Slow Food Latin America and the Caribbean network Declaration of solidarity with the Ecuadorian people

Photo by Sofia Morales

Food is the fundamental right of peoples, and the indigenous and peasant world has created, improved and safeguarded the food heritage for millennia, with practices of care, solidarity and reciprocity between brothers and sisters, and with nature.

This is why the Slow Food Latin American Network – present in 23 Latin American countries and part of the international Slow Food network dedicated to the right to good, clean and fair food – is in constant solidarity with the indigenous and peasant peoples of the world in their just and heartfelt demands. Today, we denounce and condemn the armed, violent and disproportionate repression of indigenous and peasant protests in Ecuador, which has already claimed 5 dead, 18 missing and countless wounded, figures that may increase in the course of the hours due to the Ecuadorian president’s declaration of repression and the use of lethal weapons against the demonstrators.

Photo by Sofia Morales

We also denounce that the Ecuadorian government has not wanted to listen to the basic social reasons and demands of the conflict, just demands of social discontent resulting from the liberal measures imposed (the general increase in the cost of living, the advance of extractivism, the violation of collective rights of the peoples, the precariousness of labor and the threat of privatization of public goods and services, among others).

We also denounce that the Ecuadorian government, headed by Guillermo Lasso, has limited itself to criminalizing and repressing demands and protests, and finally to legitimizing violence, thus declaring war on the indigenous and peasant movement.

It is important, at the moment of governing, to take into account in every decision the great variety of ideas, peoples, needs, territories, realities that our countries have. We must stop copying one type of economic model and consider it as “unique” because we are sacrificing, just for the sake of money, our valuable diversity and culture.

We demand an end to the violence against indigenous peoples and peasants. Don’t shoot! Stop the massacre! Create the conditions for a sincere dialogue that will allow a peaceful and democratic solution to the conflict. Defend Peace! There is no peace without social justice!

They unanimously support and endorse the Declaration the Slow Food communities of Ecuador, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba and the Caribbean, El Salvador, Mexico Uruguay, Venezuela and the Slow Food network of Indigenous People of Americas and the Caribbean.