A Sense of Possibility Ecuador's Indigenous Movement Take Center Stage
Collins, Jennifer N.
At about 9:45 on the morning of January 21, a thousand protesters, mostly indigenous people from the Ecuadorian highlands, burst through a military cordon and rushed the National...
...Ecuador's new Constitution contains a chapter on collective rights for indigenous people modeled after the ILO Convention 169...
...They were the ones who gave orders and "havreo ourselves even more, training profession- imposed their will They participated in elections but never als, strengthening our alliances with other soal sectors shared power with the Indians S we asked ourselves: and continuing to promote the movement In Unti when will indigenous peoples continue to be mar- the long term we have a dream of profound changes in ginalized, holding back our own voice to struggle...
...In a survey taken the day of the of such a referendum to justify the dissolution of Concongressional takeover, 71% of those polled said they gress and the assumption of dictatorial powers...
...This led CONAIE and its social movement allies to call for the removal of all three branches of government, a demand that was clearly unconstitutional...
...Another achievement was winning the recognition of Ecuador as a "pluricultural" and "multi-ethnic" state in the first article of the Constitution...
...Pachakutik also won seven seats to the National Constitutional Assembly, established in 1998 to reform the Constitution...
...In fact, it was later revealed, orders came down from above to break the protective police and military cordons and allow the protesters to occupy Congress and eventually the 41REPORT ON RURAL MOVEMENTS strategy of working within existing political institutions via the formation of an official political movement...
...CONAIE was founded by the highland and Amazonian regional federations, ECUARUNARI and CONFENAIE...
...The rule of this unprecedented junta thus lasted less than 24 hours...
...I continue to believe that change in Ecuador will be achieved through Vargas has clearly dedicated his life to responding to this peaceful means...
...This has meant that in the past ten years the indigenous movement has been able to carry out five uprisings that have shut down roads and markets throughout the country for days and sometimes weeks at a time with no massive retaliation by the military...
...and blocking passage in 1994 of an agrarian reform bill which would have benefited agro-exporters at the expense of small peasant production for the national market...
...The question, as currently proposed by the social movements, includes stipulations that would presumably preclude a presidential takeover...
...At about 9:45 on the morning of January 21, a thousand protesters, mostly indigenous people from the Ecuadorian highlands, burst through a military cordon and rushed the National Congress building...
...Considered "the political wing" of the CONAIE and the non-indigenous Social Movement Coordinating Committee (CMS), Pachakutik maintains close ties to both organizations...
...The term harks back its early years, it has since come under attack...
...Something will surely have to give...
...All member organizations are guaranteed representation and voting rights in CONAIE and their leadership is consulted and included in all major policy decisions...
...We were questioning the system," says Miguel Lluco, now National Coordinator of Pachakutik, "a system that did not offer any guarantee of responding to the interests of the whole, much less to Indian interests...
...For example, in the initial meetings held to set the ground rules for talks between CONAIE and President Noboa in the wake of the January 21 uprising, some 40 movement leaders participated, including the presidents of all member federations...
...Don't air our dirty laundry in public" has become an informal organizational norm...
...6 For a few hours it appeared that the military high command was going to accept the new civilianmilitary junta...
...As the morning wore on, other officers and their subordinates continued to arrive to demonstrate their support for this self-declared new government...
...The events that began with this call and culminated in the January 21 takeover also reveal the contradictions and paradoxes that can emerge when social movements attempt to chart an alternative course and vision for social change in contexts where formal democratic institutions have failed to effectively address the profound structural problems of inequality and injustice...
...Beyond doubts about the constitutionality of the question itself, such a plebiscite The indigenous movement's popular support raises the possible risk of a Fujimori-like "solution" to appears to have grown in the wake of the Janu- Ecuador's crisis, as the President could use the results ary 21 uprising...
...Noboa y la CONAIE buscan fecha para una reunion," El Comercio (Quito), February 9, 2000, p. A3...
...More than just an effective organizer, Vargas clearly is also a shrewd politician who has demonstrated his ability to play several hands simultaneously without ever completely compromising himself...
...Vargas came to CONAIE with significant organizing 42NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 42 NXCIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASdirect negotiations with the national government...
...Consejo de Gobierno de la CONAIE, "Proyecto Politico de la CONAIE" (1994), p. 5-7, 14...
...Different governments have of course attempted to divide the movement and co-opt its leadership, but the lack of resources necessary to mount economic and social programs grand enough to draw grassroots allegiance away from the movement has stymied such efforts...
