January 2006 • Issue 386

Ecuador

On a typical Sunday afternoon, Plaza de la Independencia, Quito’s main square in the heart of the colonial quarter, is where families come to enjoy a pleasant stroll. Storytellers entertain crowds while indigenous women wearing elegant black felt hats sell their wares under a hot Andean sun.

But last April, the atmosphere in the square was quite different. It was the focal point of week-long popular protests which finally toppled President Lucio Gutiérrez. Thousands of protesters clamoured outside the presidential palace demanding that the President and his cronies resign, chanting: ‘Que se vayan todos!’ (Out with the lot of you!). Bowing to mass pressure and abandoned by the police and by Congress, Gutiérrez was whisked away by helicopter, eventually finding sanctuary in Brazil.

Gutiérrez was the third president to be ousted from office in eight years. The former army colonel had originally been hailed as a populist leader intent on social reform, earning him much-needed backing from the Pachakutik Pluricultural Movement, the political wing of the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). But after a litany of unfulfilled promises and unconstitutional acts such as the purges of Supreme Court judges, popular and indigenous support evaporated. Gutiérrez’s close ties with the US and the IMF, privatization policies and cuts in fuel subsidies all exacerbated his plight. The dropping of corruption charges against two former presidents proved the last straw, triggering social movements to mobilize against the doomed president.

Gutiérrez’s successor is former vice-president Alfredo Palacio, a US-trained cardiologist, who has promised to regain political stability and tackle corruption. Yet most Ecuadorians are weary of government and view the political élite with scepticism as little more than corrupt self-serving officials. They claim Palacio has made few, if any, notable changes during his first six months in office.

All Ecuadorian presidents need the support of indigenous groups to survive. Ecuador’s indigenous movements are arguably the best organized, unified and politically astute in Latin America. Since the early 1990s indigenous groups have been pushing for political representation and demanding social and institutional reform that goes far beyond the traditional causes of promoting multiculturalism and bilingual education. The turning point for indigenous movements came in 1996 when seven Pachakutik deputies were elected to congress. The subsequent appointment of indigenous leaders to ministerial posts has consolidated indigenous groups as a force in national politics.

Since oil production started in the Amazon region in the 1970s, oil has dominated the economy. Indigenous groups campaign to protect the rich biodiversity and tenuously cling on to ancestral lands granted by the Constitution, while oil exploration programmes and pipelines expand across their lands.

Ecuador is a country divided by geography and cultural rivalry, notably between the serranos living in the temperate Andean highlands dominated by Quito and the costeños from the Pacific lowlands centred around the commercial port, Guayaquil. Yet despite these divisions, Ecuadorians are united in their belief that the country’s sovereignty is gradually being eroded. Replacing the old national currency, the sucre, with the US dollar in 2000 symbolized for many a loss of sovereignty. The overwhelming foreign ownership of the oilfields and foreign military presence, in particular the US air base in the coastal city of Manta, has fuelled further resentment against foreign intervention.

The Guagua Pichincha volcano that surrounds the capital is currently dormant, but like Ecuador’s social and indigenous movements, it may in time erupt again.

Anastasia Moloney

At a glance

Leader

President Alfredo Palacio heads a coalition government.

Economy

Gross national income (GNI) per capita $2,180 (Peru $2,360, United States $41,400).

Monetary unit

US dollar.

Main exports

Oil and derivatives (45%), shrimp (18%), bananas (14%), coffee (8%). Ecuador has benefited from rising oil prices but oil profits are largely spent on huge foreign debt repayments at the expense of social reform and investment. Adventure tourism and ecotourism play an increasingly important part.

People

13.0 million. People per sq km 46 (UK 245). Many Ecuadorians have a relative or friend living abroad due to huge waves of emigration to US and Europe in 2000/2001.

Health

Infant mortality 23 per 1,000 live births (Peru 24, US 7). 86% have access to safe drinking water.

Environment

Ecuador’s rich biodiversity, including the Galapagos Islands, is at risk. US-sponsored anti-drug crop-spraying programmes spew a controversial herbicide containing glyphosate along the border with Colombia. Deforestation and pollution from oil production waste are also major concerns.

Culture

Roughly 60% mestizo (mixed colonial Spanish and indigenous descent). There are more than 14 indigenous nationalities, making up roughly 30% of the population.

Religion

The majority are Catholic. Indigenous groups practise their traditional beliefs alongside.

Language

Spanish is the official language. Quichua, an Ecuadorian dialect of Quechua, is also widely spoken. Indigenous groups actively promote bilingual schooling and there is pressure from indigenous organizations to make Quichua an official language.

Sources

The World Guide, State of the World’s Mothers 2005, State of the World’s Children 2006.

Last profiled

www.newint.org/issue238/profile.htm

NI assessment

Income distribution

Around 60% of people live below the poverty line, indigenous people suffer disproportionately from poverty. The economy’s dollarization further increased the gap between rich and poor. Previously reviewed 1992

Literacy

91%. High illiteracy rates prevail in the Amazonian region. Net primary attendance has now reached 100%. Previously reviewed 1992

Life expectancy

75 years, a leap up from 66 years when last profiled (Peru 70, US 78) Previously reviewed 1992

Position of women

Since 1995, legislation against domestic violence has helped to address widespread violence against women. Ecuador was the first Latin American country to grant women the right to vote. Previously reviewed 1992

Freedom

Community leaders protesting against oil exploration and pollution on indigenous territories are threatened and even attacked. Previously reviewed 1992

Sexual minorities

Homosexuality has been legal since 1998. Ecuador was only the second country in the world to have equality of sexual orientation written into the Constitution. But in 2001 Amnesty reported that gays were being arbitrarily detained and rights groups had received death threats. Previously reviewed 1992

NI Assessment (Politics)

As President Palacio frantically tries to forge lasting political alliances and serve out the remainder of a four-year term that expires in 2007, top-ranking politicians are resigning and more waves of public-sector strikes are looming. The main challenge facing the Government is to rebuild the public’s trust and confidence in an ailing political system and regain political stability. There is a profound common belief that the Government is corrupt and often overrides public opinion.

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