The Politics Behind the Policies

This past weekend I was so fortunate to have the opportunity to go to the Asamblea Cantonal de Cotocacchi. This is the yearly assembly for the Cotacacchi municipality (which is like a state for Ecuador) to meet up and set the agenda for the 2016 year.

On Friday, the volunteer coordinator Jose and I went into town and met with a local group of representatives from all of the neighboring communitites; Jose and I were the representatives for the 6,000 hectares of land that is Los Cedros. At this meeting we were informed of the current issues surrounding our area.

The next day, we went into the city of Cotocacchi where we were greeted by hundreds of people from all over the municipality, including the president of the Ecuadorian indigenous population and the mayor of the Cotocacchi region. After many different people gave speeches and a ceremony for blessing the asembly finished, we broke into specific groups. There were groups for education, environment, disabilities, youth, family relationships and several others. I was given the freedom to choose which group I participated in but many of the people there were elected by their communities or schools to be representatives for specific causes. In the Education group, people spoke of their qualms with the current education system; presenting personal stories and examples of their experiences. The ultimate goal of our meeting was to create resolutions, so after everyone finished giving their input, we formulated a list of resolutions to fix some of the problems.

On Sunday, the last day, everyone gathered in the theatre for the final meetings. First there was a speech by a renouned economist who informed everyone of the budget and the history of the government spending. Afterwards, each group was to present their resolutions to the entire assembly. From there, people would ask questions to clarify or propose alterations to the resolutions. To finish it off, there was a vote by the entire audience whether to approve the resolution or not, and we would move on to the next category. For some, it was very easy to pass their proposals. For example, when the disability group suggested that the government make public facilities more friendly to the blind and disabled communities, there was full support. However, when the environmental comittie started with their proposals for conservation or for raising taxes on the water, there was always a large debate.

Overall, it was a really neat experience to take part in such a democratic process. I was able to learn about Ecuador through observing the conversations these people were having. Being fully immersed in this country, I have come to learn a lot about the government. I have spoken with dozens of different people about their government and the overall attitude that I have experienced is discontent. Currently, their president Correa has not done much when it comes to conservation. He makes it very difficult for people to form organizations and so it is hard for anyone to go up against him. In addition to this, he is currently proposing an ammendment to the constitution that will allow him to extend his time in office. In the Ecuadorian government, there is a ministry of the truth that is able to correct anything that is, well, not the truth. If the radio station says something about the government, the government reserves the right to take over the radio station and dispute the truth. In addition to this, there is a rule that all incoming students must pass a specific exam to get accepted to University. Currently, due to the lack of quality education in rural areas, there is a shockingly large amount of people who are unable to go to University. At the hostel I stayed at last night, I was speaking with a girl, my age, who currently helps her family out because she cannot pass this exam. She studies very hard and has taken it three different times but the education in her small town has left her nowhere near where she needs to be in order to pass. The same goes for thousands of indigenous communities throughout the country.

The politics control everything that happens (and does not happen) here in Ecuador. It is interesting to learn first hand about these guiding forces.

I would like to end on this note: the things I have written may contain factual innacuracies due to the presence of bias in the perspectives of my sources.