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Weekly Report - 29 March 2012 (WR-12-13)

ECUADOR: Indigenous protest march: success or failure?

President Rafael Correa boasted an “emphatic defeat” of opposition forces on 22 March after indigenous protesters and their allies arrived in Quito after a two-week march from the south-eastern province of Zamora Chinchipe [WR-12-11]. He maintained that as many as 60,000 supporters of the ruling Alianza País (AP) turned out in the capital, vastly outnumbering the marchers, despite the support of the “bullying corrupt press and the plundering Right”. The organisers of the march, however, insisted that its main objective was not, as Correa claimed, to destabilise the government, but rather to position the issue of mining at the heart of the national political debate and to give “a voice” to those who disagree with government policymaking. By this yardstick, the march was arguably a success.

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