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Home , Geography of Ecuador, History of Ecuador

The South American Handbook

Edited by Patrick Heenan and Monique Lamontagne

Advisers Rory Miller David Rock University of Liverpool University of California, Santa Barbara

2002

FITZROY DEARBORN PUBLISHERS LONDON • CHICAGO Chapter Six

Ecuador

Marc Becker

The political scientist John Martz once from any unified and coherent action: observed that "serves as a microcosm declared independence in 1809 but for a wide variety of problems, questions, and did so in 1820. When Antonio José de Sucre issues relevant to various of the other Latin defeated Spanish forces outside Quito in American countries" (Martz p. vii). Named May 1822, its citizens, the Quiteños, passively after the , which it straddles, Ecuador watched while foreigners and Guayaquileños is one of the smaller countries in South fought. America but is also one of the most fascinating. However, the focus on Quito and Guayaquil It has a strong popular movement, but repeat- effectively marginalizes the southern urban edly elects populist leaders who implement center of Cuenca; the eastern Amazon, which economic policies that hurt the poor. This is stereotypically viewed as a "savage" area, situation has led to the growth of a power- but now provides the oil revenues that fund ful indigenous movement, which threatens much of the rest of the country; and the rural the white elite and has begun to reshape the indigenous population, which made up a large country's social and economic landscape. part of the independence army but subse- quently gained little from the struggle. Deep regional and social divisions continue to divide Geography and Resources the country, which make it is a mistake to speak Ecuador's physical and human geography has of Ecuador as a unified nation. had a significant impact on its economic, polit- The three regions have very different ical, and social development. The country can ecological and economic bases. The coastal be divided into three geographic zones: the plain is wider than that further South in western pacific coastal lowlands, the sierra high- and, because the cold Antarctic , Humboldt lands, and the eastern upper , Current turns out to sea just before it reaches often called the Oriente (East). Regionalism is Ecuador, it is much wetter and hotter than in particularly apparent in the economic and Peru. The coast, along with the surrounding political divisions between the liberal commer- lowlying hills, has an export-oriented agricul- cial coastal port city of Guayaquil and the tural economy, which includes the production conservative administrative city of Quito in the of bananas, cattle, rice, sugar, coffee, and highlands. have long recognized maritime products, such as shrimp and tuna. the presence of this tension, and, as the politi- Currently, half of the country's population cal scientist George Blanksten noted in the resides on this coastal plain, which includes the 1950s, "the story of Ecuador is a tale of two port of Guayaquil, now the country's largest cities" (Blanksten p. 161). Regional divisions are city, with a population of over 2 million. so pronounced that even the country's declara- tion of independence from Spain did not result Counterpoised against the liberal commer- cial coast are the conservative, Catholic sierra 69 70 Nation States highlands, with around 45% of the population. denounce their opponents, until relatively Two parallel mountain chains, with over recently the Amazon remained marginal to 30 volcanoes, eight of them active, dominate Ecuador's state formation and economic devel- this region. One of these mountains, , opment. The discovery of rich oil deposits in is the world's highest active volcano. The the Amazon in the 1970s resulted in an econ- Equator reaches its highest point in the world omic boom for the elite, ecological disaster for on the snowcapped southern slopes of Mount the Amazon, and increased impoverishment , and, because of the equatorial bulge, for its inhabitants. Nevertheless, many Ecuado- the peak of Mount is the furthest rians believe that the Amazon is key to their point from the center of the Earth (and national salvation, both because of issues of was once thought to be the world's highest territoriality and because of the potential mountain). Nestled between the two mountain economic wealth from exploitation of petro- chains is a series of 15 fertile intermontane leum and other minerals. basins. Whereas export-oriented agriculture has dominated the coast, domestic agricultural production such as cattle, potatoes, corn, bar- Until the 20th century, Ecuador remained ley, and wheat destined for local markets was an overwhelmingly rural country, with the vast traditionally more important in these highland majority of people living in the highlands. basins. Increasingly, however, nontraditional Migratory patterns have affected this human exports, such as flowers, have replaced pro- in three different duction of food. With an Amazonian oil boom ways. First is a population shift away from in the 1970s, Quito, the country's capital, the highlands, a trend that emerged after the changed from an isolated quaint colonial city liberal revolution of 1895, based on the coast, into a vibrant administrative and economic attempted to break conservative landowners' center with an important banking industry. stranglehold on indigenous labor on the large highland estates called haciendas. The construc- tion of the Guayaquil and Quito Railway Ecuador's third region, the upper Amazon further facilitated the migration of highland rainforest or Oriente, comprises nearly half of laborers to the coast, where they took higher- the country's territory, but, according to the paying jobs on banana and other