ic debate, or that they should contain articles that run counter to the constitution itself, which enshrines the rights of nature,” he added.
Tragically, protests along the blocked roads led to violence. The Indians claimed that 500 police attacked them which resulted in two deaths and nine wounded by gunshots. The Correa government, the Indians declared, had “blood on its hands” and pledged to carry out international legal action over violations of their collective and human rights. The government denies the police ever fired their guns and reports that some security forces were also wounded in the battle.
In the short run the Indians may have won this round against the Correa government: in the wake of the battle the President sat down with indigenous leaders in Quito and agreed to reconsider mining and water laws. In the long term however Correa must take on the mounting political contradictions which characterize his regime.
Even as he rails against the Global North for causing climate change and seeks to secure vital funding to save Yasuní, Correa seems unable or unwilling to make a fundamental break with the age old extractive economy. For their part, the Indians believe they don’t have enough control over their ancestral lands and natural resources.
How can Ecuador get out of this polarized and vicious cycle? Early on during his first administration, Correa visited the ugly Amazonian oil boom town of Coca and remarked “I think oil has brought us more bad than good. We need to do something about it.” Despite his rhetoric however Correa has not done enough to put tiny Ecuador on an alternative path. Yet economist Acosta argues that Ecuador must try to create a “post-petroleum” economy. “Extracting natural resources doesn’t develop us,” he says.
Nikolas Kozloff is the author of the forthcoming No Rain in the Amazon: How South America’s Climate Change Affects the Entire Planet (Palgrave Macmillan, April 2010). Visit his website, senorchichero.