Guayaquil, Ecuador.- The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), which called for the anti-government protests that have been taking place in the Andean country for almost a month, stated this Monday that the Government of President Daniel Noboa “confuses dialogue with threat” and “does not listen to the demands of the people”, after the Executive announced on the eve that there were not “the conditions for dialogue” with the protesters.
“Dialogue is not about imposing or intimidating: it is about listening, acknowledging errors, and building solutions with respect and political will,” stated Conaie in a statement, in which it also accused the Government of closing “any possibility of real dialogue” while “fulfilling the demands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the cost of the suffering of the people and the increase in poverty.”
“There are no conditions for dialogue while repression continues. The injured, detainees, and human rights violations are increasing; community media outlets are being closed, bank accounts of organizations are being blocked, illegal raids are being carried out, and arbitrary investigations are being opened,” assured Conaie.
The indigenous movement demanded that the Government recognize it as a “legitimate interlocutor” in future attempts to resume dialogues.
On Sunday night, the Ministry of Government announced that the dialogue tables that had been announced for this Monday would not be set up, as they considered that “the conditions did not exist” to talk with the indigenous leaders of the province of Imbabura, which has become the epicenter of the demonstrations.
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The installation of these tables was announced last Wednesday, after the Minister of the Interior, John Reimberg, met in Imbabura with representatives of the Union of Indigenous Peasant Organizations of Cotacachi (Unorcac) and the Federation of the Kichwa Peoples of the Northern Sierra of Ecuador (Fici), who also reported a truce in the protests.
However, that decision was not accepted by the communities, who the next day stated that “the strike continues”, something that was also supported by the Conaie, whose leaders did not take part in those conversations.
According to the Government, from the indigenous movements of Imbabura, new “demands” were made that altered the “previously agreed terms”, and that, in addition, the roads had not been cleared.
The blockades due to the demonstrations have been maintained for the following days and this Monday twelve roads in three provinces of the country were still closed, most of them in Imbabura.
Influence on Indigenous Organizations
The Minister of Human Development, Harold Burbano, said this Monday that the Government has detected that “some people” have wanted to affect the dialogue process in Imbabura and pointed to Leonidas Iza, former president of Conaie, and Guillermo Churuchumbi, national coordinator of Pachakutik, the political arm of Conaie, as those responsible.
According to the senior official, those leaders would have allegedly influenced the communities to disregard the leaders who reached an agreement with the Government.
For their part, the indigenous organizations of Imbabura ratified their commitment to keep open the channels of dialogue with the Government on the basis of the points agreed upon last week.
However, these groups indicated that they have decided to maintain the mobilization in the face of the “government’s failure to demilitarize community territories and release the twelve detainees from Otavalo, indispensable conditions to continue the dialogue process”.
So far, the protests have left two people dead from firearms, nearly three hundred more injured, and another two hundred detained, of whom around twenty have been sent to pre-trial detention on terrorism charges filed by the Prosecutor’s Office, according to data from human rights organizations.
While the indigenous protests began due to the rejection of the rise in the price of diesel, the Conaie later included the demand for a reduction of three points in the Value Added Tax (VAT) to 12% and the release of those detained during the demonstrations.
Likewise, Conaie added in the strike its rejection of the referendum on November 16 promoted by the Executive, in which, among other things, it will be asked – at the initiative of President Noboa – about the installation of a Constituent Assembly to draft a new Constitution, which has led the Government to point to the protest as “political”.
