. Two good targets are the President of Ecuador Gustavo Noboa (whose brother Ricardo heads CONAM) and the Internatonal Monetary Fund.
Presidencia de la República or care of: Ambassador Ivonne A-BAKI 2535 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009 telephone: [1] (202) 234-7200 FAX: [1] (202) 667-3482
Horst Köhler Managing Director, IMF International Monetary Fund 700 19th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20431 Telephone Operator: (202) 623-7000 Fax: (202) 623-4661
Project Underground's letter to President Noboa is below. Please feel free to write to President Noboa using this text, or to write your own thoughts to all decision makers involved. The indigenous uprising throughout Ecuador continues. For news in Spanish, see the website of the Council of Indigenous Nations of Ecuador (CONAIE)'s website. See also the Ecuador electronic news source Pulsar.
The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador is requesting international solidarity:
"We appeal once again to the high spirit of solidarity, to support us with letters to the National Government, and with food or money, which will allow us to continue feeding the 13,000 of our compañeros who are in Quito." Monetary support to CONAIE can be wired to their account at PRODUBANCO #0100700288-0 in the name of CONAIE. Communications in solidarity should be sent to info@conaie.ecuanex.net.ec or to: Av. Los Granados 2553 y 6 de Diciembre - QUITO- Telephone: (593-2)442 271 fax: (593-2) 248 930 Please send letters and solidarity aid directly, and not via Project Underground.
(write your own or follow our wording)
Presidencia de la República Fax: ? 2 580774
Dear President Noboa,
We are writing to you to express our solidarity with the members of social movements who took part in a nonviolent protest action yesterday at Ecuador's Consejo Nacional de Modernizacion. Hopefully, this assemblage of environmentalists, human rights activists, women's liberationists, and unionists coming together in direct challenge to your government's policies, has sent a powerful and clear message to you. It is our hope that you can hear the message of the thousands of indigenous peoples engaging in peaceful action across your country. These people have organized themselves in movements, each representing fundamental aspects of humanity: labor, freedom, survival of body and culture in the face of genocidal violence, harmony with the larger environment, and the majority of people who are women and girls. That people who have organized their lives around these human capacities, which we all share, are now united in opposition to your policies should be a reminder of the harsh consequences of your government's policies upon the human lives that make up your nation. The organizations occupying CONAM address themselves to the International Monetary Fund and its current delegation to Ecuador. They write: Your efficient policies, which have been applied by successive governments in turn, have resulted in the destruction of Ecuador's natural resources, have dedicated more than 50% of the national budget to paying an illegitimate foreign debt, have burdened the country with the highest rates of inflation on the continent, the highest levels of corruption, the most advanced rate of deforestation and contamination, the worst example of maldistribution of wealth ... and this disaster, the result of your policies, is repeating itself throughout the Third World in which you have intervened to "help us rise out of poverty." Will you insist on continuing to give us advice and proposing policies? As Americans, as citizens of a country that has been enriched at the expense of the global South, we are prepared to stand in solidarity with you, should you demand justice from the IMF and other institutions of globalization. Unfortunately, another possibility looms. It looms in your threat that "all subversive agents who are responsible for fomenting destabilization in such a stable democracy will be arrested for disturbing the peace." And it looms in the fact that, as the occupying organizations write: The Ecuadorian government, anxious to comply with the conditions you have imposed as a condition of your pending loan, is resorting to violence and attacks on the human rights of the Ecuadorian people. There exists, in fact, the hidden threat of punishing an indigenous movement that has won its rights and broken out of the constraints of racism. President Noboa, you stand at a point of choice between challenging and reinforcing violence and racism; between demanding justice from the world system or imposing injustice on your fellow Ecuadorians; between embracing their cries for humanity and snuffing out your own humanity. We urge you, do not seek to silence the growing calls for justice from Ecuadorians. We urge you to respect the human rights of all people. We urge you to order your government, armed forces and police to refrain from the use of violence in response to protests. Finally, we urge you to join your words and your actions to their struggle for a just, human, and living world. Sincerely, M.E. Dueker, Acting Director Carwil James, Oil Campaign Coordinator Project Underground
cc: Ministry of Defense of Ecuador, Quito Ambassador Ivonne A-Baki, Embassy of Ecuador, Washington Accion Ecologica Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador END |