Ecuador Revolution update

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

>From what I understand, Ecuadorans are continuing to mobilize against
>their government. Indigenous groups are at the forefront, but other
>sectors of society (oil workers, unions, students, small business owners,
>etc.) are joining. According to an activist in Germany who's been in
>telephone contact with Ecuadoran activists, the People's Parliament is
>still in the process of building the movement and establishing
>communications networks.
Several cities are already "taken" and a march on Quito, the capital, is
planned.

Information in Spanish is available at an NGO website:
http://conjuntos.es.fortunecity.com/social/6

or the NGO Pulsar:
www.amarc.org/pulsar

or through the mainstream Ecuadoran daily newspaper:
http://www.hoy.com.ec/

in solidarity,
andrew

___________________________________
News from the Ecuadoran front:

1.	Resolutions of the People's National Parliament of Ecuador

2.	Ecuadoran Government Repression

3.	Beginnings of an Uprising

4.	Police teargas Ecuador oil workers, students (Reuters,1/17/2000)
________________________

(1)

--- Forwarded Message from "el desaparecido" <desaparecido@gmx.de> ---
>Subject: (en) [ecuador] resolutions of the peoples' national parliament

Resolutions of the People's National Parliament of Ecuador

1.  To install the People's Parliament of Ecuador as a request for democracy
and plurinational representation, legitimate and sovereign: the People's
Parliament of Ecuador is a permanent organ of decision and resolution.  It
assumes the preparation of transition to the NEW GOVERNMENT.

2.  This Parliament does not recognize the set of measures announced by
Jamil Mahuad and calls for civil disobedience and the raising up of the people
until succeeding in the revocation of the President and his Government,
National Congress, Supreme Court of Justice and the Organisms of Control
and the establishment of a government of the people.

3.  The People's National Parliament of Ecuador assumes as a mandate the
preparation of the Alternative Program of Government, for which they
summon to strengthen the work of the provincial and district Parliaments.

4.  The Parliamentarians of Ecuador's people, in representation of the 22
provinces of the country and of the discussed proposals at the district and
provincial level, ratify the necessity of a total change of the neoliberal
model
for a fair, responsible, environmentally sustainable economy, that recognizes
plurinationality and cultural diversity, productive and democratic, directed
towards human development.

5.  The people of Ecuador, represented in this National Parliament, resolve to
practice and develop democracy, real, with true participation and directed
towards a political model, under the principles of AMA KILLA, AMA LLULLA,
AMA SHUA.

6.  The People's Parliament at the provincial, district level, of the
people and
nationalities of Ecuador and the People's National Parliament of Ecuador, will
function in a permanent manner in the whole country, and will be the organ of
political-democratic representation and resolution of the MANDATE of the
people.

7.  The people of Ecuador call on the Armed Forces to respect and support
the actions and decisions of the provincial indigenous-popular Parliaments
and of the People's National Parliament of Ecuador, for being a legitimate
expression and the Constitutional Sovereign Power of the People.

Given and signed in Quito, capital of the Republic of Ecuador, in the session
of the People's National Parliament of Ecuador, January 11, 2000.

Mns. Alberto Luna Tobar. S.
President

Antonio Vargas
Vice President

Napoleon Saltos
Secretary

Manuel Castro
Pro-secretary
################


(2)	Ecuadoran Government Repression

--- Forwarded Message from "el desaparecido" <desaparecido@gmx.de> ---
>Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 03:04:36 +0100
>Subject: [ecuador] Day of Uprising 17.1

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

spanish original : www.amarc.org/pulsar

Information for Latin America via Internet
_________________________________________________
Ecuador: In a day of indigenous uprising, popular leaders and unionists are
oppressed by security forces.
By Marlon Carrión C.
_________________________________________________
QUITO, Ecuador. - In response to the uprising of the indigenous people of
Ecuador, the government put into practice a National State of Emergency,
which had been in fact declared several days ago.

In the early morning hours three union and popular leaders were arrested by
masked policemen.  The detentions were effected by members of public
security who forcibly broke into the houses of Luis Villacís, Ciro Guzmán y
José Chávez.  Doors and windows were smashed.  The detainees say and their
families say that the arms-brandishing agents hit them and threatened them
with death.