plantations, census of 1990, it contained only 4% of its contributing to the monoculture agricultural population, most of it rural. Since the export economy. In 1974, for the first time, the conclusion of the wars of independence in the census indicated that the coastal population , Ecuador has been locked in territorial surpassed that of the sierra highlands. A similar disputes with the neighboring countries of migration has more recently taken people to and Peru over the delineation of the Amazon in search of land or jobs with oil international borders in the Amazonian region. companies. Second is a migration from rural Occasionally these disputes have led to open to urban areas in search of higher-paying jobs warfare between Ecuador and Peru, most and more economic opportunities: in 1990 the notably in 1941 and again in 1995, and in census reported that the urban population had 1942, the United States forced Ecuador to sign surpassed the rural population. Third, econ- the Rio Protocol, which effectively ceded over omic crises in Ecuador during the 1990s drove half of its territory to Peru (Corkill and Cubitt one of the largest per-capita outmigrations, p. 98). Yet Ecuador's identity is integrally tied to primarily to the United States, of any country the Amazon. The Spanish in . These migrations continue Francisco de Orrellana left from Quito in to have an irreversible impact on Ecuador, and 1540 to become the first European to float are visible in the nature of ethnic identities, down the Amazon, and it is this feat that social movements, and political structures. leads to Ecuador's territorial claims. The country embraces as a national slogan " Ethnicity Ecuador was, is, and will be an In Ecuador, as in the rest of South America, Amazonian country" Although important as a the myth of mestizaje holds that a new culture rhetorical device for politicians who use the issue to make nationalistic statements and to Ecuador 71 was forged from the blending of three separate restrictions, effectively granting traditions, European, indigenous, and African. citizenship rights to the majority of Although this held partly true for the mestizo Ecuadorians for the first time. segment of the Ecuadorian population, it Ecuador's population of African descent is threatened to subvert the unique history and concentrated in the province of Esmeraldas surviving cultural traditions of the indigenous in the Northwest, in addition to pockets in and African groups. Rather than embracing Guayaquil, Quito, and the northern ethnic diversity, mestizaje contended that provinces of Imbabura and Carchi. A popular these ethnic identities must be suppressed in legend has it that the Afro-Ecuadorians are order for the country to move forward. descendants of escapees from a slave ship that Modernization was often associated with the " was bound for Peru but shipwrecked off the whitening" of society. This ideological frame- Esmeraldas coast in 1553. Under the work created a situation of racial leadership of Alonso de Illescas, they discrimination that placed indigenous forged inland and intermixed with and African groups at a disadvantage in indigenous peoples, sometimes fighting society. In addition, ideologies of mestizaje with them over limited land and resources. implied the presence of a coherent national After 150 years of independence, they identity in Ecuador, which has in fact eventually allied with Quito and the Spanish never existed. Local and regional forms of crown. Today, Afro-Ecuadorians amount to identity have always been the primary factors in around 3% of the population (see Whitten). people's sense of self. The formation and structure of these identities underlie Mestizos comprise perhaps 60% or more of movements for social change, and have Ecuador's population, and work as both rural influenced economic and political development campesinos (peasants) and poor workers in urban in turn. areas, although with increased educational opportunities more mestizos have been entering professions. On the coast, for example, Since the Spanish invasion of Ecuador in lower-class mestizo peasants working as a rural the 1530s, the white population has always proletariat on export-oriented been a small but dominant force in society. agricultural plantations are known as A lack of good demographic studies and the montuvios. Montuvio, a social and cultural blending across ethnic boundaries prevents category rather than a "racial" one, indicates a precise enumeration, but about 7% of a person who "speaks Spanish, dresses like a Ecuador's 13 million people could be consid- poor white peasant, and overtly partakes of ered "white," most of them living in urban Ecuadorean [sic] (as opposed to Indian) areas. They are the ones who have always culture" (Murra p. 786). They are controlled the land and the labor force, and descendants of coastal Indians, Africans, benefited from the wealth of the country. and Europeans, but have not retained an ethnic Ecuador's first Constitution, promulgated in identity from any of these groups. Montuvios tend 1830, limited citizenship rights to literate males to be mobile, migrating among plantations who were married or older than 22, and who during harvests and to urban areas in search owned property worth at least 300 pesos or of employment. were engaged in an independent "useful" profession or industry. It therefore recognized Far more diverse than either the white, citizenship only for white males, since other African or mestizo populations are the groups did not receive schooling, and indeed indigenous groups, which are spread for a minority among white males themselves, across the country but live mostly in rural domestic servants and laborers being explicitly areas. Before the Inca and Spanish conquests, excluded. Although over time these