This is an unofficial translation. The original document in Spanish is at: https://confeniae.net/2019/declaratoria-en-apoyo-a-la-movilizacion-nacional-y-en-ejercicio-de-nuestra-autodeterminacion

DECLARATION OF THE PLAN OF STRUGGLE OF THE AMAZONIAN INDIGENOUS ORGANIZATIONS, PEOPLES, NATIONALITIES, AND COMMUNITIES IN SUPPORT OF THE NATIONAL MOBILIZATION AND IN EXERCISE OF OUR RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION

7 October 2019 – Puyo, Pastaza, Ecuador

To public opinion and the people of Ecuador.

We, the Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon, gathered in this moment of pain for the country and our families, in use of our self-determination and in defense of our life and that of our territories, have declared ourselves in permanent mobilization and declared a state of alert in the face of the violent onslaught of both the economic policy, which violate our fundamental economic and social rights; and the police and military repression ordered by the current National Government in our territories and in the rest of the national territory.

We reject the economic measures, called the “Big Package”, and we demand the complete reversal of the letter of intention signed with the International Monetary Fund; the contents of which have not been made public, violating the obligation of transparency in executive acts; as well as the termination of attempts to privatize public companies using a the idea of “concession” as disguise.

We reject that our life territories, recognized in the Constitution, be declared by the Executive – without our consent nor prior consultation – as petroleum blocks, mining concessions, or hydroelectric dams. Our territories and rights are under permanent threat from the greed, destruction and exploitation of natural resources by the State, with many of our peoples under threat of extermination due to demografic and socioeconomic conditions and due to the lack of formalization of our collective property.

We reject the State of Exception declared by the Executive and endorsed by the Constitutional Court and we denounce the severe violations of human rights that we have suffered in our communities and territories at the hands of the State, that include among others the excessive use of force, violations against physical wellbeing, against due process, torture and abuse. This is corroborated by national and international human rights organizations, which have published various reports declaring their concern about the abusive use of force.

We reject the unfounded and self-serving declarations of the Minister of Defense, Oswaldo Jarrín, indicating that in our country, indigenous territories do not exist, which seeks to facilitate the militarization of the national territory and excessive use of its presence, without recognizing that indigenous territories are a fundamental part of the Plurinational State in effect in Ecuador since 2008. Jarrín's declarations ratify that the policies, postures and repressive acts of the current government are marked by a pattern of discrimination and disregard for our self-determination and the extent of collective rights.

We ratify that in the exercise of our self-determination and being part of an intercultural and plurinational state, we exercise government of our territories.

We are not a tool of Correa, Lasso o Nebot – we are Organized People reclaiming and demanding rights, with our own agenda, discussed with our communities and with the certainty that only through struggle are rights won, they have never gifted us anything, thus struggle is our only path.

Regarding the national government's Big Package, we affirm that:
    • The economic measures imposed by the executive have nothing to do with a committment about Climate Change, given that the state continues promoting the exploitation of nonrenewable resources and energy mega-projects as the foundation of the economy and in fulfillment of commercial agreements with other countries.
    • The economy based on the exploitation of nonrenewable resources such as petroleum and mining is the root of the problem we face today. We want a post-petroleum economic model, an end to the expansion of these activities in our territories. The elimination of fuel subsidies does not guarantee a reduction in fuel consumption or emissions. This measure alone will not change energy system, and in our case will only contribute to an increase in the cost of living, as is already happening at this moment in our anguished country. Oil companies' economic benefits and subisidies should be removed, but eliminating the fuel price subsidy provokes severe impacts in the most vulnerable populations.
    • The adopted measures concentrate on weakening labor rights and increasing benefits for large domestic and foreign companies that promote the concentration of wealth and the exclusion and marginalization of our communities.
    • The measures do not help transcend extractivism, but instead promote a deepening of extractivism and alliance with speculative capital that comes to increase its profits in the market with our blood.

