summary of the current situation
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/LabourNetAustria/streik7.htm
          
Ecuador

Montag, 17. Januar 2000 
      Zusammenfassung der jetzigen Lage (Ecuador) 

Wir fassen im Folgenden die wesentlichen Punkte des englischsprachigen 
Textes zusammen und fügen anschließend das Original an (LabourNet-
Austria). 

Im folgenden fasst Luciano seine Informationen aus einigen E-mails und 
zwei Telefongesprächen aus Ecuador zusammen. Schau auch nach unter: 
www.amarc.org/pulsar . Zuerst wieder eine Beschreibung der Krise der 
letzten Jahre, wo sich die Auslandsschulden Ecuadors seit 1979 
verfünffacht, sich die Preise und Armut dramatisch erhöht haben. Die 
jetzige Situation begann damit, dass die Regierung alle Bankguthaben 
einfror. Seit Anfang der 90er-Jahre hat die Bewegung der einheimischen 
Bevölkerung vor allem um die Städte stark zu- und die (korrupte) 
Gewerkschaftsbewegung abgenommen; es gab bereits 8 Aufstände. Sie 
demonstrieren nicht bloß und gehen dann wieder nach Hause, sondern 
blockieren mit Barrikaden die (mit Lebensmitteln vorher versorgten) 
Städte, um das Land lahm zu legen. Jetzt aber schließen sich die 
Ölindustrie-Gewerkschaften, die StudentInnen u.a. an. Bemerkenswert sei 
auch, dass die Armeeführung vor zwei Wochen wie schon in der 
Vergangenheit (mit einer großen Zahl von Soldaten einheimischen 
Ursprungs) insgeheim den Aufstand unterstützte, da die Möglichkeit 
bestand, dass die Regierung gestürzt würde. In den letzten Wochen haben 
aber die Regierung und Präsident Mahuad eine große Propagandakampagne 
gestartet, die vor allem die Mittelklasse in der Hauptstadt Quito auf 
ihre Seite brachte. Am Samstag (14.1.00) startete die 
Protestmobilisierung langsam und wird mehr symbolisch mit erwarteten 
40-50.000 Einheimischen die Hauptstadt besetzen. 30.000 Soldaten 
handeln eher mit den Einheimischen, das Militär reagiert auf die 
Barrikaden mit Tränengas, Schüssen in die Luft, aber (noch) nicht mit 
Massakern; in den Städten ist nur Polizei. Die Position der Armee sei 
unklar, wird berichtet, während einige Sektoren der Industrielobbies 
für den Gewalteinsatz eintreten. Ein Parlament der Einheimischen, 
Gewerkschaften, StudentInnen etc. tagt mit vielen regionalen Plena und 
deren DelegiertInnen im Hauptplenum des Parlaments mit 1.500 Leuten. Es 
lehnt die jetzige Regierung ab und ruft zu zivilem Ungehorsam auf. Es 
sei eine "neue Regierung", demokratischer, mehr horizontal. In 
Parlamentsdokumenten sind überraschenderweise enthalten: *) das 
Parlament hat einen Präsidenten, Vizepräsidenten und ein Sekretariat 
*) ein klarer Aufruf zu Ungehorsam und eine neue Regierung auf neuer 
ethischer Basis, in einem stark und effizienten dezentralisierten 
Staat, auf der Grundlage der Volksplena. Selbstbestimmung, 
Menschenwürde, Landreform u.ä. werden nicht erwähnt! 



	[ecuador] summary of the current situation 
	Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000

From: "el desaparecido" <desaparecido@gmx.de>

Dear all,

the following is a personal summary from the information I have been able to
get from Ecuador through a few emails and 2 phone calls. Like many of you
probably I knew very little about Ecuador before. It is difficult at this stage to
see what the real motivation of the uprising movement in Ecuador is. The
information is sometimes contradictory and unusual compared to what we
know from indigenas uprising like the zapatistas for instance.

The following is from notes that I took during a phone call with a man called
marlon working for AMARC see www.amarc.org/pulsar

Marlon first started describing me the current situation in Ecuador, because
the roots of the current crisis come from several years of neoliberal
exploitation. The external debt of Ecuador has increased 5 times since 1979.
“People are currently not living but surviving”, he said. The prices of
elementary products have risen dramatically. People are taking their children
out of school because they cannot afford it anymore. Social services have
been dismantled. In a hospital you will not even find an aspirin, if you want to
take someone to hospital, you need to bring all the necessary medicines
with you !

The current crisis started as the government froze all the bank accounts and
people weren’t able to withdraw money (which is a minority in the country).