restrictions many more indigenous groups existed in were relaxed, the proportion of Ecuador's Ecuador than survive today: the number residents with citizenship rights rose only of indigenous groups appears to have slowly, from 0.3% of the population at inde- fallen from 24 before the Inca conquest to pendence to 3% in 1940. It was not until 1978 ten in the 1980s, including a drop from that constitutional reforms removed literacy 12 to three on the coast (Alcina Franch p. 94). Although many people have predicted extinction for the remaining 72 Nation States indigenous peoples, they still retain their own who occupy the same region. The Epera are vibrant cultures, languages, dress, music, and a little-known group numbering about 150 traditions, and have been growing in strength people. Better known are the Tsáchila ( and political presence. Estimates of their meaning the "true people" or the "true word" numbers vary greatly, from around 10% of the ), who are often called Colorados because population to as high as 40% (CONAIE of their red body paint. This body paint led p. 283), although the official figure, based on to their exploitation as a tourist curiosity in census returns, is 25%. These variances in esti- the 1950s, when the government built a road mates are largely due to the vagueness of the through their territory and whites began to colonize boundaries between the indigenous and mestizo the zone. worlds, particularly due to a phenomenon known as "situational ethnicity" For example, However, most indigenous peoples in a person can work as a day laborer in an urban Ecuador live in the sierra highlands, and area during the week and identify as a mestizo, although they comprise many different ethnic speaking Spanish, wearing western clothes, groups they are often grouped under the single eating European food, and attending Catholic category of "Quichua." They are members of mass. On the weekend, this same person may the larger Quechua ethnolinguistic group, return to a native village and engage in tradi- which stretches across the Andean highlands tional customs, including speaking an indige- from Colombia to Chile. As a result of the nous language and visiting a traditional healer, spread of the in the Ecuadorian and fully embrace an indigenous identity. highlands in the 15th and 16th centuries, and Further, as Jorge León and Joanne Rappaport the subsequent Spanish missionary impulse, have noted, "it is important to remember many of the Quichua-speaking peoples in this that it is not always in one's interest to identify region lost much of their linguistic, religious, as indigenous to a census-taker: hence many and cultural distinctiveness. There remains, of the discrepancies in census figures" (León however, a strong sense of place and tradition, and Rappaport p. 32). Although the absolute and it would be a mistake to label the entire number of indigenous Ecuadorians has region with just one category. increased during the 20th century, migration and assimilation have caused a decline in Land and agricultural production are impor- the proportion of people who would identify tant to all the highland indigenous groups, themselves primarily as "indigenous" based but increasingly they have undertaken other on language, religion, dress, culture, and economic activities. For example, the Cañar geographic locale, and a corresponding rise people in southern Ecuador began manufac- in the "mestizo" and "white" segments of the turing "Panama" hats in the 1950s, as a way population. to cope with increasing as they slowly lost much of their land to the white popula- tion. The Salasacas in the central province of and the Otavalos in the northern province of Imbabura have gained economic Four indigenous groups, the Awa, the independence and respect through their weav- Chachi, the Epera, and the Tsáchila, live in ings. In the 1950s, a tourist trade began to the coastal region and speak similar languages. flourish in Otavalo, and weavers modified Each of these groups is small and has struggled textile designs and types of fabrics in order to to preserve its ethnic identity. cater to this market. They provide a Traditionally their economy was based counterexample to the popular but on hunting, gathering, and fishing, but now inaccurate stereotype of static, they engage in agriculture for household backward, and doomed indigenous consumption, as well as growing coffee and societies. cacao for export. The Awa (meaning " people"), who are often called Coaiquer after a nearby small town in Colombia, live With increased interest in the world's on both sides of the Ecuadorian–Colombian remaining rainforests, more attention has been border. The Chachi, traditionally called "Cayapas," paid to Ecuador's upper Amazon basin, par- often clash over limited resources with the Afro- ticularly after the discovery of oil in the 1970s Ecuadorians and the subsequent environmental derogation of the region. Eight different ethnic groups Ecuador 73 survive in the region, the largest being various Political Structures groups of Quichua speakers. In the ethno- graphic literature, the forest Quichua are often Ecuador gained its political independence from divided into the Quijos Quichua of Napo Spain on May 24, 1822, and for eight years province and the Canelos Quichua of Pastaza joined with Colombia and in the province. In 1992, the Canelos Quichua gained Confederation of . Since national attention when, under the guidance becoming an independent country in 1830, of the Organización de Pueblos Indígenas de Ecuador has experienced a high degree of Pastaza (Organization of Indigenous Peoples of political instability, including a series of dicta- Pastaza, or OPIP), they marched to Quito to torships and military governments. It has had demand land titles and the declaration of 19 different constitutions and more than 100 Ecuador's character as a plurinational and executive leaders, including 34 between 1830 pluricultural state (see Sawyer). The , the and 1895, and 21 between 1931 and 1948. second largest group, have long had a reputa- The political history of the country can tion as headhunters and savages for their abil- be divided into three periods. From 1830 to ity to survive in the face of external onslaughts. 