...obtaining legal recognition of land rights for several Amazonian groups...
...Currently there are 53 indigenous politicians elected on the Pachakutik ticket holding local and provincial seats, and four holding seats in Congress...
...presidency, the OPIP carried out a highly successful two- Vargas-who lived through this interethnic violence week rbarch that resulted in th6 legalization of indige- and then grew up to lead organizations like OPIP and 1 6v-raiaa i::'a Mactdo :: nous rghts over 2.75 million acres of land...
...9. CONAIE, Las nacionalidades indigenas en el Ecuador (Quito: Editorial TINCUI/CONAIE and Ediciones Abya-Yala, 1989), p. 37...
...This has bolstered jeopardize the movement's international political clout...
...A confluence of propitious factors at the international and national levels at the time of the founding and the initial building of the movement provided the necessary political space for it to grow and make concrete gains early on...
...1 1 under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, was established after President Rodrigo Borja agreed to ne of the main tactics employed by CONAIE to negotiate with the movement after years of political bring the state to the bargaining table has been pressure...
...2. Out of a total of 99 countries included in Transparency International's 1999 Corruption Perceptions Index, Ecuador is ranked at 82, with the higher numbers indicating greater degrees of corruption...
...For instance, despite having only six seats in the legislature, the Pachakutik congressional bloc was able to get one of their representatives, Nina Pacari, elected as the congressional vice-president...
...Poll conducted by CEDATOS and broadcast on the television show, "La Televisi6n," January 23, 2000...
...Ecuador is as much due to the infighting and lack of unity at the elite level as it is to the indigenous movement's opposition to such measures.2o Even so, as one of the most vociferous opponents of neoliberalism, the movement can claim at least partial credit for having blocked the neoliberal advance in Ecuador even as it has swept inexorably across the rest of Latin America...
...2 5 The diverse make-up of the indigenous movement, including marked regional differences, concerns and interests, has led to occasional disagreements over strategy and internal elections...
...Even as the indigenous movement was taking on a leadership role in national politics, the January 21 uprising brought to the fore unresolved and thorny strategic contradictions within the movement itself...
...2 In the words of one of the colonels: "We are here so that they [the corrupt politicians] don't pillage this country...
...Kenneth Mijeski and Scott Beck, "Mainstreaming the Indigenous Movement in Ecuador: The Electoral Strategy," Paper presented at the XXI International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Chicago, IL, September 24-26, 1998...
...could be seen hanging from the roof of the eight-story building as defiant protesters stood out in stark silhouette against the bright blue Quito skyline...
...this country that will benefit all of society...
...Vargas was re-elected to a second three-year term in November of last year and is considered to represent a moderate line within the organization...
...1 9 Given that the "uprising" has become a central tool of the movement, both for bargaining with the state as well as for its symbolic impact, it is clear that the movement's success cannot be fully understood without taking into account the nature of the Ecuadorian military...
...Once outside that as a protest action, the uprising struck a chord in the fresh morning air, Luis Alberto Bautista, one of among most Ecuadorians...
...Voting is obligatory in Ecuador and so it would not have been realistic for CONAIE to have encouraged people simply not to go to the polls...
...Many people did not understand, but I have demonstrated through my actions that I have worked for the unity of the people...
...Major achievements in this area include the legalization of territorial and land rights...
...question...
...The fact that the indigenous movement, which represents primarily rural peoples and some of the poorest and most marginalized sectors of Ecuadorian society, has attained a degree of political power such that their actions can be instrumental in bringing down a standing president is quite remarkable...
...The indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian populations on the coast are relatively small, and they are not as well organized as those in the highlands and Amazonian lowlands...
...Wooden planks were placed over the barbed wire, and one by one the demonstrators scurried over these makeshift bridges to occupy one of the central seats of power in their crisisridden country...
...51-58...
...On January 21 these two strategies collided head-on, and the impact of this collision on the future direction of the movement remains unclear...
...While a social movement cannot be conflated to a single organization, the fact is that the vast majority of social movement activities carried out by indigenous peoples in Ecuador are led and/or coordinated by a single national-level organization, CONAIE, or by one of its member organizations...
...8. There are no reliable statistics on the absolute size of the indigenous population in Ecuador Estimates range from 10 to 40% of a population of approximately 12 million...
