The government of Ecuador wants to evict the country’s largest Indigenous organization from its historical headquarters. President Rafael Correa accused the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) of using the building for ‘political’ purposes.
CONAIE, the umbrella organization for all Ecuador’s Indigenous peoples and nationalities, has been a key political actor since the 1990 uprising, when mass occupations, blockades and shut-downs forced the government to invite Indigenous movements to the negotiating table.
The house granted to CONAIE nearly a quarter of a century ago is a symbolic reminder of Indigenous struggles for self-determination and more inclusive forms of democracy. These headquarters not only facilitate Indigenous participation in national politics; they are also physical testimony to the construction of a relationship between the state and Indigenous peoples.
The threat of eviction has largely been interpreted as political persecution against Ecuador’s most organized social movement, inciting international solidarity. Boaventura de Sousa Santos wrote a scathing letter to President Correa, defining the eviction as an ‘unjust and politically senseless act’.
Bolivia’s Indigenous organization CONAMAQ condemned it as ‘racist and discriminatory’. Over 400 global intellectuals, including Antonio Negri and Noam Chomsky, signed a letter denouncing the act as ‘retaliation that disrespects the history of an organization to which Ecuador owes extraordinarily deep and positive democratic struggles and social transformation’.
The Ministry of Social Inclusion informed CONAIE of the forthcoming eviction last December. CONAIE activated legal proceedings to retain the house. Then, on the planned day of eviction in January, leaders from various factions of Ecuador’s Indigenous movement came together in a display of political unity to defend the building in a two-day siege. So far, Correa’s government has denied CONAIE’s legal claims and formed a pro-government Indigenous coalition to delegitimize them.
The eviction reveals the tense relationship between Ecuador’s leftist government and Indigenous peoples. Furthermore, it indicates the government’s difficulty in committing to a plurinational state, as required by the Constitution.
The status quo holds. CONAIE refuses to leave its house and has declared indefinite resistance. The denouement now depends on the government’s ability to avoid a forceful eviction and take the high road of plurinational politics.
