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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Three Reports From Ecuador |
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by Kole
Email: Petokraka78 (nospam) aol.com (unverified!) |
12 Aug 2001
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These three reports were filed, along with others noted below, from Ecuador on the global IMC site by Kole. They make fascinating reading regarding the social, cultural, and political forces at play in one of Latin America’s most complex and interesting countries.
ML |
Report One:
An Indymedia reporter\'s account of a meeting between Afro-Ecuadorian groups and representatives of the Ecuadorian government.
CONSOLIDATING THE AFRO-ECUADORIAN VOICE
(GUAYAQUIL) – August 9, 2001
These are exiting and trying times for the Afro-Ecuadorian community across the country. In recent months important moves have been made to consolidate a common voice to push for greater rights for this 1.3-million person strong national minority (roughly 10% of the population of the country). If successful in gaining greater recognition, the Afro-Ecuadorian community could serve as a beacon for Afro-Latin communities across the continent, which have been identified by the UN as one of the most vulnerable groups in the region.
I was able to sit in on a meeting at the Defensora de los Pueblos offices, that united various Afro-Ecuadorian groups to hash out a common strategy for how best to press their demands against a still pervasive system of institutional racism.
There has been a recent spate of activity on the part of the government to appease this sector of the population, especially in Guayaquil, as a meeting with the US ambassador to the region is scheduled for August 20. Although more opportunistic groups tried to steer the debate towards how best to work with the government and the USA, other activists argued that the black community must not adopt a pliant attitude, but should instead push its demands for greater rights without compromise.
The government is particularly concerned with pushing a more pliant agenda. To this end FISE – the government organ responsible for social programs – called a meeting of all Afro-Ecuadorian groups for the 9th and 16th of August to discuss how the FISE can work more closely with Afro-Ecuadorian groups. The national Minister of Social Wellbeing was on hand to propose how to improve Afro-Ecuadorian access to FISE´s programs for the poor. According to the Minister the situation in Guayaquil was particularly deplorable as there was barely any cooperation between the FISE and Afro-Ecuadorian groups. The Minister also wanted to discuss recent conclusions made at the UN Conference Against Racism in South Africa (something which didn’t actually happen, although the resolutions adopted at that conference were handed out).
After the Minister had listed various programs that FISE supposedly undertakes to help the poor, representatives from the Afro-Ecuadorian community rose up one by one to criticize the institutional racism that is inherent within the government bureaucracy. A spirited debate ensued as eloquent speeches made by Afro-Ecuadorian activists were greeted by stonewalling and denials from the government bureaucrats present at the meeting. Some of the criticisms leveled at the government included:
- The criticism that these government programs were designed in a paternalistic way that was predetermined by government bureaucrats and had little to do with the actual needs of the black community. - The government was acting over the heads of civil-society. - A spokeswoman for the Organization of Black Women (Organizacion de Mujeres Negras, OMN) argued that the government needed to improve its capacity of listening to the needs of the black community in the country. - Others argued that the accessibility to programs was based on racist norms, including the criteria in application forms that unfairly ignored the special situation of Afro-Ecuadorians. - While indigenous groups had a special section of FISE dedicated to their needs, there was no similar concern for the needs of Afro-Ecuadorians, even though this sector was also marginalized and discriminated against in the same way as natives on the basis of race. - Access to micro-credit programs was also difficult to obtain as a result of government bureaucracy in applying for these credits. - The channeling of funds for social programs through inefficient and corrupt government subsidiaries such as MIDUVI, instead of directly channeling these funds to Afro-Ecuadorian organizations. - The lack of Afro-Ecuadorian representatives in government decision making bodies, which results in a lack of a black perspective in the planning of these programs. - Questions were also raised about the governments sudden interests in the Afro-Ecuadorian community, and the opportunistic nature of this meeting given the forthcoming audience with US-diplomats. - Many activists claimed that the government has done nothing for blacks, and while funds and programs increased so did the poverty of all peoples in the country. The FISE representatives were challenged to show palpable results of their policies. - The government was accused of misappropriating funds and charged with directing poorly targeted assistance programs.
The Minister of Social Wellbeing responded to most of these criticisms by completely denying all accusations against the FISE. He refused to hear the extensive complaints of the 50 odd Afro-Ecuadorian groups assembled for the meeting, insisting that racism of any kind did not exist in the FISE, despite the near unanimous claims of activists that there was a serious problem with institutional racism.
