Indigenous and Presidents Clash in Ecuador and Bolivia

[Bacchus39]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-sabatini/indigenous-and-presidents_b_945659.html

In both Ecuador and Bolivia, the rhetoric of political inclusion is crashing into the politics of identity and collective rights. Both Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and Bolivian President Evo Morales and their broad, heterogeneous movements rode to power by tapping popular frustration over social and political exclusion and discrimination. Their electoral arrival came in the wake of the collapse of traditional party systems that for decades had survived with a near monopoly of power, sustained through closed deal-making and the effective disenfranchisement of vast segments of the population.

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Since being re-elected in 2009 under a new constitution, President Correa has clashed repeatedly with indigenous organizations in Ecuador. Ironically many of those same groups celebrated the 2008 plurinational constitution inspired by the President as the most significant achievement for inclusion in Ecuador's history.

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Now it's President Correa's turn to meet the wrath of the traditional indigenous groups that have felt spurned by yet another government. This time, though, President Correa has responded with bluster, threats and at times an iron fist; over 190 indigenous leaders are currently under investigation for government charges of terrorism and sabotage. The clash is challenging the visions of both sides. On the one side is a notoriously vitriolic, autocratic President who has not only threatened indigenous groups but also launched judicial proceedings against a journalist from El Universo and three of its board members for the publication of an opinion piece that questioned his handling of a police uprising (and potential coup attempt) a year ago.

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Skip now to Bolivia where the conflict today is between President Morales and a small indigenous group that lives in a protected national preserve through which the national government, with majority funding from the Brazilian development bank, wants to place a transoceanic highway. The local indigenous groups in the territory, the Territoria Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure (TIPNIS), claim that they were not properly consulted and that the proposed highway will plow through their ancestral lands--violating their collective property rights.