CONAIE on the Attempted Coup in Ecuador

Written by CONAIE
Thursday, 30 September 2010 19:11

A process of change, as weak as it may be, runs the risk of being overturned or overtaken by
the right, old or new, if it does not establish alliances with organized social and popular sectors,
and deepen progressively.

 The insubordination of the police, beyond their immediate demands, lays bare at least four
substantial things:

1. While the government has dedicated itself exclusively to attacking and delegitimizing
organized sectors like the Indigenous movement, workers' unions, etc., it hasn't weakened in
the least the structures of power of the right, or those within the state apparatus, which has
become evident through the rapidity of the response from the public forces.
2. The social crisis that was let loose today was also provoked by the authoritarian character
and the non-opening to dialogue in the lawmaking process. We have seen how laws that were
consensed around were vetoed by the President of the Republic, closing any possibility of
agreement.
3. Faced with the criticism and mobilization of communities against transnational mining, oil,
and agro-industrial companies, the government, instead of creating a dialogue, responds with
violence and repression, as occurred in Zamora Chinchipe.
4. This scenario nurtures the conservative sectors. Already various sectors and people from the
old right are asking for the overthrow of the government and the instalation of a civil or military
dictatorship; but the new right, from inside and outside the government, will use this context to
justify their total alliance with the most reactionary sectors and with emerging business
interests.
The Ecuadorian Indigenous movement, CONAIE, with its regional Confederations and its
grassroots organizations states before Ecuadorian society and the international community their
rejection to the economic and social policies of the government, and with the same energy we
reject the actions of the right that in an undercover way form part of the attempted coup d'état,
and to the contrary we will continue to struggle for the construction of a Plurinational State with
a true democracy.
Consistent with the mandate of the communities, peoples and nationalities and faithful to our
history of struggle and resistance against colonialism, discrimination and exploitation of those
who are below, of the poor, we will defend democracy and the rights of the people: no
concessions for the right.
In these critical moments, our position is:
1. We convene our bases to maintain themselves alert and ready to mobilize in defense of true
Plurinational democracy and against the actions of the right.
2. We deepen our mobilization against the extractive model and the imposition of large scale

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CONAIE on the Attempted Coup in Ecuador

Written by CONAIE
Thursday, 30 September 2010 19:11

mining, the privatization and concentration of water, and the expansion of the oil frontier.
3. We convene and join together with diverse organized sectors to defend the rights of workers,
affected by the arbitrariness which has driven the legislative process, recognizing that they are
making legitimate demands.
4. We demand that the national government firmly depose every possible concession to the
right. We demand that the government abandons its authoritarian attitude against the popular
sectors, that they not criminalize social protest and the persecution of leaders: the only thing
this type of politics provokes is to open spaces to the Right and create spaces of destabilization.

The best way to defend democracy is to begin a true revolution that resolves the most urgent
and structural questions to the benefit of the majority. On this path is the effective construction
of the Plurinational state and the immediate initiation of an agrarian revolution and a
de-privatization of water.

This is our position in this context and in this historical period.

Marlon Santi PRESIDENT, CONAIE
Delfín Tenesaca PRESIDENT, ECUARUNARI
Tito Puanchir PRESIDENT, CONFENIAE
Olindo Nastacuaz PRESIDENT, CONAICE

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