whoops

Whoops, kinda forgot bout my little blog for quite a while. I´m leaving in about 45 min for a bus to Mindo, a gorgeous town that houses an amazing cloud forests and tons of huge waterfalls, but I´ll try to fill you all in about the last few weeks of my life as much as possible in the next half hour. Before I start talking bout my crazy adventures to the jungle and the coast thought I´d share with you some of the craziness that is Ecuadorian politics. This article gives a pretty good (fairly left, quite optimistic, thanks erik) of what´s been going on the past 2 weeks or so (if this doesn´t interest you skip down aways):

¨Ecuador’s Nascent Leftist Government Victorious in Confrontation with Right

By Roger Burbach

The two month old government of leftist Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and
the popular movements that back him have emerged triumphant in their first
battle with the oligarchy and the traditional political parties that have
historically dominated the country. Correa in his inaugural address in January
called for an opening to a “new socialism of the twenty-first century” and
declared that Ecuador has to end “the perverse system that has destroyed our
democracy, our economy and our society.”

Correa’s presidency is rooted in a militant mass movement that has been
mobilizing and challenging the country’s ascendant economic and political
interests for years. The Ecuadorian political system, referred to as a
“partidocracia,” is run by factious political parties dominated by oligarchs
who pull the strings on a corrupt state that includes Congress, the Supreme
Court, as well as the presidency until Correa’s election. Even Michel
Camdessus, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, once commented
that Ecuador is characterized “by an incestuous relation between bankers,
political-financial pressure groups and corrupt government officials.”

The central demand of the broad movement that brought Correa to power is for a
Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution that breaks up the current
dysfunctional state, ends the reign of the “partidocracia,” refounds the
country as a plurinational, participatory democracy, reclaims Ecuadorian
sovereignty and uses the state to advance social and economic policies that
benefit the people, not the oligarchy.

Correa upon his inauguration issued a decree calling for a plebiscite for the
people to vote on April 15 for the election of a Constituent Assembly. The
Congress refused to accept the president’s initiative, passing its own law
saying that such an assembly would not have the right to limit the tenure of
Congressional members or any other elected officials until their terms expired
with the next elections. It would not be an assembly with powers to refound the
country’s institutions. Then with the intent of turning the election of assembly
members into a virtual circus, the Congress declared that anyone could put their
name on the ballot for the assembly. No signatures or petitions were required,
meaning that hundreds or more could simply sign up to run for any given seat,
making the balloting virtually impossible to administer.

Correa responded by taking the Congressional legislation, eliminating the
onerous clauses, tailoring it to his original decree for a Constituent Assembly
to refound the country, and sending it the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal,
which rules on elections and electoral procedures. Hopes were not high, as the
Tribunal is historically viewed as part of the “partidocracia.’’ The popular
movements began to demonstrate in front of the Tribunal and Congress, calling
for their closure, and for Correa to simply issue a decree for the Constituent
Assembly.

Rene Baez, a political analyst at the Catholic University of Ecuador, says: “To
the surprise of virtually everyone the popular repudiation shook the
consciousness of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.” Lead by its president, Jorge
Acosta, a member of a traditional right wing party, the Tribunal declared that
the statute proposed by President Correa to refound the country’s institutions
would be the one that would be voted up or down on April 15.

Outraged by this decree, fifty-seven of the one hundred deputies of Congress
voted to depose Acosta from the Tribunal. The next day Acosta and the Tribunal
responded by expelling the fifty-seven deputies from Congress for their
unconstitutional actions.
The people took to the streets in a jubilant mood. Backed by demonstrators,
Correa ordered 1500 policeman to surround the Congress to enforce the decree of
the Tribunal, preventing any of the fifty-seven deposed representatives from
entering. They attempted to hold a rump session at the Quito Hotel, but it went
nowhere, with demonstrators ridiculing them outside by throwing pieces of dried
pork fat at them as they entered and left.

Since a quorum of fifty-one members is required in Congress to conduct business,
the deposed members hoped to provoke an institutional crisis. But because of a
quirk of Ecuadorian law, each deputy of Congress is elected along with a
substitute legislator from the same party. The Correa government made it clear
it would seat any of the substitutes, if they accepted the rulings of the
Electoral Tribunal. Twenty substitutes almost immediately broke ranks with
their parties, and Congress had the quorum necessary to function.