Since there is a State of Emergency, the detainees will be taken before a
military tribunal instead of a civil court.  They are being held on charges
of endangering the internal security of the State.

For its part, the Conference of Indigenous Nations of Ecuador said that its
vice-president, Ricardo Ulcuango, had to be removed to an unknown location
after having escaped government agents who had captured him.

The same sort of situation is occuring with the leaders of the Coordinator
of Social Movements, which in conjunction with the Conaie declared the
popular and indigenous uprising for the overthrow of  President Jamil
Mahaud.
Monsignor Albertos Luna Tobar, President of the National Parliament of the
People of Ecuador,  protested and rejected the actions of the police and the
military in detaining the union leaders.  Other political leaders have made
similar protests.

The Popular Parliament is a democratic forum composed of indigenous natives,
farmers and city people, that rejects the economic politics of Mahaud.  The
Popular Parliament has called for civil disobedience.

Repression by state security forces against the demonstrators is taking
shape.  The mountainous region of Ecuador, with its high indigenous
population, is totally militarized, and clashes between indigenous people
and the military have taken place, but the Ecuadoran press has suppressed
the information.

The Conaie and the other social movements asks that the international
community maintains vigilance  over the repression ordered by President
Jamil Mahaud and carried out  by the National Police and the military.
##############

(3)

--- Forwarded Message from "el desaparecido" <desaparecido@gmx.de> ---
>Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 03:02:19 +0100
>Subject: (en) [ecuador] beginnning of popular indigenous uprising 15.1
PGA Action at WTO Seattle - http://members.aol.com/pgacaravan


National Parliament of the Peoples of Ecuador

Quito, January 15, 2000
PRESS BULLETIN

Mahuad must leave office in order to prevent a social convulsion
BEGINING OF POPULAR-INDIGENOUS UPRISING

The popular-indigenous uprising called by the National Parliament of
the Peoples of Ecuador against the "dollarization," coruption,
privitization, and the empoverishing of the country started at 0 hour
today with the closing of roads in several provinces and the
mobilization of thousands of indigenous people on an encounter with
the peoples of Ecuador in Quito; Antonio Vargas, Parliament
Presiden, insisted thet the only maner in to avoid a social convulsion is
if Mahuad and his government give way to the desires of the peoples
of Ecuador.

While Mahuad reads his testament before a corrupt Parliament, of
hunger, "dollarization," speculation and privitization, we the peoples
of Ecuador have convened ourselves in this Parliament of solidarity, of
many-nationalities, of a new Ecuador, democratic, economically
productiveand with millenary ethical principles, that is the difference
between our proposal and that of the the corrupt politicians, pointed
out Vargas.

On his part, Napoleón Saltos, spokesperson for the Coordinator of
Social Movements (Coordinadora de Movimientos Sociales),
emphasized the democratic character of this proposal and states being
sure that men and women will join this movement for a new Ecuador,
and with more reason when the cost of food products has increased
about 60% to 80% in price as consequence of the "dollarization,"
consequences which will be intolerable when the price of gas and food
products become unfrozen. At the same time, he gave thanks to the
Eclesiastical  Community of the Religous (Comunidad Eclesiástica de
Religiosos), whom in an unpublished event, manifested their total
support with the peoples of Ecuador in this sovereign search for a just
and democratic future.

On their part, the oil workers iniciated their actions of protest with the
paralization of La Libertad Refinery (Refinería La Libertad) and
anounced that by January 17th it will add the rest of the areas of the
oil-industry, progresively, until reaching a total halt. The
CONFENIAE (  Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas de la
Amazonía Ecuatoriana), the Confederacy for the Indigenous Nations
of the Ecuadorian Amazons, the Amazon Defense Front and  the oil
workers declared that this decisions is undeclinable for no privitization
of the oil and for the life of the Amazon.

