Dialogue Opens Between Gov and Indigenous Movement in Ecuador

"Today, the first two technical roundtables with the government began, we have all our will and capacity for dialogue, but we cannot remain silent in the face of the president's disqualifications," Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) president Leonidas Iza said on Twitter.

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In his speech at the opening of the talks, Leonidas Iza warned that should the accusations and attempts to push a fabricated truth persist; a position will have to be taken. "At the tables, it should be clear that we are fighting as peoples and nationalities for a right, but not linked to the processes of which we are accused, such as drug trafficking," Iza said. 

According to CONAIE's president, acting as a process mediator, the Episcopal Conference should allow access to other actors as observers in the negotiations to avoid any inclination towards a particular party.

Iza called on the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference to request the Executive to invite the ancestral peoples' mechanism through the rapporteur of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

THE STRIKE WAS NOT FUNDED BY DRUG TRAFFICKING. A few days ago, the president of Ecuador stated that drug traffickers financed the National Strike with 15 million dollars, but today, at the Dialogue Table,  indigenous people rejected these statements.

The dialogue process, officially opened today, will last 90 days and will address 10 points agreed upon by the Government and the social sectors represented by CONAIE, the Council of Indigenous Evangelical Peoples and Organizations of Ecuador (FEINE) and the National Confederation of Peasant, Indigenous and Black Organizations (FENOCIN).

The initial topics for discussion will be the Focalization of Fuels, with a particular emphasis on fuel subsidies and Public and Private Banking. Each issue is expected to take three to five days between analysis and concrete solutions. 

Productive Development, Employment and Labor Rights, Energy and Natural Resources, Collective Rights and Higher Education, Protection of National Investments, Price Control, Access to Health and Security are the other topics to be discussed. 

On June 30, the indigenous movement and the Executive signed an Act for Peace, agreeing to dialogue. This ended an 18-day national strike against the government of Guillermo Lasso, demanding answers to the plight faced by the majority of the Ecuadorian people.