textfiles/politics/SPUNK/sp000683.txt

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