As part of the general uprising, major and smalll markets will close
their doors next Monday Januray 17th. The Farmworker Social Health
Centers (Seguro Social Campesino) on its behalf has already initiated
measures in Manabí, Carchi and other provinces. Neighborhoods,
communities, health workers, public and industry works electritians,
students, christian communities and universities are ready to initiate
marches all over the country, under the proposal convoked by the
National Parliament of the Peoples of Ecuador .

On Monday January 17th, in the presence of Monsigneur Alberto Luna Tobar,
the amplified Parlament will be instated, while the Permanent Comission
(Comisión Permanente) has remained in session without a rest since
Tuesday January 11th, the day of its instalation. The aproved
decrees refer to: state deragoutory for emergency; civil disobidience
against the "dollarization";  judicial and civil indictments
against Jamil Mahuad for treason; a total fight against corruption, who's
power is delegated to the provincial parliaments and the National
Parliament of the Peoples of Ecuador.
##############

(4)


--- Forwarded Message from "el desaparecido" <desaparecido@gmx.de> ---
>Subject: [ecuador] (en) Police teargas Ecuador oil workers, students

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

Police teargas Ecuador oil workers, students

By Carlos A. DeJuana


QUITO, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Ecuadorean police teargassed about 700 oil workers
and students on Monday who were protesting President Jamil Mahuad's economic
reforms, including plans to use the U.S. dollar for all large transactions.

Police fired dozens of rounds of tear gas as the protesters marched toward
the government palace, scattering the students and workers up side streets
and into a nearby park.

Just a few blocks away, Mahuad met with international advisers to discuss his
plan to adopt the U.S. dollar as the Andean country's currency. He is hoping
the shock measure will lead Ecuador out of its worst economic crisis in
decades.

The police are part of the 30,000 government forces who have been guarding
Ecuador's highways, city streets and key government buildings since Friday
for fear of protests by oil workers and indigenous groups demanding Mahuad's
ouster.

Oil workers went on strike on Monday morning to press for Mahuad's
resignation and for better terms for state-owned Petroecuador, the country's
largest source of revenue. Unions allege his government has been using oil
revenues to finance bad economic policies rather than reinvesting in the
industry.

Highland Indian groups have vowed to block roads and eventually march on
Quito to paralyse the capital by midweek unless Mahuad, Congress and the
Supreme Court step down.

But life proceeded at an almost normal pace on Monday in this nation of 12.4
million, with almost all main roads open and only small incidents reported in
Ecuador's provinces.

``Truck drivers tell us that some secondary roads are blocked in part, but
the main highways are open,'' said Luis Tipon, a Quito fruit and vegetable
wholesaler.

In the city of Cuenca, a small bomb was set off at about 3 a.m. (0800 GMT) on
Monday at the door of the headquarters of Mahuad's Popular Democracy party,
but damage was minimal and no injuries were reported, police said.

In Guayaquil, Ecuador's main business city, union workers and small
businessmen marched against Mahuad's dollar proposal and threw tomatoes at
onlookers who refused to join them.

But the protests failed to paralyse the country as the indigenous groups have
promised. Indigenous groups, helped by transport workers, paralysed Quito for
nearly two weeks last July after Mahuad proposed higher gasoline prices.

Analysts say Mahuad's ``dollarization'' plan announced on Jan. 9 may have
gained him the upper hand. Under the move, the dollar would be used for all
large transactions. The beleaguered sucre, which has fallen to 25,000 sucres
to the dollar from 7,000 a year ago, would be used only for small purchases.

Mahuad, a Harvard-trained lawyer, says the move will slash inflation and
boost investment for a country the size of Italy but whose economic output
nearly equals its foreign debt load.

Mahuad has had a tough 17 months in office as Ecuador's economy sank into
crisis because of bad weather, poor export prices, international financial
turmoil and a banking crisis. The economy shrank 7.5 percent in 1999.

But although recent polls show Mahuad's popularity has rebounded from a low
prior to his announcement, the 50-year-old leader must convince Ecuador's
impoverished population that a dollar economy will improve their lives.

``We're all going to protest against Mahuad,'' said Maria Sepeda, an Indian
woman working in Quito's market. ``I don't known when, but we're going to go
out on the streets.''