...Indeed, since its jump into electoral politics in 1996 with the formation of the Pachakutik political movement, the indigenous movement has been attempting to juggle-at times more successfully than at otherstwo parallel strategies...
...Author's interview, Miguel Lluco, Quito, January 3, 2000...
...Another key CONAIE demand-that indigenous communities be granted some form of political and legal autonomy within the confines of the Ecuadorian national state-has been opposed by many non-indigenous politicians, who argue that such a proposal would dismember the country...
...Elected Pachakutik members agreed with CONAIE's analysis of the crisis facing the country, but were frustrated that they were being lumped together with all the other congressmen into the category of "corrupt politicians...
...In the past he has been criticized by some within the movement for moving too close to the government in power...
...mandate should be revoked...
...In 1989 the International Labor Organization (ILO) passed Convention 169, which stipulates a wide-ranging set of rights for native peoples, including collective rights, protection of languages and cultures, and the right to be consulted by governments when proposed laws will affect them...
...1 2 CONAIE program documents propose the construction of an alternative state-"A New Pluralist and Participatory Nation"based on a utopian vision of a nation free from poverty and discrimination and in which the cultural values of all Ecuador's ethnic and cultural groups would be valued and respected.1 3 The movement's rejection of the legitimacy of the existing state was most evident in its stance towards the electoral process...
...This OPtP works to defend and legalize owner- CONAIE President Antonio type of intertribal violence was especialship of indigenous territories and to help Vargas...
...2 8 were in favor of the indigenous movement and 64% On the morning of January 22, after nearly 24 draapproved of the takeover...
...and Antonio Posso, Quito, February 1, 2000...
...5 With two mestizo deputies, there are a total of six Pachakutik members within the 123-member Congress...
...2 6 What these figures do indicate is the police order to abandon the premises...
...Carlos Viteri, "Ecuador un pais fictlcio," Ikonos, No...
...Many people were excited that power was in our hands buti to exercise We saw that other people-religious groups, and political this power is difficult That is why we say it is better things parties of the right or left-had been taking advantage of turned out as they did And with this experience we now the indigenous...
...5. Poll was conducted by CEDATOS and reported on the February 6, 2000 broadcast of the television show, "La Televisibn...
...In contrast to the historical upris- that instead of developing new holistic educational ings, these modern mobilizations are coordinated at the models, the program has tended to replicate the rigid national level by CONAIE, and have involved the parA Profile of CONAIE President Antonio Vargas experience behind him, beginning in high when cnterethnic warfare between school In his twenties, Vargas was involved indigenous groups was still common in efforts to develop provincial-level indige- This violence touched his own igfe when nous organizations in his province He has he was about seven or eight One night, served as the president of his local commu- warriors from the neighboring Schuar unity, Uniin Base, as well as Provincial Direc- nationality came into the room where tor of Bilingual Education in Pastaza...
...While the indigenous movement's strategies have always been eclectic and creative, the more radical strategy of calling into question the legitimacy of the whole political system cannot easily coexist with efforts to get out the vote for local and provincial elections scheduled in May...
...7 CONAIE was founded in 1986 when two regional organizations, one representing highland indigenous peoples and the other Amazonian Indians, joined forces...
...Consejo de Gobierno de la CONAIE, "Proyecto Politico de la CONAIE" (1994), p. 7. 13...
...4 While he spoke at times in his native Quichua, a language not understood by the majority of Ecuadorians, Vargas had clearly assumed the role of national leader...
...This, however, did not mean matic hours in the National Congress building, the support for the continuation of the junta-fully 79% remaining 60 or so members of the People's Parliasaid they were in favor of maintaining the con- ment and a couple hundred of their supporters obeyed stitutional order...
...4. Antonio Vargas, Author's notes from Ecuavisa live television broadcast, Quito, January 21, 2000...
...Later that afternoon, Mahuad was informed that the security of the presidential palace could no longer be guaranteed, forcing him to abandon his post...
...Would a lar leadership is the development of concrete and more coalition government with the military really have realistic proposals for political and economic reform...
...9 Since its inception, CONAIE has consistently combined a strong emphasis on indigenous identity with efforts to address the pressing economic situation of the majority of the indigenous population as well as other marginalized groups...
...1 0 One of the first identity-related goals achieved by CONAIE was the creation of a national bilingual education program, designed so that indigenous students could study in their native languages as well as in Spanish...
...presidential palace...
...Those who had joined the Indians in the Congress were high-ranking officers, but they were not members of the Joint Command, and it was unclear what the reaction of this highest echelon of the Ecuadorian military would be...
