By Penny Saunders
QUITO — Indigenous people throughout Ecuador have been engaged in protests against a new agricultural law which was approved by the national congress and President Sixto Duran Ballen at the beginning of June.
Protests organised by indigenous people's organisations, and supported by other sectors such as FUT (Frente Unitario de Trabajadores), a trade union organisation, have paralysed large parts of the country, preventing the transport of agricultural produce and other products and closing down bus transport.
Indigenous people claim that the new law will increase the concentration of land ownership in the hands of wealthy individuals and large companies and is in conflict with communal ownership of land as recognised in many of their communities.
The law removes the requirement that indigenous communities as a whole be consulted about sale of land within their communities, thus making the sale of land an individual transaction.
Secondly, the law allows the dismantling of IERAC, the Ecuadorian Institute for Agrarian Reform and Colonisation. While it has had a chequered record on agrarian reform since it was created in 1970, IERAC is considered by many indigenous people to have at times advanced their struggle for land reform.
Finally, the new law does not recognise the majority of reasons which indigenous people use to push for land redistribution, which have been recognised since the 1973 Agrarian Reform Law.
Since 1973, indigenous people have been able to apply for land distribution if the principal activity of the owner of the land is not farming, less than 80% of the area is under cultivation, it is inefficiently farmed or the land is in an area of "great demographic pressure". The new law recognises only the first principle.
Indigenous groups claim that they will end their protests only when the new law is scrapped and the government enters into a process of consultation with them to create a law which protects their interests.
The government's initial response to the protests was to decree a state of emergency, giving the military wide sweeping powers, which has been in effect since June 21. The military in several rural provinces have restricted freedom of the press, shutting down three radio stations, confiscating equipment and threatening reporters.
In many rural areas, the main form of communication between different communities is via local radio stations, and the closure of these stations only angered indigenous people further. The military claimed that the stations were inciting unrest in indigenous communities and threatening national security.
Confrontations between indigenous people and the military and at least one assassination by unknown assailants have left three indigenous people dead and 12 injured.
Since June 24, indigenous people have managed to prevent the new law from taking effect by applying to the Tribunal of Constitutional Guarantees to have the law declared unconstitutional.
However, even though the tribunal declared the law unconstitutional, the solution is only temporary because the law can be overthrown permanently only by the Supreme Court. The chance that the Supreme Court will also declare the law unconstitutional is small since it is dominated by the right wing and forces which support the government.
Since June 30, representatives of indigenous people's organisations and church groups have been involved in discussions with the government in an attempt to end the dispute, but a solution is not yet in sight. The government maintains that the law will be put into effect, and indigenous groups are proposing that the law be replaced by an agrarian reform law which reflects the interests of the majority of indigenous people.