Ecuador’s dual populisms: Neocolonial extractivism, violence and indigenous resistance

Abstract

This article examines the confluence of extractivism, violence, and their resistance in the context of left governance – specifically the case of Ecuador – through an engagement with the concept of populism. Alongside Bolivia and Venezuela, Ecuador has long been associated with the rise of radical populism and with it an ‘autocratic turn’ in Latin America. Dispensing with overdetermined accounts of populism as either the anti-thesis or essence of democracy, this article proposes a third lens – dual populisms – to better grapple with the neocolonial turn toward intensified natural resource extraction and violence. That this intensification took place in the context of a left-in-power in Ecuador was initially surprising given previous alliances between President Correa’s party and Indigenous and environmental movements, and its rejection of capitalist and neoliberal developmentalism. With the expansion of extractive industries, and its accompanying violence increasingly becoming a global phenomenon, dual populism posits a third position – one that is at once top-down, state centered, and also bottom-up and social movement focused – to better account for the complex dynamics at work within this turn.

Indigenous Ecuadorians’ Challenges and Attempts to Combat Extractive Industries: A Human Rights-Based Approach

“…Both oil production and consumption in Ecuador are considered high. Bernal (2021) drew a distinction between the twentieth century, defined by an overdependence on petroleum exports, and the twenty-first century, described in Ecuador by the sedimentation and extension of the extractive paradigm. That is why Ecuador is infamous for its dependency on oil and other extractive industries.…”

“…As the 'Pink Tide' raised throughout the 2000s in Latin America, there is a rapid expansion for the radical and transformative ways. In the case of Bolivia and Ecuador, this expansion included constitutional rights to free prior and informed consent for Indigenous groups and the historic Rights of Nature (Bernal, 2021). The presidency of Rafael Correa marked enormous changes in Ecuador's politics.…”

“…These incidents of violence, as well as other allegations of escalating death threats and sexual assaults, convey a clear message to female leaders that organizing is dangerous and an attempt to silence them, given the shame that assault causes. It's also a tool that conveys a message to the entire community, quelling opposition and aiding territorial dispossession, to use one protest slogan's wording 'Violating Indigenous women to violate Mother Earth' (Bernal, 2021). Violence and threats against Indigenous women in extractive zones, like rape and violence against women in the past, are used as an instrument of total war.…”

“…Grassroots antiextractive populism has been defined not only by Indigenous political actors' intellectual and political protagonism but also by the rise of new women's organizations, the prominence of female land defenders, and the incorporation of Pachamama discourses and anti-extractive philosophy into their organizational and mobilization logics. This gender component must be stressed to appreciate anti-extractivist grassroots populism and fully comprehend the gendered dimensions of violence perpetrated against it (Bernal, 2021).…”