Development or submission?
20/08/2009
- Opinión
President Rafael Correa´s government is giving key financial and political support to the Catholic Church to increase its presence and influence in indigenous and other marginalized communities.
On June 12, the Education Ministry issued Decree 1780 that calls for government financial support to Catholic missions in the Sucumbios, Orellana, Napo, Pastaza, Morona and Zamora provinces in the jungle, as well as the coastal Esmeraldas province and in the Galapagos Islands.
The decree states that its aim is to promote the "strengthen cultures, evangelization and the incorporation into the country´s socioeconomic life all peoples who live in the area of the mission." It also states that it will promote the values of "Ecuadorian nationality," even though the new constitution states that Ecuador is a plurinational country.
The decree says the Catholic missions there may create educational centers, obtain radio and television frequencies, coordinate projects with the Agriculture and Environment Ministries and build highways in the areas of its projects. The projects will not only receive state financial support, but logistical support from the Armed Forces.
"This decree is a grotesque message for humanity," said Auqui Tituaña, the former mayor of Cotacachi, in the northern Imbabura province. His government received various international awards for his ecologically-friendly management of the town.
"It cannot be that in the 21st century, the government believes that we indigenous people need them to tell us what to think, what to discuss, for them to make decisions for us," he said. "That´s how those who always had wanted us to submit think."
A secular or religious state?
The decree, based on old century agreements between the Ecuadorian state and the Vatican, such as the "Holy See´s Concordat" of 1862 and the Modus Vivendi agreement of 1937, contradicts the basic principles of a secular state, outlined by the country´s 2008 constitution, instead mixing the church into state responsibilities.
"This decree turns Ecuador into a confessional state," said political analyst and former Finance Minister Pablo Dávalos. "The historical paradox is that this confessional state has subjected its sovereignty, its lands and its people to evangelization, all by a government that claims to be leftist and uses rhetoric of 21st century socialism to legitimize itself."
Strikingly, uncontacted indigenous groups are included in the decree, so they live in the area where the missions are centered, they too, could be evangelized.
"Once again they have given us to the Catholic Church in body and spirit," said Mónica Chuji, an indigenous former lawmaker and presidential spokeswoman. "We´ve returned to the Colonial period, to the time when the indigenous were hunted and dragged down to the Church to get evangelized. The religious missions have now been authorized to search for them, educate them and evangelize them."
"It´s an attempt to homogenize our cultures and values," she continued. "They don´t consider that before anything we are indigenous, of different nationalities. That has more weight that the so-called Ecuadorian nationality."
Evangelicals protest
Indigenous Evangelical organizations have also rejected the decree, complaining that it is discriminatory.
"We condemn the decision to privilege and favor the Catholic Church with resources from the Ecuadorian state, excluding, discriminating and offending the Evangelical population and other religions practiced in our country," said a statement by the Council of Indigenous Evangelical Peoples and Organizations of Ecuador.
The Evangelical church here was a pioneer in establishing education and development programs that changed the Amazon indigenous groups´ way of life.
Progressive sectors of the Catholic Church have also voiced opposition. "It could be that the decree has good intentions, but at this point in history to use words such as ‘evangelization’ or ‘incorporate them into development’ without a doubt cancels out those good intentions," said Xavier Villaverde, of the Ecuadorian Populorum Progressio Fund, a Jesuit group supporting indigenous and campesino communities in Ecuador.
For Dávalos, Correa´s government is conservative, "politically regressive, and regressive regarding rights."
Government policy on indigenous peoples and other sectors, such as women, seem to prove Dávalos´ point, since there are few other explanations for the government´s elimination of autonomous indigenous and women´s development and education agencies that were absorbed by the central government.
The indigenous communities´ reaction has not been enough to call for the decree to be revoked. Apart from some voiced opposition, there have not been other actions. The first demand that it be declared unconstitutional came from mestizo sectors who are trying to maintain themselves in the political spectrum.
