[ecuador] !!!capital militarised!!! confrontations feared!!!

[Andrew.Bacelis at directory.reed.edu (Andrew Bacelis)]

--- Forwarded Message from "el desaparecido" <desaparecido at gmx.de> ---
>Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 00:11:45 +0100
>Subject: (en) [ecuador] !!! capital militarised !!! confrontations feared !!!

PGA Action at WTO Seattle - http://members.aol.com/pgacaravan

- please spread widely -

Ecuador: 20.000 indigenas in Quito. The capital is militarised. Heavy 
confrontations feared.
By Marlon Carrion C.

			Agencia Informativa Pu'lsar
		Informacio'n para Ame'rica Latina vi'a Internet
_______________________________________________________

QUITO, Ecuador. The apparent calm up to now in the Ecuadorian city ended. 
At this stage people fear confrontations between the nearly 20.000 indigenas 
that converged into the city and the heavy deployed military force around the 
governmental palace.

The president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador 
(CONAIE), Antonio Vargas, said in a press conference that the struggle will 
go on, that the indegena and popular uprising will continue until the ex-
government of Jamil Mahuad comes out of the Palacio de Carondelet and 
resigns to power.

 Vargas said that the indigenas y the urban sectors will not go on their knees 
in front of robbers and corrupt peoples detaining the economic and political 
power. He therefore called upon one single front because only the people can 
save the people. He also urged the police and the military to point their guns 
towards those who plunder the country and not against the people and the 
indigenas, their brothers and sisters.

While Vargas was talking to the press and in front of thousands of indigenas 
gathered at the Agoras of the Casa de la Cultura, Quito, a police helicopter 
threw propaganda leaflets in both Spanish and Quechua.

The leaflets accused the indigenas leaders of being corrupt and wanting to 
destroy the country. It called the indigenas to go peacefully back to their 
lands. This caused such anger and indignation among the demonstrators 
that the police in the sector had to flee.

Vargas confirmed the paralysation of the country in the rural sectors. He 
thanked the people from Quito for the support they had provided so far.

He condemned the violence used by the military who confronted the farmers 
on the Ecuadorian coast. In some places the farmers had one to one 
confrontations with the military. The number of arrests is considered to be 
more than 300 so far.

Antonio Vargas denounced a further attempt of the police to arrest them, 
which was not possible due to the massive number of indigenas. He called 
upon the workers of the transport sector not to let them fool by the promises 
of the government like it had been the case for the indigenas in July 99 when 
they had converged massively into Quito during another uprising.

The Peoples Parliament rejected any dialogue with the government, saying 
they were tired of promises and lies. The Peoples Parliament defended the 
Constitutional paragraph attributing the sovereignty to the people and not to 
the politicians. 

Vargas said that the uprising will not use arms. Its strategy is to block the 
roads and with the support of the oil industry workers, there will be fuel 
shortage in the whole country. The idea is to generate chaos and get the 
people to let the people express their discontent with the illegitimate 
government of Mahuad.

This discontentment has been visible in the rest of the cities in the country. 
For instance, on Wednesday morning in Cuenca, about 50.000 inhabitants 
took the streets and marched to the governmental building. Although the 
police and the military tried to repress the people, the push by the 
demonstrators was superior. Everyone is demanding Mahuad and his 
government to resign.

In Loja, capital of the province with the same name, the demonstrations and 
protests haven$E2t stopped. Around noon, the military invaded university 
buildings. Hundreds of students were detained and several were seriously 
beaten up.

At the moment we send this message, Pulsar was informed of an enormous 
military and police operation in the City of Quito that is trying to prevent
the 
indegenas march from reaching the centre of the City, which is were the 
presidential house is. It is considered that the number of military is way 
larger than it was when expresident Abdala Bucaram was forced by the 
people to leave the country. (Ec/QR/Po-Pi/Cs-Pp/mc)