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Begin New Search Political Geography Ecuador Publication Year within 25 Years

11. La evolución de la política exterior ecuatoriana durante el Siglo XXI: Análisis desde la teoría del Realismo Periférico

Author:
Miguel Paradela López and Dalia González Delgado
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Revista UNISCI/UNISCI Journal
Institution:
Unidad de investigación sobre seguridad y cooperación (UNISCI)
Abstract:
El presente artículo analiza la evolución de la política exterior ecuatoriana durante los gobiernos de Rafael Correa, Lenín Moreno y Guillermo Lasso a la luz de los postulados teóricos del realismo periférico, que sostienen que los pequeños y medianos Estados deben desarrollar una política de colaboración con las grandes potencias y reducir su oposición a aquellos eventos que directamente afectan a los intereses de sus nacionales. Para ello, se analizan momentos clave de cada uno de los siguientes gobiernos, incluyendo el cierre de la Base de Manta, la relación con el FMI, la entrega de Julian Assange o la compra de vacunas contra el Covid-19. El artículo concluye mostrando cómo los tres presidentes desarrollaron estrategias que no maximizaron los intereses ecuatorianos, en tanto que alternaron gobiernos donde el enfrentamiento con las grandes potencias fue generalizado con gobiernos que priorizaron el acercamiento con estos a costa de los intereses nacionales.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, History, Political Science, Strategic Interests, and Peripheral Realism
Political Geography:
Latin America and Ecuador

12. Territories of Extreme Violence in Ecuador’s War on Drugs

Author:
Paula Sevilla Núñez
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
Abstract:
Official narratives explaining deadly riots in Ecuador’s prisons fail to recognize the state’s role in fomenting the violence.
Topic:
War on Drugs, Prisons/Penal Systems, State, and Violence
Political Geography:
Central America and Ecuador

13. Indigenous People’s Food Sovereignty in Ecuadorian Amazon

Author:
India Belgharbi
Publication Date:
05-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
Accessing healthy and affordable food is highly intertwined with the biggest challenges of our century, such as climate change or conflict resolution. The United Nations has established eliminating hunger as one of the seventeen goals of the international community to achieve sustainable development. The largest part of the food the world consumes is produced by smallholders, peasants and Indigenous communities, but their own food sovereignty is not always practically implemented. This paper explores the extent to which Indigenous Peoples in the Ecuadorian Amazon are able to practice food sovereignty, and traces colonialism’s continuous influence on the application of international law to this marginalized community. Though the Indigenous concept of Buen Vivir is linked to food sovereignty and was integrated into the Ecuadorian constitution since 2008, post-neoliberalism, land ownership issues, access to seeds, the use of chemical fertilizers within agriculture, and tourism in the Amazon are all elements impeding its realization.
Topic:
Sovereignty, Food, Economic Policy, and Indigenous
Political Geography:
South America, Ecuador, and Amazon Basin

14. Female labour supply and informal employment in Ecuador

Author:
H. Xavier Jara and Pia Rattenhuber
Publication Date:
05-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Low- and middle-income countries face a trade-off between raising tax revenue to strengthen social protection and creating incentives for the population to enter formal employment. However, empirical evidence on labour supply elasticities in the presence of informal employment remains scarce. This paper analyses female labour supply behaviour and the choice between formal and informal employment in Ecuador, a middle-income country characterized by persistent levels of informal employment particularly among women. We use two methods to estimate and compare formal employment elasticities: (i) a discrete choice model of labour supply with informality and (ii) grouped-data estimation techniques. For identification, we exploit variation in tax–benefit policies covering the period 2011–19, using microsimulation techniques applied to household survey data. Our results show that, on average, formal employment elasticities for single women are low regardless of the approach chosen. However, for women in couples, formal employment elasticities are larger under the discrete choice approach whereas they are low and non-significant under the grouped-data estimations.
Topic:
Labor Issues, Women, Employment, and Tax Systems
Political Geography:
Central America and Ecuador

