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we may only find out decades later why some Indigenous leaders opposed leftist governments--the ONLY governments who have EVER granted and protected Indigenous rights and treated Indigenous people as equal.
In neighboring Colombia, where the rightwing governs, mass murder against the Indigenous--as well as against peasant farmers, trade unionists, human rights workers and other advocates of the poor--is still taking place and has been massive--a literal mountain of dead bodies--over the last decade. In Honduras, another rightwing government, there was mass murder and mass destruction of an Indigenous farming community just this week. That is the M.O. of the Latin America rightwing, which has ZERO respect for Indigenous lives or Indigenous rights.
The Indigenous have NEVER had more power over the last four hundred years than they do now, with the triumph of leftist democracy nearly everywhere in South America, and increasingly in Central America. They are absolutely deluded to think that their agitation will gain them anything under a rightwing government, and their threat to destabilize Ecuador unless they get their way in everything is therefore suicidal. When a rightwing cabal within the military and the police forces assaulted and kidnapped President Correa, surrounded the national legislature and prevented it from acting, and proceeded with massive rioting and violence, to bring to down the elected government, certain Indigenous leaders urged others to sit on their hands and offer no support to the elected government--and those voices prevailed in some groups. If that rightwing cabal had succeeded in toppling the elected LEFTIST government, a rightwing dictatorship would have been the likely outcome. HOW would the Indigenous have fared under a rightwing dictatorship? The answer is loss of everything they have now and mass slaughter, because rightwing governments act in the interest of multinational corporations, not in the interest of their country or their people. First, they would change the constitution to REMOVE Indigenous rights; then they would slaughter anybody who objects; then multinationals and the super-rich would take over Indigenous lands outright, and that would be that.
President Correa is acting in everyone's interests, not just the interests of the Indigenous, which will ever be the case in a democratic system. But here's the thing that these Indigenous leaders don't seem to get--that he is SOMETIMES acting in THEIR interests, which have NEVER BEFORE received ANY consideration. For instance, President Correa backs the court's recent decision against Chevron-Texaco, awarding many millions of dollars in damages to Indigenous tribes whose rainforest was despoiled with toxic oil sludge, and is doing everything he can to get it enforced, against great odds.
He is therefore a target of Chevron-Texaco, and of the U.S. government and all of its corporate/war profiteer powers. He must, a) represent the interests of all Ecuadorans; b) not get assassinated (or Ecuador's democracy will die with him); and c) not get bullied by anybody, including the Indigenous, who--if some of their leaders are to be believed--really want their own country. They want to split up Ecuador--split off their lands and rule them independently--but the corporate powers who want Ecuador's oil and other resources, are never going to let that happen. The Indigenous NEED the protection of a leftist democracy. They will not be permitted to survive and thrive as tribal entities without it.
They are not THINKING. They are not WISE. And that leads me to suspect that they are infiltrated. When grass roots groups act against their own interests in such a blatant way you really have to ask who is behind it. Who benefits from Indigenous opposition to a leftist government? Who benefits if Ecuador is destabilized and Correa's government is brought down? Believe me, it will not be the Indigenous.
A word about conditions in Ecuador as to the survival of democracy. I said that, if Correa is assassinated, Ecuadoran democracy will die with him. This is because he is the most popular president in Ecuador's history and has brought unusual stability to Ecuador, which has been an extremely unstable country until now, with governments falling every other week. Democracy NEEDS stability, and if democracy is going to succeed and be long-lasting in Ecuador, his administration has to be the first of those democratic successes. If Ecuador falls apart again, there will not likely to another chance. And I am quite sure--having watched and studied Correa for some time now, as much as that is possible from news reports and other such sources (i.e., at a distance)--that this is why some Indigenous protests and the lack of Indigenous support during the coup attempt bothers him and why he has spoken against them and acted to curtail them.
