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03/17/2006:

"Ecuador tries to control growing Indian protest"

QUITO, Ecuador, March 15 (Reuters) - Ecuador struggled to contain growing protests by Indians demanding the government abandon U.S. free-trade talks and accused protest leaders of trying to oust President Alfredo Palacio on Wednesday.

Thousands of Indians have blocked roads with burning tires and rubble in nine central provinces since Monday to demand the government end free-trade talks with the United States. The protests have crimped the Andean nation's economy.

"Their demands are not possible to address, so it appears that what they want is to destabilize democracy," presidential spokesman Enrique Proano told reporters.
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Indigenous revolution in Ecuador?
It appears that Ecuadorians are about to explode again against their government’s renewed involvement in the U.S.-spawned, “Free Trade Agreement”. All of the central mountain chain running through Ecuador and all Ecuadorian Amazonia are paralyzed by the mobilizations of indigenous people against the Free Trade Agreement. The capital city of Quito has been brought to a standstill. The Interior Minister has already resigned in the face of social protest, destabilization and repression currently ruling throughout the country.

President Palacio wants to sign the Free Trade Agreement with the US instead of calling for a Constituent Assembly as he promised a year ago. The indigenous peoples have paralyzed 11 or 22 provinces and are marching on Quito. Teachers and public employees are on strike. They all want Occidental Petroleum (OXY) out of the country. The President of the Congress indicated that the government could fall, stating that the country is approaching a “true convulsion”. The powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, CONAIE is heading this movement, refusing to compromise on the government’s negotiations with the United States. President Alfredo Palacio has threatened to meet the protests with “maximum authority”

Rebelión reports that new provinces and students added their weight to the indigenous protests with blockades of the highways. These same tactics were used to overthrow the government of Bolivia last summer, leading to the election of Evo Morales as the first indigenous president of that Latin American nation. Wilfrido Lucero, President of the Congress stated that the country is facing a 'true convulsion'. In the Amazon province of Pastaza, television news shows strong clashes between soldiers and demonstrators when they tried to block petroleum exploitation of the foreign company Agip Oil and occupy it by the force. The protest in Pastaza is primarily motivated by the demand for the government to deliver economic resources to the people.