The influential Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) has formally declared its opposition to the government of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. Central to the declaration is CONAIE’s opposition to large-scale mining and to the South American Regional Infrastructure Integration Initiative (IIRSA). The confederation emphasized that it is not part of the right-wing opposition.

CONAIE accused Correa of making “racist, authoritarian and antidemocratic” pronouncements in service of a neoliberal and oligarchical agenda, and of “handing over national and indigenous territories to transnational oil, mining, pharmaceutical, logging and hydroelectric companies.” It blasted the President for his opposition to the indigenous movement’s central demands of plurinationality and “prior consent.”

Prior consent would require the government to gain the explicit consent of any affected communities before initiating large-scale mining or other resource extraction. “The indigenous movement will defend this right at any cost,” the declaration reads.

Plurinationality refers to a constitutional recognition of traditional indigenous cultures, including guarantees of bilingual education and culturally appropriate health care.

CONAIE also demanded the immediate suspension of all IIRSA projects within Ecuador, including negotiations over the “Manta-Manaos multimodal transportation axis,” which would connect Ecuador and Brazil with a variety of new roads and at least one new sea port in order, according to one government official, to achieve the “dream of joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through a terrestrial-river route.”

CONAIE is only one component of Ecuador’s strong anti-mining movement, which has organized several large-scale road blockades over the past few months.

Read CONAIE’s declaration (in Spanish) here.