15. Nela Martínez Espinosa (1912–2004) Women of Struggle, Women in Struggle

Author:
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
Abstract:
The second half of the twentieth century was marked by national liberation struggles in the colonised countries of Africa and Asia. In Latin America, neo-colonial structures had subordinated the republics founded as independent countries at the beginning of the nineteenth century, cementing their subaltern position in the international division of labour. During decades of global crisis (1914–1948), Latin America saw battles between an oligarchy that violently sought to make the working class pay the price of the economic meltdown and a left-wing tendency boosted by two processes: the growing peasant and trade union organisations on the one hand, and a radicalised middle class on the other. Observing the new forms of material dispossession that made the promises of republican democracy impossible, peasant and worker organisations advanced a discourse highlighting class conflict and patriarchal and neo-colonial domination. They also voiced new visions of the nation state and the perspectives for democratic and socialist internationalism against the unfolding fascism, inspired by the mobilisations and transformations of public power achieved by the Mexican Revolution and the Russian Revolution. The fight for equality and liberation under the leadership of working people is ongoing in the anti-imperialist struggles of our time. In a myriad of ways, women powerfully shaped and continue to shape this struggle against oligopolistic, patriarchal, racist, and neo-colonial capitalism. In the Women of Struggle, Women in Struggle series of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, we present the stories of women in struggle who contributed not only to the wider arena of politics, but who also pioneered the establishment of women’s organisations, opening up paths of feminist resistance and struggle throughout the twentieth century. Praxis, as a knowledge of theory and of organisational methods of struggle as they change and respond to history, gives sustenance to ongoing struggles to face oppression. As militants, we study the diverse organisational methods of these women not only to better understand their political contributions, but also to inspire us as we build the organisations necessary for our fight against oppression and exploitation today. In this third study, we discuss the life and legacy of Nela Martínez Espinosa, an Ecuadorian fighter for the people. Nela was a writer and communist activist[i] from an early age with extensive internationalist experience. As the first woman elected to Ecuador’s parliament, she created one of the country’s first mass women’s political organisations in 1938 and, as the first woman minister of the interior, she was effectively in charge of the country in the chaotic three days that followed the insurrection known as La Gloriosa, or the Glorious May Revolution, in May 1944. Nela’s rich life-long activism teaches us about the history of women in local, national, and international struggles that linked women’s rights with anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-colonial, and anti-imperialist struggles throughout the twentieth century. In a speech at Ecuador’s National Congress in 2003 (a year before her death), Nela spoke about becoming the first woman legislator in 1945: I came [to the parliament] for the first time in a trance of my love for this homeland, which is still struggling with itself, but by then had been rescued from a dictatorship that intensified its oppression. Those of us who experienced the dangers of demanding a revolution which was subsequently denied to us were simply moved. A woman in Congress among those who spoke and not simply among those who listened? Those who ruled inherited the colonial way of thinking and acting […] which during the colony destroyed the culture […] of indigenous peoples to the point of becoming part of the norm, the way of life for those who later became the leaders of the republic. The practice that we are speaking of persisted in social norms and especially behaviour. That is why my presence was strange in the National Congress and, on welcoming it, political leaders for the first time also recognised women citizens in the upper echelons of power.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Labor Issues, Colonialism, Feminism, and Biography
Political Geography:
South America, Latin America, and Ecuador

