The Landless, Waterless, Sealess, and Mangroveless People Speak

The peoples, nationalities and organizations of the coastal region have a long history of struggle in favor of life, the dignity of the people and democracy. In this political endeavour, men and women of the region have given their lives for the needs of the peoples who coexist on the coast. Among them we can mention Delfina Torres, Eloy Alfaro, Carlos Concha, Jaime Hurtado, among other fighters who, together with their people, have defended the human rights of all and have bequeathed to us their struggle, their rebellion and the dreams of a just and humane society.

Today, these people are organized in each province, for life, for human and collective rights, for the subsistence of ourselves and for nature as a living space for all living beings. In this journey, which is building paths of freedom, we have called ourselves to unity, recognizing our cultural diversity and outraged by the exploitation of our work, of our territories, the concentration of land in a few hands, the persecution of those who fight and the lack of state policies in favor of agricultural producers, mangrove collectors, fishermen and field workers, the same ones who supply the internal markets of our country, ensuring food sovereignty for all Ecuadorians.

At the beginning of this year we have held large assemblies in different provinces of the region to experience and hear first-hand the territorial problems we are experiencing due to agro-industrial companies, mining companies, hydroelectric projects, among others, who in collusion with the current government violate our rights. We have met to debate, share and build a regional voice that speaks out about their problems in relation to land, mangroves, sea resources, beaches, water and subsoil resources; while it is true that for financial capital, transnational companies and even for the government itself, these are only geographic spaces that can be exploited for “development,” for our people, they are spaces where our life and identity are sustained and we fight so that this life does not become an appendix of the capitalist market.

In this assembly process we were building non-negotiable points around a comprehensive agrarian reform and the exercise and application of human and collective rights. In addition, the need arose to meet in the first REGIONAL CONGRESS OF THE LANDLESS, SEALESS, WATERLESS, MANGROVES AND MOORLANDS, with the objective of strengthening the unity of the region, validating the non-negotiable points and building the political agenda of the coast.

On November 22 and 23, more than 1,000 people, including men, women, youth and children, met together, eager to build a free, equitable and intercultural country, living in balance with nature. The results of this debate were 16 resolutions that can be summarized as follows:

1.- Strengthening regional unity and local organizations, articulating with other regions and organized sectors, impoverished by economic policies subordinated to the capitalist market and led by the current government.

2.-The need for urgent comprehensive agrarian reform, which responds to food sovereignty, redistributes land and water in favor of those who work and care for it.

1. Carry out a National March called by the assembly of organizations, peoples and nationalities of the coast, in coordination with the national organizations of peoples, nationalities, workers, women, students and related social movements to raise and demand compliance with the non-negotiable points and the 19 points of the march for water and the dignity of the peoples.

2. Evaluate the assembly process of organizations, peoples and nationalities of the coast and design an organic structure, with the objective of supporting, giving strength and discipline to the struggle of peasants, harvesters, fishermen and rural workers of the regions.

3. Set up a resistance observatory in all areas of conflict, starting in San Pablo de Amali, in defense of water and our territories.

4. To permanently denounce extractive and agro-industrial companies and the Ecuadorian state for the violation of our human and collective rights before public opinion, the national assembly and international organizations.

5. Develop a manifesto visualizing the problems of our region generated by agro-industrial and extractive companies, which are sponsored and protected by the government.

6. We call ourselves together en masse for the hearings of those prosecuted for the struggle, to pressure the authorities in their exercise of justice in favor of the people.

7. Build popular marketing spaces in unity between peasant producers and city dwellers.

8. Demand public policies from the State for the economic and technical agroecological support of peasant production, artisanal fishing and mangrove harvesting in terms of food sovereignty, in addition to credit and technological investment in the transformation processes of the products obtained in our towns.

9. Demand from the state the participation of indigenous, Montubio and Afro-Ecuadorian peoples in our organizations, in credit and water management instances, among others.

10. Demand from the state a public policy that ensures agricultural and livestock production for farmers, artisanal fishermen and mangrove harvesters based on food sovereignty.

11. Create an agroecological school of peasant organizations for the recovery and protection of ancestral seeds.

12. Promote, in a national organizational unit, the struggle for a comprehensive agrarian reform and its definitive implementation in the new land law, which will limit land ownership, the expansion of monocultures and will put an end to agro-industrial pollution. Promote the repeal of article 515 of the COOTAD Law.

13. Reject the management of the land plan and the carbon market plans. We believe that both plans increase conflicts in the territories and lend themselves to clientelist practices and state complicity with large landowners.

14. We declare ourselves in permanent mobilization for Agrarian Reform and will actively defend the peasant landowners. We condemn the evictions and call for the formation of international human rights observer missions to stop these abuses.

15. Prepare a national congress on agrarian reform with the broad participation of national peasant organizations and social movements.

16. We reject the interventionist and divisive policy of the government within social organizations. In this context, we stand in solidarity with the leadership of FENOCIN who are facing this conflict. Solidarity with Luis Andrango and his political council

Sincerely.

Gonzalo Guzman.

President of UOCE.

By the political commission.

Assembly of organizations, peoples and nationalities of the coast.