Indigenous Peoples
- Thu Feb 05 2004
A most serious attack has been carried out against the president of a member organization of the coordinations of the Hemispheric Social Alliance and the Hemispheric Campaign against the FTAA.
Rafael Freire, of the Secretariat of the Hemispheric Campaign against the FTAA, addressed the following message expressing solidarity with the CONAIE of Ecuador (member of the IC) following the recent assassination attempt on their leader, Leonidas Iza, and inviting all fraternal organizations to express their rejection of this attack.
To all organizations in the Continental Campaign Against the FTAA
Upon his return from the III Hemispheric Meeting of Struggle against the FTAA, which took place in Havana (Cuba), our compañero Leonidas Iza, president of the CONAIE (National Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador) and his family were attacked, in the night of the 1st of February, at the door of the organization's headquarters, by hitmen that shot and wounded his son Xavier, his brother Rodrigo and his nephew Camilo, while his wife was beaten in the face.
This is a most serious attack against one of our sister organizations, that is an active member of the coordinations of the Hemispheric Social Alliance and the Hemispheric Campaign against the FTAA.
For us this attack triggers an alert that there are attempts in that country to subdue the social organizations that fight for the claims of our peoples through the actions of paramilitary and gunmen hired by the powerful.
At the same time that we express our solidarity to our compañero Leonidas, his family and the CONAIE, we demand immediate measures from the Ecuadoran authorities to shed light on responsibilities connected to the attack, to put those responsible in prison, and to assume their obligation to guarantee the physical integrity of the leaders of the CONAIE and their families.
The Continental Campaign against the FTAA calls upon all sister organizations to express their rejection of this attack and from the Hemispheric Secretariat we offer our support to our brothers and sisters of the CONAIE for any initiative needed to prevent attacks on the peoples' organizations of Ecuador.
Rafael Freire
Secretariat of the Hemispheric Campaign against the FTAA
Sao Paolo, February 2nd, 2004
Annex - Message from Ecuarunari (distributed by Social Movements Information Minga)
Friends:
Receive fraternal greetings for the Governing Council of the Confederation of Kichwa Peoples of Ecuador (Ecuarunari).
We call upon the national and international community to express their rejection for this criminal attack against our compañero Leonidas Iza and his family, which is an attack against the CONAIE and the indigenous movement.
Please address your messages directly to:
Ing. Raúl Baca
Ministro de Gobierno
República de Ecuador.
e-mail: ministrog@presidencia.ec.gov.net
telefax: 2 584 914
Ing. Lucio Gutiérrez
Presidente Constitucional de la República de Ecuador
Telefax: 2 584 000
c.c. a:
Consejo de Gobierno
ECUARUNARI
telefax: 2 580 713
e-mail: kichua@ecuanex.net.ec
Atentamente
Patricio Zhingri T.
Dirigente de Comunicación
Ecuarunari
Ecuadoran native leaders under attack
Indigenous federation calls state of emergency after leader nearly assassinated and calls for international watch on Ecuador
Source: Indymedia
Versión en español
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