16. Chinese Mining and Indigenous Resistance in Ecuador

Author:
Cintia Quiliconi and Pablo Rodriguez Vasco
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
Chinese mining companies were drawn to Ecuador by a strong interest in diversifying their sources of copper in Latin America. But Chinese mining operations in Ecuador, which could have contributed to Ecuadorian development, soon gained a negative reputation after these activities prompted a great deal of local pushback, especially from affected Indigenous communities. As a result, the major Chinese mining consortium that now controls Ecuador’s two main copper mines has taken adaptive steps to stabilize its mining investment and increase the security of its supply networks, steps that often have not produced the intended results. Working through two subsidiaries, the Chinese mining consortium has responded to this localized criticism with a blend of tactics that includes co-opting select local figures, colluding with national officials to sidestep environmental and sociocultural safeguards, and coercing inhabitants into relocating under the threat of force from accommodating Ecuadorian authorities. By turning Ecuadorian national elites against locals and using divide-and-conquer tactics among Indigenous communities, the Chinese-led mining projects have entrenched existing political cleavages, have undermined community cohesion, and ultimately have harmed Ecuador’s democratic fabric, especially the standing of civil society and Indigenous rights organizations. While Ecuador has welcomed Chinese capital and other sources of international investment, this infusion of financing has increased the risk of political abuses at the national and local levels. This paper explains the adaptive strategies employed by the Chinese consortium and its subsidiaries in charge of the Mirador and San Carlos Panantza mining sites, contrasting the differing results these tactics have produced in each case. Both projects are located in Ecuador’s so-called Copper Belt provinces of Morona Santiago and Zamora Chinchipe, which are part of a mountain range known as the Cordillera del Cóndor. They are embedded in an ecologically and culturally sensitive zone that includes territory of the Indigenous Shuar community in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In the case of Mirador, the Chinese mining consortium’s adaptive response helped its subsidiary overcome local resistance but only by crushing it. In the case of San Carlos Panantza, local resistance so far has not been overcome, so the Chinese consortium has remained unable to proceed with its project. Neither case, even the Mirador site where mining has moved forward, is a sign of success for future relationships between Chinese mining conglomerates and Ecuadorian communities. To understand why the Chinese consortium’s adaptive tactics were somewhat more successful in Mirador, it is important to focus on the differing composition of the inhabitants of the land where the two mines are located. Mirador sits on territory shared by Shuar and non-Shuar settler communities who have different bonds with the land. The non-Shuar settlers emphasize the productive and commercial value of the land over the spiritual and symbolic value that is key for many in the Shuar community. The Canadian-held and later Chinese-controlled companies active in Ecuador’s mining industry understood this difference between Mirador’s inhabitants and adapted accordingly: they managed to displace resistant residents despite widespread opposition through questionable and sometimes arguably illegal purchases of land. In San Carlos Panantza, a second subsidiary of the Chinese consortium chose to respond to local criticism with the same alleged practices of violence, occupation, and displacement used in Mirador. However, although the two projects are geographically near each other, the situation played out differently at the second would-be mine: ongoing opposition has prevented mining operations from beginning at all yet. Again, paying attention to the inhabitants of the land is instructive. San Carlos Panantza is in the heart of Shuar territory in Arutam, a region with few non-Indigenous settlers. The mining incursion by the Chinese-run subsidiary and the Ecuadorian security forces tasked with supporting it were seen as a threat to the area’s Shuar people, who have been strongly protesting and opposing the mining venture since late 2016. This state of affairs is likely to have far-reaching effects for Ecuador too. The apparent collusion between Ecuador’s national government and the Chinese consortium (and its subsidiaries) has crushed those who oppose mining, has upended the country’s policies on resource extraction, and has yielded documented violations of local communities’ human rights. These events have transpired because both the Chinese firms and the Ecuadorian state have tended to see local communities as an obstacle to the development of the country’s extractive industries. As a result, local social and environmental safeguards have been weakened, tenuous consultation processes have eroded, environmental licenses have been granted under dubious circumstances, and local communities have been forcibly displaced. This paper explores the implications of the adaptive tactics chosen by the Chinese mining subsidiaries that run the Mirador and San Carlos Panantza mines. It also addresses how Chinese companies have, in some cases, negotiated with local communities to begin mining exploitation, while also analyzing the ways the Chinese mining consortium has interacted with the Ecuadorian government and other players, such as the Canadian mining company it acquired and other peer companies that set up successful coalitions for mining development in Ecuador. Finally, the paper explores the effects the agreements between the Ecuadorian government and the Chinese consortium have had on local actors.
Topic:
Development, Government, Mining, Indigenous, and Resistance
Political Geography:
China, Asia, South America, and Ecuador

17. The institutionalized Buen Vivir: a new hegemonic political paradigm for Ecuador

Author:
Patricio Carpio Benalcazar, Francisco Javier Ullan de La Rosa, and Francisco Javier Ullan de La Rosa
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional (RBPI)
Institution:
Instituto Brasileiro de Relações Internacionais (IBRI)
Abstract:
Buen Vivir has recently emerged in Latin America as an alternative societal model to the historical liberal (or neoliberal) and Marxist ones. The article focuses on its Ecuadorian variant and, more specifically, the institutionalized version embodied in the 2008 Constitution and the policies of the Citizens’ Revolution governments. This version is the particular result of the convergence of three different currents and has become the hegemonic ideology in the country. The article describes its main thematic axes and appraises its originality, as well as the theoretical and practical contributions.
Topic:
Political Theory, Governance, Hegemony, and Ideology
Political Geography:
South America and Ecuador

18. COVID-19 and the security sector in Ecuador: A case of strategic surprise/El COVID-19 y el sector securitario en Ecuador: Un caso de sorpresa estratégica

