Protests in Ecuador

[Janus]

BBC News

Ecuadorean security forces have started removing roadblocks placed by indigenous groups protesting against free trade talks with the US.
The government sent in army units to restore order after declaring a state of emergency in five central provinces.

Demonstrators have been blocking roads since last week. They fear the deal being negotiated in Washington this week will damage their way of life.

The protests have cost the country millions of dollars in lost trade.

The state of emergency was declared on Tuesday by President Alfredo Palacio in the highland provinces of Cotopaxi, Canar, Chimborazo and Imbabura, as well as parts of Pichincha, where the capital Quito is located. It bans public meetings and imposes a curfew.

"The president took this decision after exhausting all other options for dialogue," said Interior Minister Felipe Vega.

Shortages

A military spokesman told the Spanish news agency Efe that several main roads had been cleared, but some routes in the Imbabura province were still blocked by demonstrators.
Mr Vega called on the protesters to collect signatures for a referendum on the free trade issue rather than block roads.

But Gilberto Talahua, one of the leaders of the main indigenous group, Conaie, said the protests would continue.

The roadblocks have caused increasing food and fuel shortages in some of Ecuador's central provinces.

A final round of talks about the free trade agreement is scheduled to begin in Washington on 23 March, with a deal expected to be concluded in early April.

Ecuador's neighbours Colombia and Peru have already signed deals with the US.

[chebol]

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/661/661p17b.htm
EQUADOR: Protests threaten — 'FTA signed, Palacio out’

Duroyan Fertl

Several weeks of turmoil have escalated as thousands of workers, students and indigenous groups have taken to Ecuador’s streets and highways, bringing the country to a standstill, forcing the resignation of the interior minister and demanding an end to negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US.

The latest round of protests were sparked on March 6 when 4000 contract oil workers in Orellana province took industrial action demanding back-pay and secure employment, and opposing environmental damage from the US-based oil company Occidental Petroleum.

Since then, the protests have broadened rapidly to reject the proposed FTA with the US and demand a new constitution and the removal of US troops from the Eloy Alfaro air base at Manta. Protesters have also demanded the expulsion of Occidental from Ecuador and the nationalisation of the country’s oil.

In the capital Quito, protesters occupied the metropolitan cathedral and broke through a police cordon to blockade the presidential palace. In rural areas, highways were blockaded across the central highlands and throughout the Amazonian regions.

President Alfredo Palacio, whose approval rating has dropped to 14%, has declared a state of emergency in the provinces of Napo, Orellana and Sucumbios, where hundreds of protesters seized the country’s largest oilfields to force their demands, and brought oil production — which accounts for 43% of Ecuador’s revenue — to its knees.

Ecuadorian trade unions have called for a rolling strike in opposition to government negotiation of the FTA, the final rounds of which start on March 23, and have demanded that a referendum be held on the issue. A chief concern is that the FTA threatens Ecuadorian jobs and culture, particularly in the agricultural sector and among the country’s 30% indigenous population.

Luis Macas, the leader of the peak indigenous federation CONAIE, has called for a mass mobilisation to force Palacio not to sign the FTA, to convene a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution, and to hold a referendum on the presence of US troops at the Eloy Alfaro air base.

Palacio is also under increasing pressure to respond to repeated incursions by the Colombian air force into Ecuadorian airspace. While supposedly in pursuit of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), they have also fired on Ecuadorian civilians.

If Palacio doesn’t respond to these popular demands, he faces the risk of becoming the fourth Ecuadorian president to be overthrown in 10 years, following his predecessor Lucio Gutierrez, who fled the country amid protests last April.

As Mesias Tatamues, president of the trade union federation Cedoc-Cut, told Granma International on March 15: “We are going to show him that if he doesn’t listen to us he will have to go home, because the general slogan, from the countryside to the city, is: FTA signed, Palacio out.”

From Green Left Weekly, March 22, 2006.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page. http://www.greenleft.org.au/

[A Man of no Nation]

Yeah man, I live in Ecuador and things here are getting fucking tense. TLC will destroy the way of life here (for the 75% below poverty). Sweat shop labor and cheaper prices for goods will increase at an alarming rate with TLC. The poverty will only increase and make life even more shitty here.

If Ecuador signs the free trade agreement the economy is fucked. If they don´t sign, the economy is fucked either way. No matter what happens, ecuador is fucked.

The is no hope for ecuador unless the people stop whinning and revolt.