In Ecuador president Correa is convinced that the biggest threat to “Socialism of the 21st century” comes from what he calls the “childish” left, environmentalist, and indigenous groups, which (he claims) reject modernity. On this basis, he criticizes those who say “no to oil, to the mines, and to not using our non-renewable energy.
That's like a beggar sitting on top of a sack of gold”[4]. When the Amazonian population of Dayuma organized a work stoppage and a highway blockade in November 2007, he declared a state of emergency and put boots on the ground in the region, treating inhabitants roughly and having tens of them tortured. On national television, Correa said, “Zero tolerance to all those who seek to carry out stoppages and generate chaos, anarchists who are accustomed to other governments that allow them to paralyze the country's development when they feel like it. We will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law”.
He then directed his comments to communities affected by mining that have been mobilizing against the handover of their territories. “These communities are not the ones protesting, but rather a group of terrorists”
Ecuadorian politics show clear signs of schizophrenia. The government employs a revolutionary rhetoric, appealing in all its pronouncements to the “Citizens' Revolution”, but the executors of that very process—the ones who, with their struggles since the revival of Inti Raymi in 1990, delegitimized neoliberalism and caused three presidents to step down—are now accused of being “infantile” and of being “terrorists”. The same indigenous and trade union leaders that fought for Rafael Correa to become president now suffer trials and prison sentences. More than 180 indigenous leaders have been accused of “terrorism and sabotage”, among them the president of CONAIE, Marlon Santi, and the Ecuarunari Delfin Tenesaca, who head up the two most important social organizations in the country.
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