“This is a major blow to the right wing and the oligarchy,” says Rene Baez. “The
‘partidocracia’ has been gutted in the political realm.” President Correa
proclaimed: “The fifty-seven deputies tried to sow chaos in the country…now
they have been sanctioned and deposed. Congress will continue to function.”
While the plans for the Constituent Assembly to refound the country move
forward, Correa on the same day that he declared victory made it clear that he
intends to take advantage of his powers and a more pliant Congress,
particularly to control the country’s private banks. In the midst of the
political crisis, the banks spread rumors of a “liquidity crisis,” saying they
were short of funds and might have to close their doors. Correa declared: “The
problem is the exact opposite: The banks have ample funds and reserves, they
are breaking historic records with their profits, exaggerated profits based on
high interest rates, these will be regulated and controlled.”
Correa is setting up a special commission to investigate bank accesses and
corruption dating back to 1998. “Let’s be clear” he said, “The banks are never
again going to be in the position to break the state.”

With the victory of Correa and the popular movement, a leftist axis of nations
comprised of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador is consolidating in South America
that is bent on carrying out profound social and economic changes at home while
challenging the historic domination of the United States in the region. Correa
has already announced he is shutting down the largest US military base on the
South American coast at Manta, Ecuador. He is also moving forward with the
expropriation of Occidental Petroleum, the largest petroleum corporation in the
country, merging it with the state-owned company PetroEcuador, which in turn is
signing a number of accords for cooperation and joint investments with PDVSA,
the Venezuelan state company.

Simultaneously, the popular movements are moving forward with their plans to
make the Constituent Assembly a democratic, participatory process. In “An Open
Letter to the People,” signed by many leaders of the country’s popular
organizations, they declared: “The Constituent Assembly should be an organizing
process for the Ecuadorian people, including workshops, seminars, and
discussions at the grassroots of society that spills over and includes the
different social sectors, women, the indigenous peoples, the Afro-Ecuadorians,
workers, professors, students, informal merchants …”

“Never before has it been so clear that it is the people who make history. Today
we are at the beginning of an era of popular power, marked by the initial work
of the Constituent Assembly. It flows out of the resilience of the Ecuadorian
people. It is potent and tumultuous.Ӭ

Pretty interesting stuff, no? Back to my travels... Bout 2 weeks ago, I can hardly remember now me and a few friends met at the bus terminal around 7:30 on a Friday night, packed and ready to head to Mindo (as previously described) for the weekend. However after about half an hour of scurrying around the bus terminal looking for the bus we realized that there was not one that night to Mindo. So, we looked around at the busses and destinations we had to choose from and decided why not just go to the jungle, the almighty Amazon? We bought tickets to Tena, about 5 hours from Quito, hopped aboard the bus, and set off for the jungle. The ride there was pretty dark which hindered one of my favorite activities in Ecuador, staring out the bus window and our journeys through the country, but nonetheless the farther west we went I could sense a changing of scenery and smell the jungle´s fresh, damp, exotic air. We eventually made it to our hostal in Tena at around 2:30, and were very pleased with its comfort and location right along a river.

The next morning we awoke ready to make the most of our time in the Amazon and set out talking to various tour agencies about possible adventures for the day. After some time we made plans for a day trip into the real jungle, not just the town of Tena. The trip began with an hour drive to our first stop at a big river which runs through the jungle. Like most trips I´ve taken here, the views along the way were amazing, though disrupted at one point by a quite unfortunate incident. As myself and two others were sitting in the back of the pick up taking in the scenery and fresh jungle air, we were startled by a loud thump and bump of the truck. Wondering what it was we turned around in time to realize we had hit and killed a dog :( It´s true most dogs here don´t have a home and don´t lead the spoiled life of most pets in the states but we nevertheless felt pretty awful for it.

At our first stop, the river, we unloaded our equipment into an oversized, motorized canoe and spent about 20 minutes cruising down the river towards the jungle station where we would begin our excursion. The station was very expansive, impressive, and made entirely of bambu and after a brief few moments there we put on our enormous rubber hiking boots and set off with our great guide whom referred to himself as Mosquito, a native of Tena who´s knowledge of the jungle could lead you to mistake him for Tarzan.

Unfortunately that´s where I´ll have to stop for now, I´m off to another exciting adventure. I´ll try to be a little more timely in these posts!

Take care, ¡que les vayan bien!
Brett