quote:

---

The president of Ecuador says he will not yield to Indian protesters who are demanding that he ends free-trade talks with the United States.

Alfredo Palacio also accused the thousands of protesters gathering in the cities of trying to topple his government.

Police fired teargas to disperse the Indians who have blocked roads with burning tyres and rubble in eight central provinces since Monday.

Palacio said in a pre-recorded statement broadcast late on Wednesday: "The free-trade deal is in the middle of negotiations and the Ecuadorean government cannot assume any compromise to sign it or not while there are still issues to be resolved."

The protests were a "political imposition aimed to dissolving the nation", Palacio said.

[...]

The protests are starting to hurt the economy. Basic food deliveries of corn, potatoes and milk have been disrupted in the central provinces where traffic is blocked and Ecuadorean flower farmers are struggling to transport their shipments.

Protesters using sticks fought briefly with security forces and at least one person was injured by a teargas canister, a police spokesman said.

The demonstrations have gathered force as hundreds of Indians walked down from hamlets in the Andes mountains to join the blockades. They say a trade deal will put them at a disadvantage with US farmers and disrupt their culture.

Government officials have promised Indian leaders a series of meetings this week to discuss the impact of the trade pact before negotiations resume in Washington on 23 March. But protesters said the proposals were not enough.

Palacio has struggled with a series of protests and strikes as a presidential election looms in October. Last week, oil contract workers at state oil firm Petroecuador went on strike and briefly curbed the country's vital crude production.

Activists are also demanding the immediate expulsion of Occidental Petroleum Corp, which the government accuses of improperly transferring an oilfield to another company.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by rici:

As part of the negotiations to end the strike, the Ecuadorian government agreed to fund projects totalling more than US$45 million, including irrigation, road-building, environmental and water and sanitation projects. I believe that negotations are still continuing with some communities, so the total might end up being higher.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hephaestion:

Those projects should prolly have been undertaken anyway, regardless.

---

Yes, I think there is little doubt about that. Palacio (Ecuador's president) said, as usual, that he would not negotiate with protestors, so I suppose that officially the approval of the projects is just a coincidence

By the way, there have been some Canadians working with Latin American organizations on free trade issues; I don't know if the CoC is officially involved but it wouldn't surprise me. It would be useful to have more public debate in Canada about the consequences of NAFTA.

There is a lot of opposition to FTAs inside the United States, but unfortunately much of it is based on insular arguments and anti-hispanicism; unfortunately, asserting that the FTA will "hurt the US" effectively supports the pro-FTA forces in Latin America because it reinforces the argument that Latin America will gain.

[ 17 March 2006: Message edited by: rici ]

quote:

---

unfortunately, asserting that the FTA will "hurt the US" effectively supports the pro-FTA forces in Latin America because it reinforces the argument that Latin America will gain.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hephaestion:

I think an argument that would convince people from Inuvik to the Cape is that would hurt us *all* -- with the exception of the very wealthy.

That has the added advantage of being true.

---

Sure.

Thread-drift: Just as an example of the problem, here's the glorious Patrick Buchanan weighing in against CAFTA.

quote:

---

Non-Hispanic whites, over 70 percent of the labor force, saw only a 1 percent employment increase in 2005. Hispanics, half of whom are foreign born, saw a 4.7 percent increase. As Hispanics will work for less in hospitals and hospices, and as waiters and waitresses, they are getting the new jobs.

...

What is going on? Hispanic immigrants are crowding out black Americans in the unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled job market. And millions of our better jobs are being lost to imports and outsourcing.

---

With a large number of poor it is going to be tough to sell the mantra that privatization will bring benefits for the poor, they know expoitation when they see it. They may be poor but not stupid.

[ 17 March 2006: Message edited by: eau ]

quote:

---

Today (Friday), the president of Ecuador, Alfredo Palacio, designated Felipe Vega as the new Interior Minister to replace Alfredo Castillo, who resigned the post Wednesday during the massive indigenous protest.