Ecuador´s indigenous movement remains at a crossroads: either supporting Correa´s reforms which could benefit them in terms of social services investment, but it could also destroy their culture and identity and status of nations, or deciding to oppose a government which is attacking them — decree 1780 is one more blow to these vulnerable communities.
The decree states that its aim is to promote the "strengthen cultures, evangelization and the incorporation into the country´s socioeconomic life all peoples who live in the area of the mission." It also states that it will promote the values of "Ecuadorian nationality," even though the new constitution states that Ecuador is a plurinational country.
The decree says the Catholic missions there may create educational centers, obtain radio and television frequencies, coordinate projects with the Agriculture and Environment Ministries and build highways in the areas of its projects. The projects will not only receive state financial support, but logistical support from the Armed Forces.
"This decree is a grotesque message for humanity," said Auqui Tituaña, the former mayor of Cotacachi, in the northern Imbabura province. His government received various international awards for his ecologically-friendly management of the town.
"It cannot be that in the 21st century, the government believes that we indigenous people need them to tell us what to think, what to discuss, for them to make decisions for us," he said. "That´s how those who always had wanted us to submit think."
A secular or religious state?
The decree, based on old century agreements between the Ecuadorian state and the Vatican, such as the "Holy See´s Concordat" of 1862 and the Modus Vivendi agreement of 1937, contradicts the basic principles of a secular state, outlined by the country´s 2008 constitution, instead mixing the church into state responsibilities.
"This decree turns Ecuador into a confessional state," said political analyst and former Finance Minister Pablo Dávalos. "The historical paradox is that this confessional state has subjected its sovereignty, its lands and its people to evangelization, all by a government that claims to be leftist and uses rhetoric of 21st century socialism to legitimize itself."
Strikingly, uncontacted indigenous groups are included in the decree, so they live in the area where the missions are centered, they too, could be evangelized.
"Once again they have given us to the Catholic Church in body and spirit," said Mónica Chuji, an indigenous former lawmaker and presidential spokeswoman. "We´ve returned to the Colonial period, to the time when the indigenous were hunted and dragged down to the Church to get evangelized. The religious missions have now been authorized to search for them, educate them and evangelize them."
"It´s an attempt to homogenize our cultures and values," she continued. "They don´t consider that before anything we are indigenous, of different nationalities. That has more weight that the so-called Ecuadorian nationality."
Evangelicals protest
Indigenous Evangelical organizations have also rejected the decree, complaining that it is discriminatory.
"We condemn the decision to privilege and favor the Catholic Church with resources from the Ecuadorian state, excluding, discriminating and offending the Evangelical population and other religions practiced in our country," said a statement by the Council of Indigenous Evangelical Peoples and Organizations of Ecuador.
The Evangelical church here was a pioneer in establishing education and development programs that changed the Amazon indigenous groups´ way of life.
Progressive sectors of the Catholic Church have also voiced opposition. "It could be that the decree has good intentions, but at this point in history to use words such as ‘evangelization’ or ‘incorporate them into development’ without a doubt cancels out those good intentions," said Xavier Villaverde, of the Ecuadorian Populorum Progressio Fund, a Jesuit group supporting indigenous and campesino communities in Ecuador.
For Dávalos, Correa´s government is conservative, "politically regressive, and regressive regarding rights."
Government policy on indigenous peoples and other sectors, such as women, seem to prove Dávalos´ point, since there are few other explanations for the government´s elimination of autonomous indigenous and women´s development and education agencies that were absorbed by the central government.
The indigenous communities´ reaction has not been enough to call for the decree to be revoked. Apart from some voiced opposition, there have not been other actions. The first demand that it be declared unconstitutional came from mestizo sectors who are trying to maintain themselves in the political spectrum.
Ecuador´s indigenous movement remains at a crossroads: either supporting Correa´s reforms which could benefit them in terms of social services investment, but it could also destroy their culture and identity and status of nations, or deciding to oppose a government which is attacking them — decree 1780 is one more blow to these vulnerable communities.
Source: Latinamerica Press www.latinamericapress.org
https://www.alainet.org/es/node/135859
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