...Despite its state-centered focus, until the mid-1990s the movement maintained a discourse that rejected the state in its existing form as "exclusionary, hegemonic, antidemocratic and repressive...
...leadership At the international level, interest in and support for indigenous thanks to peoples' struggles increased as the Cold War waned and eventu- resource ally ended...
...These comments are based on the author's interviews with three of the six Pachakutik Congressional representatives: Nina Pacari, Quito, February 3, 2000...
...the Parliamentarians, told me he had doubts about the One of the areas the movement will need to work on whole process...
...CONAIE has also worked together with its member organizations on the key question of land rights and aid to small farmers and campesinos...
...Mendoza claimed that he never had any intention of allowing the junta to remain in power, and that joining the Triumvirate was a ruse to avoid bloodshed and facilitate a peaceful return to the constitutional order...
...This space, in turn, was wisely and adroitly taken advantage of by a mature leadership that focused on the strengthening of a pan-Indian identity as the symbolic glue to hold the movement together...
...o -iNC grandsonn of a shaman, from whom Vargas claims to ~have received energy and power for his work, Var- * All quotes are from an interview with Antonio Vargas "gas grew up in a rural community in Pastaza at a time conducted by the author on February 4 2000 in Quito...
...the movement's legitimacy in the eyes of the rest of Currently CONAIE and CMS are pushing for a nationthe population, despite the continued prevalence of al plebiscite which would ask whether the Congress' racist attitudes within much of Ecuadorian society...
...2 1 Finally, the fact that this movement emerged onto the national arena in the 1980s-when statist populism and the co-optation of social sectors that this model often implied was no longer viable-meant that the risk of full-scale co-optation was much lower...
...In 1982 the UN com- programs g missioned a working group to develop a set of principles on to draw indigenous peoples' rights, which resulted in the UN Draft Declara- allegianc tion of the Rights of Indigenous the m' Peoples...
...This internal conflict was instigated by the Bucaram Administration, which had sought to manipulate and divide the movement by co-opting some of its leaders, mainly from the Amazonian region...
...And yet this leader of the most powerful nonviolent social and political movement in Ecuador and the most well-organized indigenous movement in the Americas was also speaking as part of an unelected military-civilian junta...
...The Pachakutik Movement is a coalition with non-indigenous social movements and thus is not solely an indigenous party...
...On that day, the indigenous movement declared unequivocally its desire to play a leadership role in national politics, even as its actions and those of its leaders brought to the fore unresolved and thorny strategic contradictions within the movement itself...
...7. There are two other national-level indigenous organizations-the Ecuadorian Federation of Evangelical indians (FEINE) and the National Federation of Campesino, Indigenous and Black Organizations (FENOCIN)-which historically have had competitive and at times conflictive relations with each other and CONAIE, but neither of them can match the organizational strength of CONAIE...
...In 1994, one indigenous protester was killed and a building belonging to an indigenous organization was burned down by unknown arsonists...
...Author's interview, Nina Pacari, Quito, February 3, 2000...
...They have also expressed disagreement with the CONAIE and CMS demand for a An indigenous protester in Quito...
...The leadership has repeatedly rein- leadership role in what many refer to as an attempted forced this policy of nonviolence, which appears to coup d'6tat...
...Author's interview, Luis Alberto Bautista, Quito, February 3, 2000...
...The fact that a coherent neoliberal economic program has never been implemented in nt efforts to movement's have failed, the lack of s to sustain irand enough grassroots Saway from wvement...
...So we said: 'invalidate your vote.' "14 In 1995, however, CONAIE made an about-face and helped form a political movement to run candidates for elected office...
...Even as the new military-civilian junta was making its first public statements, it became clear that the chief institutional arbiter would be the military...
...Being from this region himself and having been elected under conflictive circumstances, Vargas was initially viewed as suspect by many in the organization: "I came in as an intermediary," explains Vargas...
...Compared especially to the Southern Cone and Central American militaries, the Ecuadorian Armed Forces have never been extremely repressive...
...It is, however, highly unlikely that the solution contained in the proposed question-to give temporary authorization to the Popular Parliaments to come up with new electoral laws-would be accepted by the political establishment...
...Miguel PErez, Quito, February 3, 2000...
...See <http://www.transparency.de/documents/cpi/index.es.html...
