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1. Article: "The Present Situation"-----------------------(Dec. 1992)
2. Article: "A Brief History of CONAIE"-------------------(Dec. 1992)
3. Article: "Achievements of the Indigenous Movement"-----(Dec. 1992)
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THE PRESENT SITUATION
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CONAIE
Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador
At the global level, we live in a vulnerable situation: humanity is
living through very rapid changes, the things that seemed to have been
established have fallen, dogmas have become out of date, the socialist
system has crumbled, capitalism is in crisis, one part of the world
tends towards homogenization while the rest is entangled in bloody
ethnic struggles. All of this indicates that we are living in the
middle of a global crisis, a crisis which is transitory because it will
lead us to a new human condition.
The Latin American Left, after the decomposition of the socialist
world, today finds itself disoriented , and actually causing confusion
when it states that there are no ideological or political positions,
but we must fight so that our countries can rise out of
under-development. We ask, what will be the cost?
In our country, with so many changes, it seems that some social
movements have lost their perspective. There are no reference points
for their struggle, and they offer no concrete proposals. The
consequences can be clearly seen; the Right has gained control of the
State, on top of the control over the economy, which it has always
held.
Identity
There exists currently a struggle for people's identity, to regain
their rights, here, in the continent, and in the world. We do not
believe that this struggle should be violent, as that will not take us
anywhere. What we do know is that we, as indigenous peoples, as the
original peoples of the world, have our identity as our only reference
point.
The principle of identity, which represents the present struggle of the
Peoples of the world, is gaining strength internationally. When we
speak of identity we refer not only to the culture of which we are the
bearers, but also to the methods of nourishment, way of life, social
organization, the way in which we see the world, etc. This global
perspective allows us to see beyond certain political dogmas that have
been imposed upon us.
The indigenous movement, with its search for the principles of
identity, could serve as a reference point for the rest of Ecuadorian
society, since it is a project not only for us but for everyone. The
indigenous problem concerns all Ecuadorians, the government and the
governed. Now that there is no political orientation, the struggle for
identity, to know who we are, to recuperate our roots-if indeed we have
lost them could provide the way in which we can walk strongly, and
firmly into the future.
Agreement
In this context we see that confrontation between different social
movements is not necessary and instead we should look for agreement,
maintaining our differences and respecting each others proportions.
During these times when we are victims of a package of economic methods
that is taking us into more absolute poverty, we are left with no
alternative other than unity in order to meet our common objectives.The
forceful imposition of these methods, with the decree that militarizes
the country, will not be able to quiet us. We cannot remain calm in the
face of this situation that is a moral attack not only for the
indigenous people but also for the majority of Ecuadorians.
Compensatory Measures
The Compensatory Measures do not offer even a handful of help in
relation to the new economic policies. We want to make clear that we
will defend all of the achievements that we have obtained from previous
governments. Traditionally we have fought for our rights to education,
health, and to other services that the state has the obligation to
offer, such as help for mothers and children. There is no way that the
government can sweep away these conquests with a decree. Bilingual
Education cannot be the object of political negotiations or delegation
of government jobs. We want the accords we have made with previous
governments to be respected. We will defend services such as the
Community Network, Campesino Insurance, School Breakfast and the Huahua
Huasi(Quichua for child care center) because our organizations are
members and benefit from them.
Modernization
The government talks about reactivating the economic apparatus, and
they employ methods that go against the people. For us, modernization
means reactivating the productive apparatus, both in the city and in
the country. Our country is agricultural; the state needs to
contemplate the problems of all social sectors and steer support
accordingly to small and medium-sized producers.
We, as the Indigenous Movement, think in the following terms:
-Land:
The recuperation of our lands and the defense of our territories.
-Production:
We need support from the state in terms of technical support,
credit, irrigation, etc. We provide the country with nourishment,
and we need to reactivate the economy in the country.
-Commercialization:
Our intention is to create communal business in order to better
market our products. We do not want middlemen.
The Constitution
Modernizing the State also means Modernizing the Constitution. We need
to create a new one that is our own, and not continue with copies of
old constitutions from other countries, as we have done up until now.
