Ecuador, indigenous communities mobilize against the government of President Guillermo Lasso

ROME – There Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Coinage) announced permanent general mobilization and called for the resignation of the country’s president, Guillermo Lasso. The body accuses the Ecuadorian head of government of not holding his office legitimately and of failing to comply with the 2022 agreements. The country’s largest indigenous organization has urged the National Assembly to promote a political trial against Lasso, after the investigation was undertaken by a multi-party commission that analyzes alleged cases of corruption in the Government.

The fight against mining. During the Conaie National Convention, held in Quito, its president Leónidas Iza, together with an extended council, called for the resignation of the Ecuadorian president for lack of legitimacy to govern and for violation of the agreements. In addition to declaring permanent mobilization in each of its territories, the entity has announced that it will radicalize its fight against mining and in defense of its historical claims. “We declare ourselves on the alert for any dictatorial act or decision taken by the President of the Republic. We will not allow them to try to dissolve state functions and govern by decree,” Iza said. “The peoples and nationalities, social organizations and the Ecuadorian people will not allow a dictatorship. If an initiative of any kind occurs, we will declare the revolt and the national strike in Ecuador immediately,” he said.

Interrupted dialogue with the government. La Conaie also announced the rupture of the dialogue process with the Government of Lasso due to the violation of the agreements signed after the strike last June. “After analyzing the follow-up report on the results achieved at the dialogue tables, installed in the framework of the indigenous and popular uprising of June 2022, it is clear that there has been no political will on the part of the government to comply”, he noted . You argued: “on the contrary, the government of Guillermo Lasso has continued to advance with its neoliberal policies, which violate our territorial and community rights and the national economy”. “That is why we are interrupting this dialogue process and withdrawing from these follow-up tables, blaming the national government, which was the one that did not comply with the dialogue tables,” she said.

Things Coinage and who it represents. There Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador is an organization that brings together the Nationalities, Peoples, Communities, Centers and Indigenous Associations of Ecuador. The indigenous populations of the Latin American country have resisted forms of domination, exploitation and discrimination since the colony, for more than five centuries and have been partially annihilated. In 1980 was born the Coinage with the aim of promoting the consolidation of indigenous peoples. The first Congress was convened from November 13 to 16, 1986, in the Nueva Vida camp, in Quito.

The fundamental objectives

– consolidate the indigenous peoples and nationalities of Ecuador

– fight for indigenous land and territories

– fight for one’s education (intercultural bilingual)

– fight against the oppression of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities

– fight for the cultural identity of indigenous peoples, against colonialism and for the dignity of indigenous peoples and nationalities.

The main objectives:

– Consolidate the country’s indigenous peoples and nationalities Fight for the defense of indigenous lands, territories and natural resources;

– Strengthen bilingual intercultural education;

– Fight against colonialism and neocolonialism (transnational companies in indigenous communities);

– Promote community self-legislation and develop integral communitarianism;

– Strengthen their identity and their forms of social organization;

– Promote the exercise of the Collective Rights of the Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Ecuador, recognized in the Political Constitution of the Republic;

– Building an intercultural society;

– Promote participation through the establishment of a participatory democracy, to achieve the decentralization of power and economic resources, solidarity and equity;

– Achieve equality and justice in indigenous peoples and nationalities, therefore in society in general;

– Maintain international relations between the indigenous nationalities of the continent.