Ecuador needs truth and justice with full respect for national sovereignty, Conaie said in a statement released Tuesday, as a delegation of U.S. officials including Southern Command head Laura Richardson visited the country.
In the document, the organization recalls words of General Richardson, who in 2023 referred to Washington's interest in Latin America for its rich natural resources such as lithium, oil, copper and gold, as well as the Amazon, considered the lungs of the planet. .
For the commander, the United States has “a lot to do” in a region that she says has to do with her country's national security and the geopolitical dispute it is waging with China and Russia.
Conaie pointed to how the interventionist experiences of “the power that sees us as its backyard” have helped create crises through alleged cooperation that threaten sovereignty and national interests.
Ahead of the visit by U.S. officials, the indigenous people are asking the Ecuadorian people for details and scope of this cooperation and its results.
In return, they demand that the executive branch enforce national interests and balance the responsibilities of the drug business, both producers and consumers.
The failure of Plan Colombia is an experience we cannot repeat. Cases of human rights violations, false alarms, massacres of farmers, illegal exploitation of natural resources and the promotion of paramilitary groups are situations that we must avoid in our country, emphasized Conaie. .
The Washington Embassy in Quito announced Monday that it will deliver more than 20,000 bulletproof vests and more than $1 million in critical security and emergency equipment as part of its “support” to the South American country in dealing with the violence crisis.
The White House also reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had sent personnel to Ecuador to work with police and the attorney general's office.
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