1895, conservatives and strongly pro-Catholic The word "Shuar" simply means "people," and leaders, such as Gabriel García Moreno, held until relatively recently, outsiders, including a dominant position in society. 's ethnographers, used the term `Jívaro" to refer liberal revolution of 1895 (already mentioned to them. `Jívaro" has no meaning in the above) brought in a period of liberal hegemony Shuar language, but instead comes from Puerto over political structures, with the introduction Rico, where it refers to a wild or untamed of new modernizing ideas and economic poli- beast. Not surprisingly, the Shuar have rejected cies. The "Glorious May Revolution" of 1944 it. Related to the Shuar are the Achuar, terminated liberal and conservative domina- who share the same area and many of the tion over the political system, and opened up same customs and traditions, and speak a space for broader political participation, similar language. initiating processes that continue until today. This political history reveals three interrelated themes. First, the 20th century has witnessed Smaller groups in the Amazon include the only three periods of political stability, as Sionas, the , the Cofán, and the defined by civilian control of government with Huaorani. All these groups have faced the peaceful and constitutional changes of power, devastating impact of evangelical missionaries and each of these resulted from growth in the and intensive petroleum exploration in their export economy. Second, has char- territory, due to the roads, pipelines, diseases, acterized political leadership styles, and this has and economic and cultural changes. In had a strong influence on economic and social November 1993, these groups fought back by development. Finally, although the military forming the Frente de Defensa de la Amazonia ( has played a large role in society, it has not Front for the Defense of Amazon Life) and always been as abusive or violent as in Central suing Texaco in New York for more than US$1 America or the Southern Cone. billion for a variety of environmental abuses, including dumping more than 3,000 gallons of oil a day into their lagoons. After being Ecuador's history has demonstrated that bounced through the US judicial system for growth in the export economy leads to a reduc- eight years, this legal suit is still pending and tion of tensions among the elite, which in the indigenous peoples of the Amazon are still turn translates into political openings and less awaiting justice (see Frente). The eighth and contestation for political power. Conversely, smallest indigenous group in the Ecuadorian economic downturns have led to political and Amazon is the Zápara (meaning "person of the constitutional crises. An expansion of the cacao forest"). Their history demonstrates the devas- export economy led to a period of political tating impact of western civilization, as their stability, lasting from 1912 to 1925, but the numbers collapsed from about 200,000 before Great Depression led to a series of coups and contact with Europeans to 200 now failed governments. Another period of growth 74 Nation States in the export economy, this time in bananas, periods of military rule in Ecuador in the led to the "democratic parenthesis" of 1948-60 ( second half of the 20th century Corkill and Cubitt p. 17). During this time, The third break in constitutional rule Ecuador became the world's largest exporter of occurred after the presidential election of 1996, bananas, supplying up to 25% of the global which was won by Abdalá Bucaram, a populist market, but the vast majority of workers, cut from the same cloth as Velasco Ibarra. peasants, and indigenous people enjoyed few Bucaram, one of the richest people in Ecuador, benefits from economic growth. campaigned on promises of aiding the poor, Dependence on a few export products but once in office implemented neoliberal eventually led to an economic collapse, and a reforms, including raising transportation and from 1960. The longest cooking gas prices, hurting the poor but bene- period of uninterrupted constitutional rule and fiting the wealthy elite. Within six months his peaceful changes of power lasted from 1979 economic policies had alienated his power base to 1997, and came to an end when economic and a mass uprising evicted him from crises triggered popular protests that forced power (see Torre). South America's last President Abdalá Bucaram from power. coup of the 20th century occurred in Indigenous and labor movements (see below) Ecuador on January 21, 2000, when an alliance took advantage of the relaxed political of lower-ranking military officials and atmosphere in each of these three periods to indigenous leaders evicted press their economic and social agendas, from power. Antonio Vargas, President of the which eventually led the elite to reimpose strict indigenous movement CONAIE (see below), and contentious control over society. During Carlos Solórzano, a former President of the last five years of the 20th century, seven the Supreme Court, and Colonel Lucio different people held the office of chief Gutiérrez formed a Government of executive, and Ecuador had seemingly National Salvation that held power for returned to the status quo of frequent several hours before Vice President Gustavo extraconstitutional changes of power. Noboa took control (see Walsh).

