The information in this file was recently published in FREEDOM - the fortnightly anarchist journal published by FREEDOM PRESS: FREEDOM PRESS (IN ANGEL ALLEY) 84B WHITECHAPEL HIGH STREET, LONDON E1 7QX GREAT BRITAIN Do write for a sample copy or for a copy of our booklist of publications. We will be putting more of this information out so watch this spot... FOCUS ON... ECUADOR The people fight back. There has been a fair amount of news - and rightly so - about the uprising of the EZLN in Mexico which began on 1st January this year. Less has been said however of other struggles in the region. Here we try to redress the balance a little by bringing you some information about the current situation in Ecuador... Firstly some background notes. It's one of the smallest countries in South America divided into three regions - the coastal plains to the west, the Amazonian region in the east and a mountanous area in the middle. It's about the size of Britain and is the homeland to 13 indigenous nationalities each with its own culture and language. These groupings amount to about 40% of the population - about four and a half million. Nine of these indigenous groups live in the Amazonian region, primarily hunter gatherers and fishermen with a deep respect for their environment. Little notice was paid to them since the conquest began 500 years ago until recently when, in the 70s, oil was discovered. In 1972 TEXACO set up operations in the country in the Amazonian region to the north of the Napo river. The story that was to follow was one of misery. Land and water contamination with lagoons turned into thick, black pools; fish dying in the rivers; the animals the people depended on for their survival becoming more and more rare. TEXACO built roads. The roads brought settlers. The settlers brought deforestation. TEXACO was also responsible for building the pipeline which crosses the country from east to west and whose spillages have caused as much contamination as the oil spilt in the EXXON Valdez accident in Alaska. TEXACO pulled out leaving a mess behind it. Last year in Freedom we reported the call for a boycott of TEXACO and the other companies that have followed in its contaminated wake. A couple of years ago Ecuadorean Amazonia was divided up into 200,000 hectare blocks allocated to several foreign concerns and PetroEcuador the nationalised oil company. This was the go ahead for exploitation activity to expand south. British Gas was involved. After an explatory period they decided the area was not 'profitable' and pulled out but not before adding generously to the contamination in the Shiwiar region. Anarchist groups in Spain brought reports last year of the Texas based Maxus company intensifying its research with a view to an underground exploitation on the land of the Huaorani indians. Despite protest the government gave permission for a further 400 kms. of roads to be built with predictable results. Apart from Maxus others are involved: Arco, Orix, Elf-Aquitaine.... In November last year the Ecuadorean congress laid down the legal framework which would fully open up the oil and gas reserves to the international companies and at the same time allowed them to increase the capacity of the Trans-Ecuadoran pipeline. Resistance April 91 saw an historic march from the Amazon to Quito. On the way indigenous people from all over the country joined the march which arrived in Quito on 23rd April. For many Ecuadoreans this was revelatory... they didn't know there were Indians in the Amazonian region. The Indian Organisation of Pastaza (OPIP) demanded two million hectares of land from the government. OPIP makes a distinction between land and territory. Land belongs to communities with no rights to exploit subterranean resources. Territories belong to nationalities who have managerial rights. The government claimed that to give the latter would amount to creating states within states (interestingly they don't take this view when dealing with TNCs) but they have the full support of the landowners who see uncultivated land as a safety valve - making the population agreeably docile. The unjust land system has created serious land scarcity with almost half the land in the country being owned by 1.5 per cent of landowners. The argument has continued over the last two years and has now come to a head sparked off by land reform law approved by President Sixto Dur n Ballen on June 13 which halts popular land distribution programmes exacerbating the land problem still further. Now the people are resorting to more direct forms of action. During the last two weeks of June protestors closed off some of the main motorways in the country, hitting commerce and isolating several cities. Roadblocks successfully cut off Ambato and Cuenca (the third and fourth largest cities in the country) leading to supply shortages and price increases. The Pan-American highway was blocked off by protests from some 200 indigenous communities at several junctions in Cotopaxi Province. 40,000 indigenous people gathered in the provincial capital of Rio Bamba to demand annulment of the legislation. In the Amazon region several access roads to oilwells were blocked. In mid-June a protestor was shot dead by a motorist trying to crash through the barricades and further, similar clashes have left dozens wounded. Some govenors are calling for a state of emergency others to annul the so-called agricultural development law. Critics say that the new legislation ends all hope of any form of fair land redistribution and that indigenous people are now denied communal land and water rights. Talks were due to start on 22nd June. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As in Mexico information about what is happening in Ecuador is not readily available to people in the west. We hope to get more information from contacts in South America or sources in Europe with links with the region. We will bring you news of this and other struggles when we receive it. We would of course be interested in hearing from readers with contacts or information about struggles in South America. Information from Financial Times 21/6/94