In the constitutional reform we refer in particular to Article 1, which
should confirm that Ecuador is a plurinational, pluricultural country,
legally recognizing the existence of the diversity of peoples and
cultures that have always lived here. We want to have legal autonomy
over our manner of organizing, producing and living, with our history,
our language, our customs and beliefs.
The indigenous movement has put the following concepts on the
discussion table: territoriality, plurinationality, nationality,
identity. These themes must be discussed at the national level since
they potentially affect everyone. All of this means modernization.
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CONAIE: A BRIEF HISTORY
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CONAIE
Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador
CONAIE: A brief history
In Ecuador, during our 170 years of republicanism, it has been wrongly
asserted that we are a homogeneous country, made of only one
nationality, as the national Constitution insists. That, however, is
not the reality. Many peoples have always lived here, each with its
own culture, its own language, its own customs. Some of these peoples
have disappeared, others are in danger of disappearing, and some of us
are very much alive.
The indigenous nationalities of Ecuador have always had community and
family as the basis of our social organization. From that base grew
the necessity to form relationships with other communities of the zone,
the province and the region. For that reason we formed the zonal,
provincial and regional organizations. In order for our voice to be
heard at the national level, we formed the organization that now
represents us, CONAIE, in 1986. CONAIE represents all of the
indigenous nationalities of the country, some organized into provincial
organizations, and others not.
The National Organization is the result of a long process which is
worth reviewing from a distance in order to better understand where we
have come from and where we are going.
CONAIE was formed out of the union of two already existing
organizations, ECUARUNARI and CONFENIAIE. ECUARUNARI, the regional
organization of the Sierra that has been functioning for over 20 years,
and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian
Amazon(CONFENIAE), formed in 1980, created that same year the National
Coordinating Council of the Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador,
CONACNIE. CONACNIE was the center of long discussions to clarify the
terms and objectives of the movement. We could see what united us and
what separated us. For example, languages separated us, but the
problems we shared united us: the lack of land, racial discrimination,
lack of bilingual education, and above all, the need to have our own
voice.
After that necessary step of coming to the most elemental agreements,
the next step was the legal constitution of a national organization to
represent all of us, including the indigenous people of the coast,
through the formation of their regional organization, COICE.
The legalization of the organization, and obtaining a physical space
from which to work, have greatly facilitated the process of the
consolidation of CONAIE.
At the moment of the formation of our organization, we had two urgent
tasks: land and education. Along with the resolution of the many land
problems that have been waiting for years, we pushed for the bilingual
education program to be organized by CONAIE. We succeeded in signing
an agreement between CONAIE and the Ministry of Education and Culture
that is still functioning today. In this way we have been able to
unify the Quichua language, and we now want to carry this project
further with other indigenous languages.
Within our movement we have been carrying on discussions to define
terms such as nationality, Peoples, 'campesinos', Indians, indigenous.
We have also come to differentiate the meaning of land and territory
for indigenous peoples. The debates are continuing to clarify these
concepts.
These discussions have contributed to a growing sense of self-
identification, and of pride in belonging to a people. This is
reflected as well in the understanding of the rest of the nation when
they no longer, out of ignorance, use pejorative terms such as aucas
when referring the Huaorani, jibaros when referring to the Shuar,
colorados instead of Tsachilas, or cayapas instead of Chachi. The word
Indian is still used in general, but there will come a time when each
nationality will be referred to by its own name.
We also recognize that CONAIE has been developed with too much
influence from the structure of labor unions or interest groups, but
since we have come to realize that this structure does not respond to
our needs, or our traditional ways of organizing, we are searching for
work methods that faithfully reflect our own manner of arriving at
consensus. The base organizations make decisions and the leadership of
CONAIE serves as an intermediary between those decisions and the
actions taken.
Examples of this style of working are the Indian Uprising of June,
1990, and the Indigenous March by OPIP in April of this year, which
was supported not only by the indigenous communities in Ecuador, but by
the general public.
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ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE INDIGENOUS MOVEMENT
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CONAIE
Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador
Achievements of the Indigenous Movement
During the six years in which CONAIE has existed, the consolidation of
organizations representing most indigenous nationalities in Ecuador has
proven to be one of our major achievements; another achievement has
been developing the capacity to call upon the unity of the indigenous
communities concerning common problems, such as land, education,
poverty, discrimination, etc.