The populist José María Velasco Ibarra was Rather than playing a repressive role, the most famous, or notorious, political leader violating people's human rights, and in Ecuador during the 20th century and defending the economic interests of the elite, as contributed his fair share of political instability has been common in other countries in Latin to the country. He assumed the presidency for America, the military thus demonstrated the first time in 1934, on behalf of the long- support for indigenous peoples and dominant Partido Liberal, but did not manage popular demands, catching many people by to complete a full year in office. In fact, he surprise. A more critical evaluation, however, finished only one full term, his third (1952-56), reveals that sectors of the military have of his five terms in office, the last three as played constructive roles before. In July leader of his own Partido Nacional Velasquista. 1925, young military officers led a coup, Velasco Ibarra was a charismatic campaigner known as the Revolución Juliana, which who declared "give me a balcony and the launched a period of economic modernization people are mine" (Martz p. 1), but had less luck and social reform, including progressive labor holding on to power once elected. Although he legislation. Similarly, it took military promised popular reforms that appealed to the governments in the 1960s and 1970s to masses, he fundamentally remained a member promulgate agrarian reform laws, and the of the privileged elite and, once in office, junta in the 1970s implemented repeatedly implemented conservative policies nationalistic policies, including that favored the interests of his own class. developing Amazonian petroleum reserves to Logically enough, this resulted in an erosion of fund economic developments in the rest of popular support, and his two final times in the country. In Ecuador, the army is office (1960-61 and 1968-72) led to two of sometimes seen as progressive because of only three breaks in constitutional rule since its development work in rural the revolution of 1944, and the only two communities, whereas the navy is affiliated with the elite and the police are accused of committing the bulk of human rights abuses. Ecuador 75

