The Indians strike back

David Edeli Consultant on Ecuadorian Amazon Project Syndicate

Long quiescent, Ecuador's Indians -- like native groups in much of Latin America -- are finding their political voice and making their presence felt. In November, Indians' votes were the key factor behind the election of a populist political outsider, ex-Army colonel Lucio Gutierrez, as president of this small Andean nation.

The victory of Gutierrez, who participated in the failed coup against President Jamil Mahuad in 2000, is a serious blow to speedy approval of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) -- the Bush administration's effort to create a hemispheric trade bloc rivaling the European Union. Ecuador's election demonstrates the growing strength of Indians and other groups estranged from governments that adhere too closely to policies dictated from Washington.

Gutierrez is the first president to have the support of Ecuador's powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). Historically marginalized and impoverished indigenous peoples make up between 25 percent and 40 percent of Ecuador's population. CONAIE, founded in 1986, originally focused on cultural rights and land redistribution.

After winning a bilingual education system in the late 1980's and securing land titles for many peasants in 1992, CONAIE expanded its agenda. Today, it is the leading critic of Ecuador's "neo-liberal" policies related to globalization.

In the last 10 years, CONAIE has spearheaded protests to stop privatization, the extraction of natural resources, and export- oriented agricultural policies. After leading massive street protests to unseat the corrupt president, Abdala Bucaram, in 1997, indigenous leaders from CONAIE helped to forge a new constitution that guarantees collective rights for indigenous peoples, participatory environmental reviews of resource extraction projects, and fixed increases in budgetary spending on health and education.

In January 2000, following the economic implosion caused by a banking scandal that implicated President Mahuad, and Mahaud's subsequent replacement of the Sucre with the U.S. dollar as Ecuador's currency, CONAIE solidified its role at the heart of Ecuadorian politics. Tens of thousands of indigenous peoples -- who were too repressed only 15 years earlier to participate even minimally in national public life -- marched on the capital, Quito, demanding Mahuad's resignation.

On the initiative of Lucio Gutierrez, Indians and a contingent of mid-level Army officers took control of the presidential palace and announced a short-lived ruling triumvirate that included then CONAIE president Antonio Vargas. However, pressure by the U.S. Embassy and the Organization of American States (OAS) resulted in a change of heart by Ecuador's military and jail sentences for Gutierrez and Vargas.

Gutierrez began campaigning for the presidency shortly after his release from prison, but his chances looked slim until CONAIE decided to support his candidacy last summer. Indians and campesinos, who get their information from provincial organizations' radio programs, voted overwhelmingly for Gutierrez.

Gutierrez's past as a fomenter of coups has linked him in the minds of many to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, another former military officer who also authored a failed coup before becoming president. But unlike Chavez, who leads one of the world's top oil producers, the need to stabilize an economy closely monitored by international financial markets forced Gutierrez to abandon campaign promises that helped secure his victory. For example, he has backtracked on ending "dollarization" and has stopped opposing America's military presence at the coastal Manta Air Base, both key CONAIE demands.

Even so, Guttierrez's election will have a significant impact on hemispheric geopolitics, particularly on the question of the FTAA.

CONAIE opposes the FTAA and is advancing a proposal entitled Alternatives for the Americas, which offers a more balanced approach to trade liberalization. It would ensure enforceable international human rights, environmental, and labor laws. Gutierrez, following CONAIE's lead, has called the FTAA "suicide" and proposes strengthening ties with the Andean Community and with Brazil and Venezuela, who are also skeptical of the FTAA.

So far, the Bush administration is playing tough and trying to force South American countries to submit by discussing trade agreements with Chile and Central America. Maybe it is time, though, to look at why South America's peoples are voting for candidates who question free trade and America's military policy in the region.

Groups like CONAIE see the FTAA as a project initiated to give U.S. corporations more access to Latin America's natural resources and cheap labor. Even if America were to reverse its current policies and reduce its domestic agricultural subsidies -- just one reason that Latin Americans view the FTAA as rank hypocrisy -- a focus on export-oriented agriculture in Ecuador tends to favor large landowners over small farmers, shifting income from the poor to the rich.

The FTAA is far too concerned with protecting corporations to be capable of addressing the issues that most trouble Latin America's citizens. Countries like Ecuador, hobbled by massive external debt, poor infrastructure, a corrupt ruling class, and yawning inequality, need international agreements akin to those of the European Union that help reduce debt burdens, boost technology transfer, and promote social and economic justice. Latin America's native peoples have awakened. Policies throughout the continent must and will begin to reflect their desires.