The Presidential Press Secretary, Enrique Proaño, indicated that Vega, up to now vice-minister, will assume the post left by Castillo, who revealed that there had been strong political pressure to force his departure.

Vega, the fifth Interior minister during Palacio's ten months in the presidency, will take possession of the post next Monday, Proaño added.

Castillo resigned after having said that the indigenous [protestors] "were right" to demand that the negotiations of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States be "much clearer".

---

The problem is that it's hard to know what is not being covered in Canadian media, much less what babblers might be interested in knowing about.

Some years ago, I was at a party with a Canadian journalist who was covering the Peruvian election (a previous election), and I said that it was a drag that there was so little coverage of Perú and Latin America, in general, in the Canadian media. He said that he'd tried repeatedly to sell stories about Perú, but that the editors didn't want them because the situation was just too complicated; they didn't want to have to print all the background information to explain things.

An election is relatively easy to cover; there are winners and losers, and you can make simplistic generalizations about them. Other stories, probably more important ones, are just too confusing.

Yesterday there was a demonstration in Quito, organized by the business sector, in favour of the TLC (Tratado de Libre Comercio, or free trade agreement). It attracted about 4,000 people, according to all reports I've seen. Of course, it is clear which side business is on, but I think the turn-out was not surprising. A week ago, Álvaro Uribe went to Bolivia to break some bad news to Evo Morales: with the TLC (Colombia-US), Colombia will no longer buy soya from Bolivia, a major blow to Bolivia, and not just to agribusiness.

Of course, that's blackmail, and so far Morales is standing up to it, despite protests in Bolivia. It is precisely the sort of "divide-and-conquer" strategy so beloved by the US administration. In Bolivia, as in Ecuador, there is a high degree of anti-imperialism. But anti-imperialism is one thing, and losing an income is another.

quote:

---

Originally posted by rici:

The problem is that it's hard to know what is not being covered in Canadian media, much less what babblers might be interested in knowing about.

Well, that's the thing, eh? That's what rabble/babble is all about -- news for the rest of us.

...a major blow to Bolivia, and not just to agribusiness.

I *loathe* that "word"...

The hope, of course, is that another market can be found for Bolivian soya, but it will not be easy, and there is not much time. What are Morales' options under these circumstances? What would you do in his shoes?

I'd be turning to Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro to see if they had any friendly suggestions...

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hephaestion:
I *loathe* that "word"...

Sorry. What word would you prefer? "Capitalists involved in exploitation of agriculture" is a bit prolix

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hephaestion:
I'd be turning to Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro to see if they had any friendly suggestions...

---

I'm sure he has. But realistically, neither Cuba nor Venezuela are in a position to provide an alternative market, as far as I know. Venezuela has already agreed to an oil-for-soy trade deal, so it's not clear that there is much more potential.

Soybeans are Bolivia's single largest crop (almost 60% of agricultural production), and the domestic market accounts for only 15% of production. Almost all processing is done in the country. It is by far Bolivia's largest agricultural export, and the second largest export, accounting for 19% of total exports. Most of the soybean is exported to other members of CAN.

Complicating the situation, almost all of the soybean production is in the Santa Cruz region. Santa Cruz is the richest part of the country, and there is a strong independentist movement, lead by Santa Cruz business (this has been going on for a long time, it didn't start with Morales' victory). Pressure from Santa Cruz forced the inclusion of a referendum on the designation of autonomous areas into the vote for the Constitutional Assembly, due to be held later this year.

quote:

---

Originally posted by rici:

Sorry. What word would you prefer? "Capitalists involved in exploitation of agriculture" is a bit prolix

I prefer to call it what it is -- corporate farming, supported by the state. Or sharecropping, in some instances. Or maybe corporate feudalism, with peons/serfs doing the labour. Whatever you wanna call it, it';s more destructive to the long term viability of the land AND is less efficient than smaller family-owned farms, and nations and people allow it at their own peril.

Soybeans are Bolivia's single largest crop (almost 60% of agricultural production), and the domestic market accounts for only 15% of production.

