DPM calls on indigenous "do not play on the right"
5/14/2008

Quito, EFE

The Popular Democratic Movement (MPD), leftist, today urged the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAI) "do not play on the right" to declare opposition to the Government chaired by Rafael Correa.

The national director of the MPD, Luis Villacis, told Efe that at this moment requires greater unity to fight the "real enemies of the people" which in their view, are "the U.S. government, the president of Colombia, lvaro Uribe, and the Ecuadorian right. "

Therefore, Villacis said to be maintaining the unity of the people and avoid fragmentation as they could be with the decision of CONAI.

The MPD, which supports the Government considers that the enemy of the people is the sector that do not want change, as well as "all expressions of neoliberalism embodied in Ecuadorian leaders on the right," he said Villacis.

He reiterated the need to continue "tightly united, the whole trend of left, democratic and patriotic, in support of the momentous changes that are being implemented in the National Constituent Assembly".

Those changes, he said, are "in the search for an Ecuador with sovereignty, social justice, education, health and equal opportunities for workers and Peoples of Ecuador."

Villacis said to be willing to lead, next week, a meeting between representatives of the Government, the CONAI and leftist groups, among others, to analyze the current situation in the country.

The vice president of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, warned today that penalized those who attempt to block roads in allusion to possible actions 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 Correa while he toured 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."

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.

The number of Indians in Ecuador and is not very precise calculations ranging from 10 percent of some official statistics 35 per cent indicated that some organizations of the nearly 14 million Ecuadorians.


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