What made the situation worse was that the Minister falsely claimed that he was married to a black woman, and had a black son and then went on to chastise the Afro-Ecuadorian community leaders for daring to accuse him of racism. Another minister took the example of a black FISE organizer in Esmeraldas, who had done a lot for the black community in that city, calling her \"a black woman of the first order\", thus implying that the critical voices in the room were Afro-Ecuadorians of a \"lower order\". These white ministers reminded me in many ways of the white network exec in Spike Lee´s Bamboozled, as he tried to pretend that he was just ´´as black\" – if not more so - as the other people in the room. These outbursts by FISE bureaucrats underlined the deep-seated racism of the organization despite official denials.
In the end it became clear that the government wasn’t willing to listen to the legitimate grievances of the Afro-Ecuadorian community but was instead looking only looking to displace the burden of responsibility for the deplorable situation of blacks in Ecuador from the government onto the shoulders of Afro-Ecuadorian groups. In the wake of the assassination of Jaime Hurtado, an MPD activist and the country’s only black congressman, and the governments historically deplorable attitude towards the Afro-Ecuadorian civil society, it is no wonder that this community is seeking to formulate a common voice in order to press its demands for greater justice in a more concerted fashion.
Report Two:
The Union Nacional de Ecuadores calls for organized protest against the nation\'s IMF-imposed privatization of the education system
UNE TAKES A STAND AGAINST THE PRIVATIZATION OF EDUCATION
(GUAYAQUIL) – August 9, 2001
Today, an assembly of the UNE was held in Guayaquil uniting the representatives of this organizations from Guayas province as well as the national President Aracelly Moreno, who is also based in Guayaquil. The assembly called for coordinated actions of teachers throughout the country to work together with other popular sectors to stop the spate of privatizations in the country and the servile attitude of the government towards the dictates of the IMF.
In an impassioned speech to UNE activists the national president Ms. Moreno called on the grass-roots membership of this organization to prevent the privatization of the last non-privatized education system in the whole of South America. Ecuador, she claimed, was the last bastion of accessible education in South America, and the Law Decree 200 that was fought for by the teachers should be defended from neoliberal reforms at all costs.
The assembly voted to extend the strike for an indefinite period, and to work more closely with other sectors – especially parents with whom the UNE is set to hold a national assembly for August 30 – in order to strengthen support for the UNE´s demands for: 1) a halt to the government’s plans to privatize education, 2) a salary and income increase for teachers so that they can meet the estimated cost of an average basket of goods, and 3) for the maintenance and improvement of access to education.
The government response, so far, to these demands has been to stone-wall the UNE and call instead for further dialogue with the teachers. The teachers, for their part, have responded that they do not trust dialogue with the government, pointing to other groups who decided to talk to the government but where forced to return to the streets because they got nothing from those talks.
The Assembly also called on UNE members to congregate on August 11 in Guayaquil at the grave of Rosita Perez, a teacher that was assassinated on August 11, 1973, by state security forces during similar anti-government protests by the teachers union. \"Her memory should serve as a reminder as to how far we are willing to go to secure free, public and accessible education for the children of Ecuador\", concluded Ernesto Castillo, the regional president of the UNE.
Report Three:
Ecuador\'s \"The Law is the Law\" Campaign seeks to stifle political dissent.
IN ECUADOR THE LAW IS THE LAW: A NEW GOVERNMENT CAMPAIGN SEEKS TO CRUSH DISSENT
In public buildings across Ecuador a new government campaign has left its mark on the walls and hallways of government offices throughout the country. Posters for the governments new \"The Law is the Law\" campaign are popping up everywhere.
This campaign is essentially designed to place limitations on dissent, seeking to punish activists for various transgressions of \"public order\". For example the staging of road blockades can land a person in jail for three years, while the organization of land occupations (popular in rural areas to protest the plight of poor farmers) can result in six years of imprisonment.
The posters for this campaign list six offenses such as road blockades, land seizures, unauthorized protests, congregating in large groups, and other standard practices of dissent and democratic citizen rights as carrying the risk of disproportionately large prison sentences.
In a recent example of these new powers, government security forces raided the university in Guayaquil after students clashed with police, entering classrooms and lecture halls to round up activists. In other parts of the country these powers were used to round up activists who had blockaded roads with trees and burning tires (NOTE: this is a technique used here to disperse tear-gas).
This Orwellian twist in the drama of the Ecuadorian people, only indicates the true extent to which the government is desperate to crush the broad-based opposition to its neoliberal politics. The fact that the OAS, or the Democratic Charter of the FTAA haven’t been activated to condemn these decidedly anti-democratic practices is only further proof of the hypocritical nature of these pan-American institutions.
These three reports originally from: http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=58609&group=webcast http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=58610&group=webcast http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=58611&group=webcast
Additional reporting by Kole on Ecuador can be found at: http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=58605&group=webcast http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=58608&group=webcast http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=58612&group=webcast
Links to and contact information for Ecuadorian Movements: |
See also:
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=58617&group=webcast
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