March 6, 2000

Features

Special issue: Election 2000

The First Stone
BY JOEL BLEIFUSS
Vanishing voters.

Gush vs. Bore
BY DOUG IRELAND

Free Ride
BY PAT MURPHY
Meet the real John McCain.

Cash and Carry

BY JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
George W. Bush's environmental menace.

Fair Weather Friends
BY JUAN GONZALEZ
Candidates court the Latino vote.

More Marketplace Medicine
BY DAVID MOBERG
Neither Democrats' health plan will fix the system.

News & Views

Editorial
BY SALIM MUWAKKIL
At death's door.

A Terry Laban Cartoon

The Highest Possible Price
BY FRED WEIR
Russia refuses to learn from its mistakes in Chechnya.

Secrets and Lies
BY STEVEN DUDLEY
After a failed uprising, Ecuador's indigenous groups warn a civil war could ensue.

Dirt Road Rage
BY GEOFF SCHUMACHER
Wise-users intimidate Nevada wilderness advocates.

Appall-O-Meter
BY DAVID FUTRELLE

Profile
BY SILJA J. A. TALVI
Bert Sacks: A voice in the wilderness.

The Flanders Files
BY LAURA FLANDERS
Natural born rapists.

Culture

Bohemian Raphsody
BY SANDY ZIPP
Studio apartments, grape nuts, S/M and Buffy.

Shock Treatment
BY JOSHUA ROTHKOPF
FILM: The cinema of mental hygiene.

Secrets and Lies

After a failed uprising, Ecuador's indigenous groups warn a civil war could ensue.

By Steven Dudley

Quito, Ecuador

CONAIE, Ecuador'sargest indigenous
coalition, has led the growing movement
for government reform. Credit: GUILLERMO
GRANJA/REUTERS

Just 18 hours after indigenous groups had briefly taken power and forced President Jamil Mahuad to step down, they were suddenly ready to leave Quito. Dressed in dark, thick sweaters and donning their trade mark brown suede hats, members of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), the country's strongest indigenous organization, hastily finished off their potato soup and moved toward the awaiting buses. "They betrayed us," one man said. "And in our culture, when someone betrays you, you cut his head off."

Indigenous leaders, unions and popular organizations were the most vocal sectors calling for Mahuad's resignation in mid-January, but most Ecuadorans supported them. Just weeks prior to his downfall, the president's approval rating was a mere 7 percent, and the economic recession that precipitated the massive protests seemed destined to continue. Since the new year, the value of Ecuador's currency, the sucre, had slipped 25 percent, and the president's indecisive nature led few to believe that any decision he could make would garner support in the country's defiant Congress. In the weeks leading up to the coup, strikes increased and several top officials resigned in protest of government policy. The stage was set for what at first glance appeared to be a spontaneous uprising by indigenous groups, but quickly turned into an historic betrayal of the CONAIE and their supporters.

Steven Dudley is a journalist based in Bogota, Colombia.

 

 

 


In These Times © 2000
Volume 24, Number 7