CONAIE Demands to the Government, 1990 Uprising: The Pluri-National Mandate
- Declaration of Ecuador as a pluri-national state.
- The return of lands and the legalization of territories for the indigenous peoples, without costly legal fees.
- Sufficient water for both human consumption and irrigation in the indigenous communities and an environmental plan to prevent the contamination of water supplies.
- Debt pardon for all debts indigenous communities have incurred with government ministries and banks.
- A minimum two-year price freeze on all raw materials and manufactured goods used by the communities in agricultural production and a reasonable price increase for all agricultural products sold by the communities.
- No payment of the municipal taxes levied on the small properties owned by indigenous farmers.
- Creation of long-term financing for bilingual education programs in the communities.
- Creation of provincial and regional credit agencies under the control of CONAIE.
- Immediate delivery of funds and credits currently assigned to the indigenous nationalities.
- Initiation and termination of all necessary and priority construction of basic infrastructure in the indigenous communities.
- Unrestricted import and export privileges for indigenous artisans and merchants of artisan crafts.
- National legislation and enforcement of strict protection and controlled exploration of archeological sites under supervision of CONAIE.
- Expulsion of Summer Institute of Linguistics from the Amazon in accordance with Executive Decree 1159 of 1981.
- Respect for the rights of children and the raising of consciousness in the government regarding the actual state of affairs among children.
- National support for the practice of indigenous medicine.
- Immediate dismantling of organizations created by political parties that parallel governmental institutions at the provincial and municipal levels and that manipulate political consciousness and elections in indigenous communities.
Source: Melina Selverston-Scher, Ethnopolitics in Ecuador: Indigenous Rights and the Strengthening of Democracy (Coral Gables, Fla, Boulder, CO: North-South Center Press at the University of Miami. Distributed by Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001), 135.
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