Ecuador's experiences suggest that there is a in agriculture, defending democracy, and need for a more careful interpretation of the embracing other elements that favored the complex roles played by military institutions proletariat within the framework of an inter- in society. national working-class struggle. The CTE established close relations with Vicente Lombardo Toledano's Communist-dominated Popular Movements Confederación de Trabajadores de América Popular movements in Ecuador have histori- Latina (Workers Confederation of Latin cally emerged from two distinct but interrelated America, or CTAL), which had been estab- bases: urban labor unions and rural indigenous lished in Mexico in 1938 as the regional bureau organizations. Although pursuing seemingly of the World Federation of Trade Unions conflictive strategies of organizing around (WFTU). either economic or ethnic issues, at numerous In addition to the CTE, two other working- times in their histories the two groups have class organizations emerged in Ecuador. In worked closely together. Historians date the 1938, the Catholic Church, together with origins of popular movements in Ecuador the Conservative Party, had organized the to a massive general strike in Guayaquil on Confederación Ecuatoriana de Obreros Cató- November 15, 1922, which the military bru- licos (Ecuadorian Confederation of Catholic tally suppressed, resulting in a bloody massacre Workers, or CEDOC) to champion religious that left hundreds of workers dead. Building on causes and counter the growing influence of this foundation, leftists founded the Ecuadorian leftists in labor movements. Over the course Socialist Party in 1926 and used this as a base of its history, CEDOC has undergone dra- to defend the interests of urban workers as well matic transformations, including three changes as rural peasants and indigenous people. of name: it adopted its current name, Cen- Subsequently, as Enrique Ayala Mora has put tral Ecuatoriana de Organizaciones Clasistas ( it, "socialism has constituted one of the most Ecuadorian Central of Classist Organizations) dynamic ideological influences in Ecuador" in 1972. These name changes were part of a (Ayala Mora p. 94). In May 1944, workers, stu- gradual drift to the left and represented the dents, peasants, Indians, women, and others influence of liberation theology on the ideology rose up against President Carlos Arroyo del Río of the organization. A third organization, the and caused the downfall of his government. Confederación Ecuatoriana de Organizaciones Arroyo del Río's repressive regime had become Sindicales Libres (Ecuadorian Confederation of increasingly unpopular, particularly after he Free Union Organizations, or CEOSL) grew conceded half of the country's territory to Peru out of the pro-US Organización Regional (see above). Labor and indigenous leaders cap- Interamericana del Trabajo (Regional Inter- italized on this political opening to establish american Organization of Work, or ORIT) as new organizations. part of the effort to counter both the CTE and the potential for a Cuban-style revolution in Ecuador. The US Central Intelligence Agency The successful effort to form a national leftist played a significant role in its founding in 1962 labor confederation came in July 1944 when and attempted to control it in order to counter workers, artisans, peasants, intellectuals, and the influence of leftists (Agee pp. 213-14). political leaders founded the Confederación de CEOSL began to flourish during the period of Trabajadores del Ecuador (Workers Confed- military rule (1963-66), when the CTE was eration of Ecuador, or CTE). Communist and forced underground, but it subsequently moved Socialist leaders, as well as people of an leftward, and in the 1970s it adopted a anarchosyndicalist persuasion, played leading socialist orientation. roles in forming the organization and defining its ideology. The CTE sought to improve the living conditions of the masses through In the 1960s, fierce competition for workers' industrializing the country, raising salaries, loyalty raged between these three national shortening the working week, protecting the labor organizations, but in the 1970s they right to strike, eliminating feudal trappings joined forces in the Frente Unitario de 76 Nation States

