Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador (CONAIE)

“The Plurinational State”

CONAIE's primary aim with the new constitution is the formation of a plurinational state (El estado plurinacional).

The following is only a shortened version of a comprehensive and detailed description created by CONAIE.

Plurinacional state is first of all formed by political and administrative decentralization. The new administrative system is culturally heterogenous and allows the participation of all the social sectors and groups.

The plurinacional state is:

Plural: Respects and encourages the socio-cultural diversity of the population of Ecuador. Redistributive: The state tries to distribute the national income in a more just way than before. The wealth will no longer be possessed only by a few people. It will be distributed to the sectors most in need. Anti-bureaucratic: The state reduces its bureaucracy in order to get it's actions more dynamic and efficient. This also leads to less corruption. Democratic Defends the Solidarity: The state is in favour of mutual help and responsibility and cooperation between individuals and groups that have different cultural and socio-economical backgrounds.

In order to function, the plurinational state needs to develop the following characteristics:

Autonomy: In addition to decentralization, the state needs to encourage the economical development and autodetermination of the Indigenous territories and regions of the Afroecuadorians. This, however, does not mean "states within states". Sustainability: The state has to manage the natural resources reasonably; considering the future generations and both ecological and economical viability of the country. Equality: State has to make certain that the national income and wealth is being produced and distributed in a just way. Diversity: The state has to strengthen peoples and nationalities' cultural identity and their way of organizing socially and economically. However, the state has to simultaneous guarantee the unity on national level. This is reached by an intercultural dialogue between the people and nationalities that form the Ecuadorian society.

The plurinational state also guarantees some specific rights to the Indigenous nationalities (and other minorities):

In order to make historical and moral compensation, the plurinational state is obliged to produce a frame of specific guarantees for those historically excluded. From the CONAIE's viewpoint, this only strengthens "the unity in diversity". The "Indigenous right" (derecho indígena) has to be adapted in the normative practice of the law. The Indigenous people have a right to express their identity on their own language. The official languages of plurinational Ecuador are Spanish and Quechua (Kichwa). The other Indigenous languages are official in the areas where they are spoken. The Indigenous people have a right to have and further develop the bilingual education. The Indigenous people (and other minorities) have a right to their land.

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Cuestiones de América Nº 7, Noviembre de 2001

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