...Fernando Garcia, "Presente y perspectiva del movimiento indigena ecuatoriano," Paper presented at the seminar on Movimientos Sociales, Democracia y Cambio Politico en el Area Andina, Quito, Ecuador, November 22-23, 1999...
...CONAIE's organizational membership includes federations representing all 12 indigenous nationality groups, which, CONAIE organizers say, represent 70% of the country's total indigenous population...
...1 7 Today's tensions appear to be more fundamental in nature in that they revolve around two different political strategies that are difficult to reconcile, if not fundamentally contradictory...
...President of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) since 1996, he has been largely responsible for keeping the organization intact and helping it recover successfully from a major institutional crisis...
...At midnight on January 21, after General Carlos Mendoza of the Joint Command met with the junta-referred to as the "Triumvirate"-it was announced that he would replace Colonel Guti6rrez as its head...
...and Enrique Ayala Mora, "Necesidad de amnist(a," El Comercio, February 15, 2000...
...The first, related to its social movement origins, is one of opposition and protest from outside the system...
...Likewise, the fragmented party system has made it possible for a relatively small minority party like Pachakutik to wield a certain degree of political power at the national level...
...The rebellious army colonels and their new indigenous movement allies argued that these radical measures were necessary to put an end to corruption, which is seen as permeating all Ecuadorian political institutions and as the underlying cause of the current economic depression...
...The movement has been creative and flexible in its use of tactics, primarily Unity, Dignity, Autonomy: At age 41, Antonio Vargas, an Amazonian Quichua, is a 20-year veteran of the indigenous movement...
...Ecuador's highly fragmented party system, exacerbated by deep regional divisions among the country's economic and political elites, has meant that the movement has not had to face a unified ruling class or a monolithic state...
...on January 11, ten days before the uprising...
...The right exclusively on demand making...
...6. This view has been expressed in several newspaper articles and editorials, including: Leon Rold6s Aguilera, "Qui6n y COmo...
...These two characteristics-mobilizational capacity and unity in diversity-are key to explaining the prominent political profile that the movement now enjoys, as well as the significant gains it has made over the last 20 years...
...Critics to a long history of spontaneous but isolated indige- say that innovative pedagogical practices initially pro- nous rebellions that occurred repeatedly in the colonial posed have been stifled by bureaucratic control, and and republican eras...
...Though they are members of CONAIE, coastal organizations and leaders have never had a high profile within the organization...
...The most recent census, carried out in 1990, did not include a question on ethnic identification...
...been a good idea...
...On the whole, the organization has been quite successful at resolving these differences internally and presenting a united front to the public...
...While there are times when the "consultation" process can in practice become more of a means of transmitting directives or perspectives from above down to the grassroots, nevertheless it does serve to keep lines of communication open between different sectors and levels of the movement...
...2 4 The pyramidal structure facilitates fairly fluid communication from the rank-and-file up to the national leadership, and a practice of "consulting the bases" has developed within the organization...
...n terms of its own internal structure, CONAIE sits at the top of a pyramidal organizational network...
...the other is a more recent Vol XXXIII, No 5 MARCH/APRIL 2000 Earlier in the day the Joint Command of the Armed Forces had publicly called on President Mahuad to resign, but had not made any statement regarding the selfappointed junta...
...2 (May/July 1997), pp...
...At the base are local associations and cooperatives that began to proliferate in the countryside in the early 1970s...
...Any attempt to explain the movement's success must take into account both external contextual factors and characteristics particular to the movement itself...
...16, No...
...Triggered and intensified by a yearlong economic depression that shows no signs of abating, this crisis is characterized by a complete loss of faith in virtually all Ecuador's political institutions...
...One mechanism that has served to maintain unity between the two major regional groups-the Amazon and the highlands-has been the informal practice of striking a regional balance in the top leadership of CONAIE...
...Tensions were evident in the weeks before the January 21 uprising, as CONAIE insistently pressed its demand that all three branches of government be dissolved...
...This has led many observers to suggest that high-ranking members of the military who wanted Mahuad out of office took advantage of the indigenous protests to move against the increasingly beleaguered President...
...Jennifer Collins, "Not for Sale: Barriers to Privatization in a Non-Crisis Case, Ecuador, 1992-1996," Presented at the Joint Conference of the Canadian Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CALACS) and the Canadian Association for Mexican Studies (CAMS), Vancouver, British Columbia, March 19-21, 1998...
...In both the 1996 and 1998 elections Pachakutik candidates won seats at all levels of government, from town councils to Congress...