Among the achievements that stand out the most, there is one of
historical importance, which is the presence that the indigenous
movement has at the national level: the political presence that the
Indian community has attained in the last several years has been
significant not only for Indians but also for the entire Ecuadorian
society. We have won the space necessary to be able to decide for
ourselves what our opinions are, our point of view, our path. In this
manner we have challenged the state and the society in general
concerning the political role that should be played by every social
movement in Ecuador.
The Struggle for Land
The central goal articulated by the indigenous movement is the fight
for land: having a material base such as land is fundamental for living
a dignified life. This is a problem that all levels of government have
systematically evaded and have not confronted with courage. The fact
that three nationalities have been granted a piece of territory in
which we have always lived does not mean that the problem has been
solved. The Chachis and the Awa demand that their territorial rights
be legalized before they are dislocated by the timber companies that
are killing the entire ecosystem.
The result of this problem, which has been dragging on for many years,
is this: conflicts over land that have been ignored, postponed and
forgotten served as the detonator for the Indian Uprising that took
place from May 28 to June 10, 1990. As the Indian communities rose up
with one voice, we demanded our most basic rights: our lives, our
territory, our self-determination. As a result of this action carried
out by the Indigenous Movement, it is now recognized at the national
level that there is a problem and that it is the indigenous problem,
which is not ours alone but that of all Ecuadorians. This could be
seen most clearly in the Indigenous March for Life on the part of the
indigenous communities of Pastaza and their organization OPIP in April
and March of 1992: here not only did all the indigenous organizations
of the country go out of their way to give their support, but the
entire Ecuadorian population realized that this problem - i.e., the
discrimination and injustice with which the Indian has been treated
since the European invasion - has to be resolved at once and for
everyone.
Plurinationality
The fight for land and territory is not the only objective of the
Indigenous Movement. Now we are calling for reflection on and
discussion of the need to reform the country's laws. The Constitution
does not recognize the plurinationality that has always existed here.
We want a real democracy to be practiced here for all Ecuadorians,
including the indigenous population. In this way the country will be
enriched with our cultural diversity, which will contribute to make
Ecuador more stable and unified.
The government, in turn, has paid little or no attention to our demands
and requests; to express our protest in the face of a decrepit system
of government, we decided to boycott the last elections. We want the
people to be conscious of the fact that there are other, more
participatory forms of government, where citizens can have a greater
role with his or her opinions and not merely go to the voting booth,
only then to wash one's hands of political matters until four years
later when he or she is again required to cast another vote.
With our position we have gathered the general discontent with this
mode of politics. These old forms of governing have exhausted
themselves, and we believe that everyone has the obligation to
participate in the challenge of governing ourselves. True democracy
does not exist if there is a high number of unemployed workers, if
poverty increases every day, if malnutrition is widespread among our
children, if wealth is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. If we
don't change this situation, we can hardly speak of democracy.
The challenge of the Indigenous Movement is daunting, our tasks are
many, and the road ahead of us is long. We aspire to the attainment of
a dignified life with a material foundation, which is the land on which
we have lived in the manner of our elders; we strive to be humane, with
self-respect and love for our own culture.
As a country, as mestizos, Indians and blacks, we have many bad habits
to break, many prejudices to overcome. Racial discrimination, which
begins in the home, continues in school, and persists throughout one's
entire life, does not help create a unified consciousness of humanity.
Acceptance of the validity of the different cultures of every
nationality that lives here is a way of accepting ourselves as we are,
and thus is our identity strengthened, thus does our spirit of unity
grow.
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C O N A I E
CONFEDERACION DE NACIONALIDADES INDIGENAS DEL ECUADOR
INTERNET: ccc@conaie.ec OR ccc%conaie@ecuanex.apc.org
UUCP: cdp!ecuanex!conaie!ccc
P.O.Box: Casilla 17171235, Quito, ECUADOR.
Direcci' on: Los Granados 2553 y 6 de Diciembre, Quito, ECUADOR.
Tel' efono: (593-2) 248930 TeleFax: (593-2) 442271
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