21.1.00
Spanish: www.amarc.org/pulsar

Ecuador: Indigenous people with 507 years of restrained anger.  National
Mobilisation continues.
By Marlon Carrion

QUITO, Ecuador - Yesterday during the afternoon and the night the thousands
of indigenous people who circled the National Parliament did not allow
people to enter or leave the area.  A few indigenous people mis-treated some
office workers who attempted to break through the cordon.

At least 230 employees and 3 judges of the Supreme Court, Parliament and the
State Comptroller Generals office and other public agencies could not return
home, because of the human cordon preventing their exit.

Red Cross and even the leaders of the indigenous movement had no luck
intervening in the situation.  Those who have formed the human cordon around
Parliament have said that unfortunately they had to do this to demonstrate
that they will not back down in face of the total militarization of the
country.

When the police posted themselves around the Parliament with the intention
of opening a road so that the personnel from the offices could leave, the
indigenous people reacted confrontationally.

In Guayaquil, the principal port and economic capital of Ecuador, on
Thursday night there was a march of a multitude of anarchists.  It is
considered that there were approximately 30 000 people from the poor areas
of the city, travelling vendors, petroleum workers, professors and women's
and students organisations.  This march served to back up the indigenous
mobilisation.

In Quito, at approximately 3 am this Friday, the Indigenous people tried to
take-over the National Parliament.  The steel barriers connected to tear gas
detonators did not deter them.  This produced a new confrontation with the
military.  Those in uniform had to shoot in the air to detain the
indigenous.  The protesters had no weapons.

At the end of this note, the indigenous were advancing on the buildings of
the Central Bank, 9 blocks away from the Governmental palace.  There they
blocked the roads and were met by the police.  The objective is to reach the
house of government.

The close of the roads in the country is total.  In the Amazonian regions
campesinos and petroleum workers proceeded to burn a car that blocked the
patch of a protest march.  In Quito the Superintendent of Banks exploded a
low grade bomb.  The indigenous leaders said that their movement has no
ammunition, least of all bombs.  Accordingly they requested caution from the
citizenry whose inattention could be used by the government to justify their
repression.