Yowsers. Have they never considered diversifying their crops? They should, big time.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hephaestion:
I prefer to call it what it is -- corporate farming, supported by the state. Or sharecropping, in some instances. Or maybe corporate feudalism, with peons/serfs doing the labour. Whatever you wanna call it, it';s more destructive to the long term viability of the land AND is less efficient than smaller family-owned farms, and nations and people allow it at their own peril.

---

When I said "agribusiness", I was thinking of the large landowners, but mostly of the processing and export industries (eg. oil-crushing). There are quite a few small producers, as well, but I doubt whether they make up a majority of the soy production.

In the Bolivian context, I don't know that "supported by the state" is a particularly accurate phrase. Unlike North America and Europe, Bolivia does not have any sort of farm subsidies; it has very little in the way of agricultural extension services or research; it doesn't even have much of a transportation infrastructure. This is precisely why it cannot compete with the highly-subsidized US soy producers.[/QB][/QUOTE]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hephaestion:
Yowsers. Have they never considered diversifying their crops? They should, big time.

---

The spectacular growth of soybean production was basically the result of the fact that international prices rose and the crop became marketable. There isn't really a national agricultural policy, and given the state's limited resources (see above), there are not really mechanisms available to implement one anyway.

Remember that Bolivia is a small, poor, landlocked country. This limits its options quite a bit. Although I agree with you, and I suspect "Bolivia" does too, there is no obvious crop to diversify into. Cotton has at times been an important export crop, but international prices fluctuate a lot and when they're low, as they are now, it is not very profitable.

Small land-holders -- and there are a lot of small land-holders in Bolivia -- primarily grow for personal consumption, but they are highly flexible in what they will grow for sale. Small farms are largely unmechanised and not particularly specialised, so the cost of shifting to a different crop is relatively low.

Processing plants, on the other hand, are more expensive and more specialized, so shifting the economy away from soybean-crushing would take more effort.

quote:

---

With new blockades of the mountain roads in the country's interior, Ecuadorian indigenous people today reactivated the protest to reject a possible signing of the TLC with the US, and to demand the exit of the US petroleum company Occidental (Oxy).

The protest, which started a week ago but four days later had subsided, was reactivated this morning with the blockade of highways in provinces such as Carchi, Chimborazo, Tungurahua, Cotopaxi, Azuay and Zamora.

The indigenous leader Lourdes Tibán said today that the protest has as its only objective that Ecuador suspend the negotiations with Washington, ongoing since 2004, to sign a TLC, which indigenous people believe will be prejudicial to countries with less developed economies, like Ecuador.

The President's Press Secretary, Enrique Proaño, noted today that Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarrín has announced a progressive increase in control of the protests.

Numerous indigenous people have arrived in the Ecuadorian capital [Quito] to put pressure on the government, and have announced that in the next few hours more indigenous people will arrive in Quito to reinforce the protest, which some protest leaders have started to call "the Taking of Quito".

---

quote:

---

The President's Press Secretary, Enrique Proaño, noted today that Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarrín has announced a progressive increase in control of the protests.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hephaestion:
Isn't it "funny" (and not in a ha-ha kind of way) how these people choose to describe a crackdown on the poorest and most marginalized in a society as "progressive"...

---

That was probably my bad translation. The original phrase was "aumento progresivo", which I probably should have translated more idiomatically. "Scaled increase", perhaps? Of course, the word "progressive", both in English and Spanish, can mean either "oriented towards progress" (politically) or simply "advancing / incrementing". Apologies.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hawkins:
Could you recommend some good newspapers/other sources that I should search to find stuff in spanish on the web?

---

I don't find Ecuadorian newspapers all that useful, but for what it's worth the major ones I consult are:

Hoy

El Universo

El Comercio (Guayaquil)

El Mercurio (Cuenca)

A couple of other resources:

CONAIE

ALAI (Latin America Information Agency) (English, Spanish and Portuguese)

Indymedia Ecuador