Lenin Moreno warns that if punished CONAI blocked road traffic
09:24 | CONAI yesterday declared his open opposition to the Government of Correa, considering that his political project is not due to social interests.
Quito, EFE

The vice president of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, warned today that penalized those who attempt to block roads in allusion to possible actions by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAI), which was declared yesterday in opposition to the Government chaired by Rafael Correa.

Moreno, who is in charge of the Presidency of the Republic while the agent Rafael Correa displays a tour of Europe, recalled that the Constitution establishes sanctions against those who impede attention on public services or the free movement of people.

Should any of these situations happens, Moreno said, "definitely take a penalty."

Moreno recalled that the mining groups want to exploit the mine to the letter while the Indians are opposed to it, so it stressed the importance that there is an average like that, in his view, offered by the Government to support mining while respecting the environment and benefiting communities.

The vice president pointed out in Ecuador Teleamazons that the current government is transforming the country "without dictatorship, in full democracy."

From his side, the indigenous leader Salvador Quishpe said today that if the Government fails to comply with the demands of indigenous people take these actions.

"Do not rule out absolutely nothing," said Quishpe to be consulted on whether Teleamazons provides for the implementation of an indigenous uprising.

CONAI declared his open opposition to the Government of Correa, who until yesterday had supported the grounds that its political project is not due to social interests.

"It's an open opposition against the political model of the president. We have exhausted all the space for dialogue," said Marlon Santi, president of the CONAI, after ensuring that they have no "trust with those governments that are not with social movements ".

The decision adopted yesterday CONAI at a meeting convened to discuss the situation in the country, after which he criticized the position taken by the head of state on mining, which often affects their ancestral territories.

Specifically, the organization accused Correa of alignment with foreign companies whose mining activities believe they have harmed indigenous communities.
Santi called on international institutions like the Organization of American States (OAS) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), to monitor the Ecuadorian Government "on indigenous matters."

However, CONAI expressed his confidence in the Constituent Assembly that drafted the twenty Magna Carta of the country, as well as its president, Alberto Acosta.

Acosta, an economist who has traditionally been close to indigenous movements, the majority leader of 80 assembly Alianza Pais, Correa's political movement, which dominates the Constituent.