Trabajadores (Workers United Front, or FUT). Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas de During the 1980s and 1990s, the FUT took a la Amazonia Ecuatoriana (Confederation leading role in organizing strikes that repeat- of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian edly paralyzed the country. Amazon, or CONFENIAE) to defend their In August 1944, indigenous leaders gathered common interests, including land and environ- together with labor leaders, and members of mental concerns. Subsequently, the Shuar have the Socialist and Communist parties, in Quito provided strong leadership in Ecuador's indige- to form the Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios ( nous movements. Ecuadorian Federation of Indians, or FEI). In the highlands, indigenous groups The FEI was conceived as a peasant wing formed two competing organizations, in which of the CTE in order to agitate for peasant the Catholic Church played an important and indigenous concerns from a class-based initiating role. CEDOC organized the Federa- perspective. Although it emerged out of leftist ción Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas ( organizing efforts, the FEI was the first National Federation of Peasant Organizations, successful attempt in Ecuador to establish a or FENOC) in 1968, in an attempt to divide national organization for and by indigenous the peasant movement and suppress any revo- peoples. Although subsequently surpassed by lutionary tendencies. Along with CEDOC's other peasant and indigenous organizations, subsequent shift to the left, the peasant move- the FEI stands out as a milestone in the history ment took over FENOC and converted it into of Ecuador's popular movements. From the a force for revolutionary changes in Ecuadorian 1940s through the 1960s, it flourished as society. In the 1980s, with a rising ethnic the main national organizational expression of consciousness among the rural masses, the highland indigenous and peasant groups, organization changed its name to the Federa- particularly in their struggle for land. The ción Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas– promulgation of an agrarian reform law in Indígenas (National Federation of Peasant– 1964 represented an achievement of this Indigenous Organizations, or FENOC–I), but goal, and marked the beginning of the FEI's in the 1990s it changed its name once again, decline. to the Federación Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas Indígenas y Negras (National Federation of Peasant, Indigenous, and Black In the 1960s, new issues began to replace Organizations, or FENOCIN), to reflect a agrarian reform as concerns of primary broader mandate that included indigenous importance to indigenous communities, peoples and Afro-Ecuadorians. including the defense of native cultures and languages, which led to the formation of bilingual schools; the fate of traditional In 1972, Ecuador Runacunapac Riccharimui ( lands; and the promotion of human rights. To Ecuarunari) grew out of progressive sectors confront these issues, indigenous peoples of the Catholic Church, taking its name from began to form new organizations to take the a Quichua phrase meaning "to awaken the place of the FEI. Whereas leftists supported Ecuadorian Indians." Closely associated with the FEI, reforms in the Catholic Church the ethnic organizing efforts of Quichua-speak- led progressive religious personnel to play ing Indians, Ecuarunari sought to open peo- this role in these new organizations. The ple's eyes to "oppression and exploitation in earliest and best example of this new trend order to struggle for our rights, which we have was the Federación de Centros Shuar (Shuar been denied throughout history since the Federation), which Salesian missionaries period of the Spanish conquest" ( helped organize in the southeastern Riccharimui Ecuarunari p. 3). Its basic goals Amazonian provinces of Morona Santiago were to defend rights to education, health care, and Zamora Chinchipe in 1964. This Federation and basic services, as well as to struggle against advocated Shuar self-determination, oppression, exploitation, and discrimination. economic self-sufficiency, defense of lands, Ecuarunari promoted the formation of coop- bilingual education, health care, and civil eratives and associations at the grassroots, and rights. In 1980, the Shuar joined with other functioned as a development organization, indigenous groups in the Amazon to form the Ecuador 77 seeking to modernize agriculture, develop bi- indigenous groups now embraced identities lingual education, and work on other similar as nationalities with their own languages, projects. customs, religion, history, and territory. These The three main peasant and Indigenous demands had revolutionary implications that organizations – FEI, FENOC, and Ecuarunari – threatened Ecuador's white elite, challenging occasionally worked together around their construct of an imaginary community and common issues of agrarian reform, bilingual shaking their exclusionary hold on power. education, and economic reforms, although Subsequently, CONAIE and its leaders have more often these groups competed for the played a major role in political developments allegiance of the same indigenous peasantry. in the country. It was a new organization, the Confederación In 1995, indigenous leaders in the Amazon de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador ( founded the Movimiento Unidad Plurinacional Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Pachakutik–Nuevo País (Pachakutik Movement Ecuador, or CONAIE), that emerged at the for Plurinational Unity–New Country, or head of the most powerful and well-organized MUPP–NP, also known as Pachakutik) to social movement in Ecuador's history, eclipsing campaign for political office. "Pachakutik," in significance the contributions of previous a Quichua word signifying change, rebirth, labor, peasant, and indigenous organizations. transformation, and the coming of a new era, Founded in 1986, with the intention of orga- was adopted to express opposition to the nizing an indigenous movement dedicated to government's neoliberal economic policies agitating for social, political, and educational and support for a more inclusive and partici- reforms, it emerged as the representative of patory political system. The party experienced Ecuador's indigenous peoples (CONAIE moderate success on both local and national pp. 268-72). Rather than relying on the polit- levels, including the election of Luis Macas, ical left or the Catholic Church for support, then President of CONAIE, as a national CONAIE stressed the indigenous nature of deputy in the National Assembly in 1996. In its organizational structure. In a culture where the late 1990s, several attempts to implement identities and political struggles are over- neoliberal reforms that were designed to halt whelmingly local, CONAIE struggled to create hyperinflation and bank failures but hit poor a new, comprehensive "Indian" or "indige- and indigenous peoples particularly hard nous" identity that crossed geographic borders brought CONAIE and Pachakutik to the fore- and included all indigenous peoples in front of political protest in Ecuador. Ecuador. Conclusion In June 1990, indigenous peoples splashed into the national consciousness with a powerful Ecuador faces the irony of having both a very levantamiento or uprising that swept across the strong and well-organized popular movement country, paralyzing it for a week. Responding and a corrupt political system that repeatedly to official plans for celebrations of the quin- compromises the interests of the people. In centenary of Christopher Columbus's trans- 2000, Ecuador replaced the sucre with the US Atlantic voyage, in 1992, the uprising reflected dollar as legal tender, becoming the third a growing ethnic consciousness and pressing country other than the United States to do so demands for land. CONAIE presented the (the others being Liberia and Panama). The uprising's demands in a 16-point document government implemented this desperate policy that summarized its agenda for redefining in a frantic attempt to curb inflation and indigenous people's cultural, economic, and stop a free-falling economy. Critics, including political role in society. The most significant indigenous peasants and poor urban workers, and contentious demand to emerge out of denounced this sacrifice of national sovereignty, CONAIE and the levantamiento was the call which could only undermine their standard to declare Ecuador a "multinational state" (see of living. The issues that underlay this star- Field). Rather than organizing around issues tling policy, including debates over economic of economic exploitation or ethnic identity, 78 Nation States policies, and divisions between the indigenous A report on the indigenous uprising in Ecuador peoples, on the one hand, and whites and in 1990 mestizos, on the other, developed throughout the Frente de Defensa de la Amazonia (Front for the 20th century. All indications are that the 21st Defense of Amazon Life), Aguinda versus Texaco/ century will not bring any easy solutions to jota versus Texaco, website at www.texacorainforest. org Ecuador's problems.

