UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX / DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT / M. A. IN LATIN AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

DISSERTATION SEPTEMBER 1995

 

From resistance to organised social movement: A comparative estudy of indigenous movements in Ecuador and Colombia
By  Victoria Juan Candial 

INTRODUCTION
 

Over the last few decades indigenous movements in Latin America have become more outspoken within the national context. The configuration of small communication networks diffused among the indigenous groups together with the traditional communitarian way of life has led to more organised indigenous movements. Indigenous people, tired of being ignored and marginalised not only economically but socially within their countries are no longer keeping silent. Something is changing within indigenous communities and one example of this situation is the current zapatista revolt in Chiapas (Mexico). Some grassroots organisations have become aware of  the magnitude of the problem and have warned that the factors present in Mexico are also present in many Latin American countries like Bolivia and Ecuador and “only a spark is needed to ignite the anger of the marginalised Indian population” (see Appendix A). 

However, the current panorama in which indigenous movements are involved is different from the period of the 1950s and the 1960s. They are no longer revolutionary movements but social movements. The utopic ideology which revolved around the idea of  “revolution” has shifted to more realistic and specific demands like cultural, economic and social rights within the national context. Ultimately indigenous peoples’ claims are not that far away from other social movements’ concerns like urban movements, women’s movements or peasants movements. Despite this, the task of indigenous movements is still a great challenge, like any social movement they seek to “change either society itself or the position of the group in society”.

This dissertation addresses these changes through the case studies of indigenous movements in Ecuador and Colombia. I have chosen these two countries in order to show how different strategies and relationships with state institutions and social actors have led to different outcomes. I argue that firstly, the degree of ethnic identity shapes the composition of indigenous demands and their relationship with political and social actors. And secondly that the apparent unity of the indigenous movements in Ecuador and Colombia is threatened by internal and external factors.

In order to prove my hypothesis the dissertation is immersed within the framework of Social Movement Theory but also highlights the specificity of the indigenous case. The ethnic component of indigenous movements means that it cannot be studied like urban movements, women’s movements or environmental movements. In fact, there is a gap within the theoretical approach of Social Movement Theory as it has developed in the North American and European context, hence one has to be careful in its application to the Latin American case.

In addition, the difficulty of defining who is an Indigenous modifies the composition of the movement and weakens the participation of members within the movement itself. This problem is clearly illustrated in the indigenous case of Ecuador. Sources on Ecuador estimate that the country has an indigenous population between 1 million and 4 million people, therefore indigenous communities could sometimes represent 10% or may be 40% of the population. This huge difference in the data is related to the concept of being an Indian person (pure Indian, Indian mestizo, Indian peasant...). However, this problem is more serious than just a lack of a trustful census. The size of the indigenous population within the national sphere shapes the political and social structure of the country. The case of Colombia is not that problematic because the majority of the national population is considered mestizo and the indigenous population only “varies” between 1.5%  and 2.5% of the total society. In this regard I have used the census given by the Dirección General de Asuntos Indígenas in the case of Colombia and the Secretaría Nacional de Asuntos Indígenas y Minorías Etnicas in Ecuador, bearing in mind that these official figures do not represent exactly the indigenous population. The former, states that in Colombia there are a total of 620,052 indigenous people distributed among 81 ethnic communities, representing 1.74% of  society. The latter, calculates 2’6634,494 indigenous people and 12 different ethnic groups which represents 24.85% of Ecuadorian society (See Appendix B).

Despite the difference in the composition of the indigenous population in Ecuador and Colombia is worth looking at the way in which indigenous people have formed themselves as a social movement in order to demand their political, economic and social rights. Both movements are rooted in the colonial and post-colonial period and the fight of land but from the 1970s onwards concerns started to change. There was a shift from land demands to ethnic and socio-economic recognition. It is at this stage when indigenous movements in Ecuador and Colombia started to take different paths and strategies in order to achieve their goals. Although it is not easy to measure the impact of social movements I have focused on the political and  socio-cultural sphere in order to find out changes within the national context.

The argument of my dissertation is structured around three chapters. Chapter I assesses current Social Movement Theory and its applicability to indigenous movements. Chapter II focuses on the origin and evolution of the indigenous case in Ecuador and Colombia. Chapter III examines the impact of indigenous movements within the political and cultural sphere and why different results are achieved by these movements. Finally I draw wider conclusions about social movements in Latin America and the challenges that indigenous movements face.