Protest is one thing--and I certainly support Indigenous protests against environmental destruction. But threats of instability is quite another thing--especially in a country where stable government has been non-existent until now. Stable government benefits EVERYONE. It means pensions are paid. It means care for the elderly. It means good schools. It means employment. And, yes, it means environmental protection--maybe not to the extent that Indigenous tribes want, but CERTAINLY to the extent of NOT ALLOWING a Chevron-Texaco to pollute an area the size of Rhode Island and walk away from it! That's what RIGHTWING government does. It is corrupt. It benefits no one but the utterly callous rich. It leaves devastation in its wake.
Democracy is about BALANCING interests. Things cannot go all one way for one group. Those who want jobs from oil or mining operations, and all those who will benefit from the profits--children, the elderly, small farmers, small businesses, society in general--as they will do, with a leftist government--ALSO get a say in the use of resources that belong to all Ecuadorans. And with a LEFTIST government, environmental precautions will be enforced. The Indigenous are saying that they want more than just a say about these resources; they want more than consultation rights-- they want total control of parts of Ecuador. And how is THAT going to work, if Indigenous leaders themselves become corrupt? Are their tribal governments strong enough, and democratic enough, to prevent corrupt leadership? Whether they are or not, it is simply unfair to deny benefit of these resources to all Ecuadorans without their consent--and the tribes will NEVER be permitted to exercise such control. The only control that is realistically possible is control of environmental precautions and the controls of the consultation process itself. Correa must arbitate among these interests--the interests of other Ecuadorans, corporate interests and Indigenous interests. And that is good because that is DEMOCRATIC and that is STABLE. Lack of democracy and lack of stability WILL result in devastation of these lands, with NO controls.
This is a very difficult thing for me to say, because I truly believe that we, the human race, are destroying Planet Earth at a frightening pace. If I were Emperor of the World, I would STOP ALL OIL DRILLING, ALL MINING and ALL LOGGING right now. Things are that bad. But I also see that the realization of how to live peacefully and sustainably on the Earth has to come naturally, democratically, with developing human consensus and wisdom. It cannot be imposed. And it will never happen unless democracy itself is STRENGTHENED, so that we can deal with the powers that dictate, for instance, gas-powered transportation and other destructive and polluting energy use. No Indigenous tribe will be permitted to possess a vast reserve of oil as long as the Pentagon thirsts for oil and other global corporate predators thirst for oil. It is THOSE powers that need to be dealt with, and democracy--real democracy, such as I see developing in South America, and in Ecuador--is the only way to do it.
The Indigenous have to convince OTHER Ecuadorans to take the economic hit of NOT developing their resources. That is a hard sell. And if they succeed, then Ecuador stands alone against the world, and democracy must succeed in other countries and, above all, in the U.S., to STRENGTHEN the majority's hand on sustainable policy. Well, Ecuador already has many strong allies in South America on preservation of its democracy and potential allies on environmental precautions (if not non-development). Indigenous tribes cannot impose sustainability by themselves. They will be overpowered by those who profit from UN-sustainability--and they will lose any overt war with those powers. Their only chance at passing this, their great wisdom, to the rest of the world is to develop ALLIES. Neither the rightwing here nor there will ever be their ally. (Neither is truly "conservative" in any sense; both are radical servants of corporate interests.) Their only potential allies are on the LEFT--among the majority of people and leaders who represent that majority.
I speak as one who has lost some environmental battles. Here's my wisdom: DEMOCRACY is the answer--and through democracy, the overthrow of corporate rule. It's the only way. And to deliberately threaten a working, stable, leftist democracy, such as Ecuador's--with all that that means, all the effort of good people that went into it, all the strengthening of democracy through alliances that has occurred, all the PEACE that has been established, all the human and civil rights that have been achieved, all the benefits to ordinary people--is the last thing in the world that true lovers of Planet Earth should be doing. STRENGTHEN democracy. Don't tear it to pieces. (And I do NOT mean no civil protest. I mean the aim of destabilization and bringing down a leftist government that was elected in transparent, open, democratic conditions, as Ecuador's was. That is both stupid and wrong, and points to power-mongering and ulterior motives.)
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