ECUADOR: Church calls cops on activists
Friends of the Earth (FoE) Australia has called on supporters of environmental and social justice to protest against the detention of activists in Ecuador.
On July 10, a group of more than 50 peasant, environment and human rights activists occupied the embassy of the Vatican in Quito, Ecuador's capital, to protest against the social effects of the International Monetary Fund-imposed structural adjustment measures. The action was supported by Accion Ecologica (FoE Ecuador).
The activists were forcibly removed from the embassy and three leaders were detained. Accion Ecologica on July 12 reported that the Vatican embassy occupation had been peaceful.
The protesters highlighted that the fact that the IMF structural adjustment measures include the privatisation of the social security system. This will deprive a million peasants of access to welfare. The Vatican embassy was occupied in an effort to convince the Catholic Church to mediate with the government on the peasants' behalf.
Rather than helping the poor and downtrodden, Ecuador's Council of Bishops, headed by Monsignor Antonio Arregui, lectured the peasants activists on the sanctity of private property and ordered that they be forcibly dislodged. About 100 police broke down the doors of the embassy, arrested 10 and unceremoniously bundled the other protesters into a police bus.
Three protest leaders remain in detention: Jorge Loor, president of the Association of Affiliates of the Campesino Social Security; Jorge Trujillo, president of the Social Security Workers Union; and Julio Flores, director of the Popular Coordinator of Quito.
The whereabouts of the political detainees, who are without legal representation, are unknown. Family members have been denied the right to visit or speak with them.
There is confusion over the legal validity of the police action. As owner of the embassy only the Vatican, or its representatives, were entitled to legally request police action. The Vatican ambassador denied he had given the order to dislodge the activists. Ecuador's attorney-general Marianna Yepez unofficially confirmed that the Council of Bishops were responsible for the order.
Please send messages of protest to: Gustavo Noboa Bejarano, Presidente de la Republica del Ecuador, Palacio del Carondelet, Quito Ecuador, fax +593 2 580 735; and Monsignor Antonio Arregui, Presidente Conferencia Episcopal Ecuatoriana, Avenida America y La Gasca, Quito Ecuador, fax +593 2 501 429. Send copies to Aurora Donoso, Accion Ecologica/FoE Ecuador, fax +593 2 527 583, email <red@hoy.net>.