“We would like to say to the entire country that we are starting a march to walk the paths of freedom, of the deep change we, the people of Ecuador, want, in order to build a new country, a plurinational state, the well-living of our elders, women and children”, said Humberto Cholango, president of CONAIE, on March 8th, at the beginning of the march in El Pangui, Zamora Chinchipe province.

“We want a country for the Ecuadorian people, not transnational corporations (…) With our struggle we’ll defeat the transnational companies that want to appropriate our natural resources”, said Cholango, according to a video distributed by CONAIE.

The leader demanded the approval of the Water Bill in an “urgent manner” to “put an end to the privatization of this essential resource” and the Lands and Territories Bill “to redistribute lands and produce food for the Ecuadorian people”.

Along these lines, the CONAIE leader asked a halt to the criminalization of indigenous leaders. There are over 200 indigenous people, peasants and farmers accused of terrorists and saboteurs, according to Cholango. “We, indigenous people are not terrorists, we are the defendants of the country, of dignity, of sovereignty”, he highlighted.

Cholango also said in his speech at the beginning of the march that the protest would bring a message of “peace and unity”, but also of “rebellion against injustice”.

CONAIE’s Communications team is distributing a series of videos about the March for Life, Water and Dignity of the Peoples. Below there are two of them. The first shows the celebration of a ritual at the beginning of the protest in El Pangui. The second shows Cholango’s speech cited above and the beginning of the mobilization, among other things.

Photo: http://observadorglobal.com