...Yes, we took power," he said, "but if it is to responsibly assume this new mantle of popu- would the Triumvirate really have worked...
...3. Colonel Fausto Cobo, Author's notes from Ecuavisa live television broadcast, Quito, January 21, 2000...
...he events of January 21 highlight the profound crisis of popular legitimacy of Ecuador's young democracy...
...For an analysis of the origin and evolution of these local organizations, see Anthony Bebbington, Herndn Carrasco, Lourdes Peralvo, Galo Ram6n, Victor Hugo Torres and Jorge Trujillo, "De la protesta a la productividad: Evolucifn de las federaciones indlgenas del Ecuador," Desarrollo de Base, Vol...
...There have been efforts in the past to link the struggles of AfroEcuadorian peoples, who make up about 5% of the total population, with indigenous struggles...
...Though the program held out much hope in P'the indigenous "uprising...
...1 8 These and many other actions, including the UN's decision to designate 1993 the International Year of Indigenous People, have drawn attention to native peoples' struggles and facilitated contacts between indigenous organizations around the world...
...This was largely a result of the efforts of Pachakutik delegates to the 1998 Constitutional Assembly 19...
...ticipation of tens of thousands of people throughout the country...
...This is evident in various unpublished documents coming out of recent meetings of the Popular Parliaments convened by indigenous and social movements in an effort to develop alternative government programs and proposals...
...An imperfect but essentially democratic and participatory decision- Governme making structure has thus far prevented usurpation by any one co-opt the faction or leader...
...While the substantive issues related to land tenure and use are very different in the Oriente (the Amazonian jungle) and in the highlands, the land issue is of central concern to CONAIE constituents in both regions...
...Coastal groups joined the organization later under their regional umbrella organization, the Confederation of Indigenous, Black and Campesino Organizations of the Ecuadorian Coast (COINCCE...
...2 3 The fact that CONAIE was constructed upon a previously established network of organizations helps explain its relatively rapid institutional consolidation...
...Further actions like these could seriously have widespread grassroots support...
...At the national level, three main factors have shaped the movement's evolution: a relatively non-repressive military, a divided and factionalized political elite, and an economically bankrupt state without the capacity to undertake large-scale populist projects...
...Actions include roadblocks, marches and the refusal to bring food to market...
...At the same time, however, the lines of authority between Pachakutik and its parent organizations are not well stipulated, and the dynamics of a social movement as compared to a political party have generated tensions at different points over the years...
...Only 7% of those surveyed in a national public opinion poll, for example, expressed confidence in Congress, and by December the President's popularity rating was also down to 7%.5 As the economic crisis worsened over the past year, people increasingly perceived that the government, and in particular the President, was biased toward powerful banking interests to the detriment of the majority of poor Ecuadorians...
...Some thought that I came directly from Bucaram himself...
...ly intense dung his grandparents' gennative communities gain control over land use, especially eration, when a virtual war between shamans exacted with regard to oil extraction In 1992 during Vargas' high tolls on all communities involved...
...El Comercio (Quito), January 26, 2000...
...8 This population is itself very diverse, with over two million living in the Andean highlands, over 100,000 in the Amazonian lowlands and a small number in Ecuador's tropical coastal region...
...3 Addressing "all the people of Ecuador," Vargas, an Amazonian Quichua and second-term president of CONAIE, enthusiastically declared: "The people are now in power and we are going to triumph...
...1 As the protesters proceeded to install themselves in the Congress and inaugurate their own National Parliament of the Peoples of Ecuador, about 200 army officials, led by a high-ranking army colonel, filed through the middle of the euphoric gathering and officially threw their support in with the movement...
...Las Fuerzas Armadas: Una suma de conflictos sin resolver," El Comercio, January 30, 2000...
...Despite this reputation for moderation and in some cases accommodation, under Vargas' helm CONAIE has participated in and provided much of the leadership for social upheavals that succeeded in bringing down two standing presidents: Abdal, Bucaram (February 1997) and Jamil Mahuad (January 2000...
...These mobilizations have always been nonviolent and usually involve civil disobedience...
...In the he and other family members were early 1990s he was first elected as vice- sleeping Theiy shot and killed his grandpresident and then president of the Organi- mother and cousin, but overlooked the ztion of Indigenous Peoples of Pastaza two brothers at the back of the r oom, (OPIP) One of the most active Amazonian who miraculously remained asleep durorganizations at the provincial level, the ing the whole terrifying episode...