A comprehensive collection of webpages in Further Reading English on the Frente's legal battle against the pollution of indigenous people's lands, with some Agee, Philip, Inside the Company: CIA Diary, New useful links to the websites of other organizations and York: Stonehill, and London: Allen Lane, 1975 a presentation of Texaco's defense

In this first-hand account of the CIA's activities Handelsman, Michael, Culture and Customs of Ecuador, in Latin America, Agee discusses US interven- Westport, CT, and London: Greenwood Press, tion in Ecuadorian politics in the 1960s. 2000 Alcina Franch, José, "El proceso de pérdida de la An excellent cultural overview of Ecuador, identidad cultural entre los indios del Ecuador" including a discussion of religion, social customs, the [The Process of Loss of Cultural Identity media, literature, and the arts among the Indians of Ecuador], in Cuadernos León, Jorge, and Joanne Rappaport, "The View Hispanoamericanos, Volume 143, number 428, From Colombia and Ecuador: Native Orga- February 1986 nizing in the ," in Against the Current, Alcina examines the process of "ethnocide" in November–December 1995 Ecuador, and predicts extinction for remaining A short review of indigenous organizing efforts indigenous groups. in these two countries in recent years Ayala Mora, Enrique, Resumen de historia del Ecuador [ Lucas, Kintto, We Will Not Dance on Our Grandparents Summary of the ], Quito: Tombs: Indigenous Uprisings in Ecuador, London: Corporación Editora Nacional, 1993 Catholic Institute for International Relations ( CIIR), 2000 A brief summary of Ecuadorian history, with a focus on political development A compilation of articles on the military–indige- nous uprising in Ecuador in January 2000 Blanksten, George I., Ecuador: Constitutions and Caudillos, Berkeley: University of California Press, Martz, John D., Ecuador: Conflicting Political Culture 1951 and the Quest for Progress, Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1972 'This classic treatment of political parties in Ecuador is a snapshot of Ecuadorian society in A general political history of Ecuador that the 1940s. updates Blanksten's analysis of the country's constitutional framework for the 1970s CONAIE, Las nacionalidades indígenas en el Ecuador: Nuestro proceso organizativo [The Indigenous Nation- Meisch, Lynn, Otavalo: Weaving, Costume, and alities in Ecuador: Our Organizing Process], the Market, Quito: Ediciones Libri Mundi, 1987 second edition, Quito: Editorial TINCUI/ CONAIE /Ediciones Abya-Yala, 1989 An anthropological study of the weavers of Otavalo A history of indigenous organizing efforts in Ecuador from an indigenous point of view Murra, John V., "The Historic Tribes of Ecuador, " in Julian H. Steward (editor), Handbook of South Corkill, David, and David Cubitt, Ecuador: Fragile American Indians, Volume 2, The , Democracy, London: Latin American Bureau, 1988 Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1946 An excellent short handbook on Ecuadorian politics in the 1980s A classic analysis of Ecuador before the Spanish conquest Field, Les, "Ecuador's Pan-Indian Uprising," in Report on the Americas, Volume 25, number 3, Pichincha Riccharimui Ecuarunari, 500 años de December 1991 resistencia indígena y popular [Five Hundred Years Ecuador 79

of Indigenous and Popular Resistance], Quito: A discussion of José María Velasco Ibarra and Secretaría de Educación Alfabetización y Abdalá Bucaram in the context of populism in Cultura Pichincha Riccharimui, 1990 Latin America

A brief history of Ecuador's indigenous move- Walsh, Catherine. "The Ecuadorian Political ment from a local organization Irruption. Uprisings, Coups, Rebellions, and Democracy," in Nepantla: Views From South, Sawyer, Suzana, "The 1992 Indian Mobilization in Volume 2, number 1, Spring 2001 Lowland Ecuador," in Latin American Perspectives, Volume 24, number 3, May 1997 Walsh presents and analyzes the events that resulted in the overthrow of President Jamil An analysis of OPIP's march to Quito to demand Mahuad in January 2000 and briefly discusses land titles what has transpired since Tidwell, Mike, Amazon Stranger: A Rainforest Chief assumed the presidency Battles Big Oil, New York: Lyons and Burford, 1996 Whitten, Norman E., Jr., Class, Kinship, and Power in an Ecuadorian Town: The .Negroes of San Lorenzo, An account of Tidwell's visits to the Zábalo Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1965 Cofan people in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Much of the book is about Randy Borman, their chief, One of the few anthropological studies of the Afro- who is the son of missionaries from the United Ecuadorian population States, and his battles with Petroecuador, both in the jungle and in Quito. Dr Marc Becker is an assistant professor of history at Torre, Carlos de la, Populist Seduction in Latin America: Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri. His The Ecuadorian Experience, Athens: Ohio Univer- website can be found at www.yachana.org sity Center for International Studies, 2000