Since the beginning of the 90’s the movement of the indigenas gained
strength. Approximately 40% of the population is indigena. Most of the
unions have lost power and have corrupt leaders, so the movement is mostly
lead by the indigenas. The have been 8 uprisings already.
The indigenas are generally based around the cities and this is where there
resistance start from. Their form of resistance is not like going to a demo and
back home again and watch the news on tv. No. The mobilise in a
progressive way, community by community, making sure they have the
necessary infrastructure to secure food supply for example etc. They general
block the access roads to the Cities and in the past have successfully
managed to paralyse the country. They build barricades with trees, dig holes
in the concrete etc.

The new thing about the current uprising is that it is followed by other sectors
of society, like the unions of the oil industry, the students etc.

The interesting thing marlon mentioned is that the army in the past has been
on the side of the indigenas. Many of the soldiers are of indigena origin.
About two weeks ago the statements of the army leaders were still backing
up the uprising, which gave confidence that it was possible to overthrow the
current government.

However things have changed in the last couple of weeks, marlon said.
The government of president Mahuad started a big propaganda campaign in
the media, looking back on all the wonderful things that the neoliberal
system has achieved. The government announced
a ‘dollarisation’ of the economy, meaning that the dollar is the leading
currency. The government backed this law with massive propaganda which
has confused now the population. In Quito the capital, there is a broader
middle class of people, which is likely not to follow the protests he said. But
the marginalised and poorer sectors of society and students are likely to
follow the mobilisation.
The dollarisation will not change anything, it’ll just stabilise the situation for
the rich 1% of the population. The movement is currently trying to inform
people about this. Since the ‘dollarisation’ was proposed the momentum
gathered by the movement dropped.

The mobilisation to Quito for Saturday started little by little. As mentioned
before the indigenas are blocking the roads, creating infrastructures etc.
They expect that by Tuesday the country will be paralysed. And that they
will march into Quito for a occupation of the capital. Marlon considered this
occupation as mostly symbolic. They expect 40-50.000 indigenas. But it
was difficult to predict what the attitude of the other sectors of society would
be like the unions and other groups of ’civil society’.

Repression:

The country is militarised. There are 30.000 soldiers deployed, mostly
dealing with the indigenas. In cities like Quito things are quiet for the
moment, no military, only police.
The indigenas have had confrontations around their barricades with the
military. the military response has been tear gas, charging, gunshots in the
air and trying to avoid damages, no massacres, but there have been people
shot to death in the past and things could escalate very quickly.

Marlon said the army’s position is still unclear. In the last two weeks they
announced that they wouldn’t tolerate violence and that violence would result
in more violence. The attitude of the army may be very decisive for the
uprising.

There are some sectors and industrial lobby groups pushing the government
to go ahead with tough repression against the indigenas, it is therefore
important to create international solidarity and avoid a possible massacre of
the indigenas and the uprising in general.

Parliament:

According to marlon, the movement of the indigenas, unions, civil groups,
students etc organise in a Peoples Parliament (Parlamento Nacional de los
Pueblos Ecuador = National Parliament of the people from Ecuador). It’s a
system of plenaries. There are many regional plenaries in which things are
discussed and then brought back into the Peoples Parliament which gathers
all the representatives of the smaller plenaries. They are up to 1500 people
meeting and discussing the following steps. There is also a press
commission which is currently setting an infrastructure to communicate to
the outside. I hope we’ll get the contact address soon.

The important characteristic of this Parliament is that it rejects the current
form of State and calls for civil disobedience. When I asked if this was a
movement trying to overthrow one government and change it by another one ,
marlon pointed that this ‘new government’ was a peoples government and
that it was more democratic, more horizontal.

Late last night I then received several documents which are written by this
alternative parliament.
To my astonishing I found several contradictory statements and was
surprised, I leave it up to you to judge for yourself...

*first of all the so called peoples parliament has a president, a vice president
and a secretary...
*there is a clear rejection of the current form of State, a call for civil
disobedience, but also a clear call to a new government based on a new
ethic, a strong and efficient decentralised State maintaining the current form
of peoples plenaries. The Spanish version has been posted at www.ainfos.ca
translation into English are on the way (if you can help contact me :
desaparecido@gmx.de)

The language and the demands are very different from what we know from
other struggles, the zapatistas for instance. No mention of self
determination, dignity, land reforms or things like that.
But judge for yourself once the translation is done.

ok that’s all I can say for now

Anyone having direct contacts to Ecuador please let us know ! It would be
great to have information from other sources like libertarian groups, indigenas
groups directly etc. I think we should use the email lists generated by the
global days of action J18, N30 and the caravans to spread information. Let
us use ainfos also: www.ainfos.ca

Prepare for solidarity actions, international support will probably be crucial !

stay tuned
in solidarity
Luciano

for updated information in spanish:
http://conjuntos.es.fortunecity.com/social/6