...plebiscite in which one of the questions asks whether the Congress' mandate should be revoked.16 While this is not the first time that tensions have surfaced between CONAIE and Pachakutik, in the past they have been prompted primarily by disputes over candidate selection or alliance strategies...
...CONAaE that have succeeded in uniting under one banIndi enous unity, nonviolence and movement autono- ner groups that in some cases used to be enemiesmy are three of the themes that come up repeatedly as exemplifies the astonishing achievements of the Ecuado-i Vargas talks about the movement and his leadership nan indigenous movement goals His evaluation of the outcome of the January 21 Discmination and efforts to impose the Spanish antakeover reflects his long-term vision guage led Vargas to begin organizing for indigenous interests at a very young age: The illusions of January21 were momentary...
...Vargas was elected as CONAIE's second president in 1996 at a congress marred by controversy and infighting between Amazonian and highland leadership groups that almost tore the organization apart...
...By mid-morning a large huipala, the rainbow-colored flag of the indigenous movement, Jennifer N. Collins is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego...
...To the movement's credit, the various actors are approaching these differences in a spirit of dialogue, but the outcome of these discussions remains uncertain...
...A short time later, a three-member Junta of National Salvation was declared, composed of Army Colonel Lucio Guti6rrez, the president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), Antonio Vargas, and a former supreme court judge from the coastal region, Carlos Sol6rzano...
...Some Afro-Ecuadorian organizations are official members of CONAIE, and campesinos in general have benefited from some of the gains made by the indigenous movement...
...This view was also expressed by Pachakutik legislator, Nina Pacari, Author's interview, Quito, February 3, 2000...
...Finally, it is important to take into account the movement's consistent and express avoid- political establishment and international actors for its ance of violence...
...She currently has a Fulbright grant to carry out field research on political clientelism within the Ecuadorian and Bolivian party systems and the emergence of new indigenous movementrelated parties...
...While the events of Jan- leader and congressional representative for Pachakutik...
...For scholastic methodologies used in the public education example, the National Intercultural-Bilingual Educa- system that emphasize repetition and rote memorization Agency, administered by indigenous educators tion...
...The indigenous movement in Ecuador stands out among similar movements in Latin America due to its impressive mobilizational capacity and the fact that it has succeeded in uniting a variety of different ethnic groups throughout the country...
...In any event, CONAIE called on its members to boycott the census...
...uary 21 have increased the movement's popular legiti- "Something very fundamental has emerged for us from macy, it has come under attack from the press, the this experience: a sense of possibility.'"30 A Sense of Possibility 1. The author is grateful to the Fulbright Commission for funding her research in Ecuador, and to Robert Andolina for his comments and corrections...
...2. 23...
...Whether to obtain land rights, stop a concession to an oil company, or institute the bilingual education program, the principal goals and strategies of the movement have tended to center on effecting change at the level of national policy...
...2 7 of Indians to protest and, yes, even to govern has been Flirting with solutions that fall outside the constitu- established," says Nina Pacari, long-time movement tional framework is also risky...
...2 9 For example, many of the economic proposals being The time was not yet ripe and the tactics were not generated by ongoing grassroots popular consultations the appropriate ones for the indigenous movement to fail to take on the difficult task of finding ways to assume the mantle of state power, but a glimpse was finance the government's budget, focusing almost had, a memory created, a threshold crossed...
...The soldiers who had placed large spirals of barbed wire fencing around the Congress the day before to protect it from the demonstrators had stepped aside, indicating that a faction of the military had shifted support from the government of Jamil Mahuad to the indigenous protesters...
...But the next morning, the country awoke to the news that Mendoza had resigned from the army and was withdrawing from the Triumvirate so that the constitutional successor to Mahuad, Vice-President Gustavo Noboa, could assume power...
...But the events of January 21 clearly represent a major watershed in Ecuadorian politics, highlighting the fact that the indigenous movement has taken center stage within this complex array of forces...
...2 2 These local organizations are linked together through provincial federations, which in turn belong to one of three regional federations, representing the highlands, the Amazonian lowlands and the coast...
...Until 1995 CONAIE's official position was to urge its members to boycott all elections and prohibit its leaders from running for elected office...
...This interest and concern at the international level has served to legitimate the identity agenda of the movement, as well as to provide it with important international contacts, solidarity and monetary support...
Vol. 33 • March 2000 • No. 5