Regarding the structural situation of violation of rights we denounce:
    • Decree 884 which declares a State of Exception and has been endorsed by the court does not contain facts that constitute a grave internal commotion that cannot be resolved by the ordinary constitutional regime (articles 121.2 and 121.3) and, therefore, is contrary to the Constitution of the Republic, having the singular objective of promoting the militarization of our territories, impeding our right to protest and resistance, and imposing the measures adopted with the IMF.
    • The governmental decision to extend the extractive frontiers seeks to impose upon our territories disregarding the constitution and by means of threaths and coercion. Thus far, the extension of the petroleum and mining frontiers in indigenous territories has not generated positive results in environmental nor economic terms, the large-scale mining concessions in Napo and Morona Santiago provinces, the start of mining in the Cordillera del Cóndor and the mining concessions granted in the A'i Cofán territory Sinangoe in Sucumbios province seriously threaten our territories and our ways of life.
    • There exists a demonstrated complicity between the executive and the company Genefran S.A. to continue building a hydroelectric dam on the Piatua River.
    • The executive and big business persist in the strategy of criminalizing leaders and communities, there is a recurring practice of abuse of the penal code intended to silence our processes of enforceability and denunciation.
    • Entities such as the Ministry of the Environment, far from fulfilling their mandate, prefer to cover-up violations of collective rights and the rights of nature and generate scenarios that favor extractive activities.
    • Prior, free and informed consultation has not been guaranteed. Nor has our right to conserve and develop our own ways of life and social organization, and to create and exercise authority, in our legally recognized territories and communal lands of ancestral possesion.

Therefore, the demands of the indigenous movement, the labor movement, popular organizations and the people in general gather to advance a program of unity and demands of National Government, including:
    • The repeal of the State of Exception decreed to repress communities and people that make use of their right to social protest and resistence that comes from popular discontent;
    • The immediate release of all people detained in the context of the mobilizations;
    • Suspension of the application of the neoliberal economic measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), because they strongly affect the cost of living of the Ecuadorians who live in the most vulnerable conditions, and the withdrawal of the letter of intention with the IMF signed without consultation and in violation of the right to access public information;
    • The immediate enforcement of tax policy applied to bankers and businesses exonerated of USD 4.295 billion in taxes; payment is expected to cover the public debt;
    • The cancellation of oil, mining, hydroelectric and timber concessions in indigenous territories due to violation of Art. 57 of the Constitution of the Republic, referring to the Prior, Free and Informed Consultation;
    • Fulfillment of the agreements reached in the so-called “National Dialogue” with which we sought to assert our rights, which were systematically violated during the previous administration and whose fulfillment stalled due to lack of political will in the current government authorities.
    • Investigation and sanction of ministers, public officials and businesses for the undue acquisition of concesions and licenses in extractive industries, and guarantees that the favorable sentences obtained by the communities in defense of their territorial rights and the rights of nature will be respected;
    • Full compliance with the sentences in defense of the nationalities, for example:
        ◦ The historic sentence that protects the Piatua River from construction by the hyroelectric company Genefran S.A. (Santa Clara, Pastaza province);
        ◦ The victory of the Waorani people in the protective action that impedes oil drilling in Block 22, protecting 180,000 hectares of amazonian jungle;
        ◦ The sentence in the case of the A'i Cofan of Sinangoe that requires the cancellation of 52 mining concessions.
        ◦ The sentence given by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Sarayaku v. Ecuador.
    • Compliance with the agreements between Petroamazonas and the commoners who patricipated in the strike in the amazonian parishes of Chontapunta, Inés Arango, Dayuma and Cuyabeno;
    • Fulfillment of the “Mandate” of the “Amazonian Women” which was delivered into the hands of the President of the Republic in 2018 and has not had effective responses.
    • Complete environmental, social and economic audits in the areas where mining and oil drilling exist, to establish responsibilities for the pollution of indigenous and farmer populations and total reparations.
    • Support for the development of concrete solutions and alternatives against climate change proposed by the Peoples and Nationalities, recognizing that the conservation of the territories and knowledge of the indigenous peoples is key in this struggle, as emphasized in the 2015 Paris Agreement and the latest United Nations report on biodiversity.
    • Respect for the declaration of the Peoples and communities, in exercise of our self-determination, that our territories are free of extractive activities.
    • Complete adoption of the recommendations of the recent report issued by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous People about the situation of our rights in this country, which highlights serious violations.