Author:
Lester Cabrera Toledo
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Revista UNISCI/UNISCI Journal
Institution:
Unidad de investigación sobre seguridad y cooperación (UNISCI)
Abstract:
This article tries to reflect on the situation experienced by the security sector in Ecuador during the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this sense, it starts presenting the diffuse strategic planning, the weakness of the strategic intelligence system existing in Ecuador and how as a consequence of the events experienced in October 2019, the security sector was hit by a “strategic surprise” when the pandemic occurred and, as a result, short-term responses were produced without an adequate planning process. It is concluded that although the country has overcome the moment of "strategic surprise", the main challenge lies in the necessity to discuss and make a diagnosis of the situation, through lessons learned, to achieve an understanding of security as a state policy./El presente artículo tiene como principal objetivo reflexionar sobre la situación vivida por el sector securitario en Ecuador, durante el contexto de los primeros 3 meses que el país experimentó los efectos de la pandemia del COVID-19. En este sentido, parte de la hipótesis de que, como consecuencia de los acontecimientos vividos en octubre de 2019, una planificación estratégica difusa, y la debilidad del sistema de inteligencia estratégica, el ámbito securitario se vio envuelto en un proceso de “sorpresa estratégica”, lo que dio como resultado respuestas coyunturales sin el marco de un adecuado proceso de planificación. Se concluye que, si bien el país superó el momento de “sorpresa estratégica”, el principal desafío recae en la necesidad de contar con una discusión sobre el diagnóstico de la situación, por medio de lecciones aprendidas, con el principal objetivo de concebir a la seguridad como una política de Estado.
Topic:
Security, COVID-19, and Strategic Planning
Political Geography:
Latin America and Ecuador

19. Resource-Backed Loans: Pitfalls and Potentialloan

Author:
David Mihalyi, Aisha Adam, and Jyhjong Hwang
Publication Date:
02-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Abstract:
Through “resource-backed loans” (RBLs) countries access finance in exchange for, or collateralized by, future streams of income from their natural resource wealth. The authors of this report reviewed countries’ past experiences with RBLs across sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America from 2004 to 2018. They identify risks and opportunities RBLs pose and provide recommendations for countries considering taking RBLs in the future. The researchers identified 52 RBLs, 30 of which were taken by countries in in sub-Saharan Africa and 22 in Latin America. They are distributed across 14 countries in the two regions. Thirty-eight were lent by Chinese policy banks, seven are from commodity traders, four are from other Chinese state-owned enterprises, one is from Korea Exim, one is from Nigeria and one is from Russia's Rosneft. Forty-three of the loans are backed by oil, six by various minerals, two by cocoa, and one by tobacco. The total loan amount represented in the dataset is $164 billion, of which $66 billion went to Africa and $98 billion to Latin America.
Topic:
Natural Resources, Finance, Resource-Backed Loans, and Revenue Management
Political Geography:
Africa, Sudan, Brazil, South America, Venezuela, Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, Ecuador, Guinea, South Sudan, and Congo

20. Big Sellers: Exploring the Scale and Risk of National Oil Company Sales

Author:
Alexander Malden and Joseph Williams
Publication Date:
06-2019
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Abstract:
In many oil-producing countries, the national oil company (NOC) sells vast quantities of the state’s oil and gas. The sale of a state’s non-renewable natural resource endowment is often a revenue stream that can have a significant impact on a country’s national budget and the state’s ability to fulfil its national development priorities. It is important therefore that citizens are able to assess the performance of their NOCs, who they sell state assets to, under what terms they sell them and what they do with the resulting sales revenue. In this briefing the authors use data from NRGI’s new National Oil Company database to examine the governance and corruption risks posed by NOC’s oil sales activities. Using this newly compiled data including over $1.5 trillion in oil sales from 39 NOCs in 35 countries, they found that: The sale of oil is an economically significant activity for many countries. The oil, gas and product sales of 35 countries’ national oil companies (NOCs) to commodity traders and other buyers generated over $1.5 trillion in 2016, equaling 22 percent of these countries’ total government revenues. Most NOCs only pass on a small percentage of their oil sales revenue to government treasuries. NOCs from the 30 countries for which data are available transferred just 22 percent of their revenue to the country’s national treasury. This results in NOCs managing huge public revenues in environments that lack basic transparency, accountability and good governance practices. Seventy-nine percent of the identifiable oil sales, or $1.2 trillion, occurred in countries with “weak” or “poor” scores in the 2017 Resource Governance Index. While oil sales disclosure has improved in countries which are part of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), non-EITI countries generated over 90 percent of the identifiable NOC oil sales revenue, or $1.4 trillion. This briefing also presents case studies from the Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Ecuador of ways oil sales data, where available, has been used to scrutinize NOCs’ commercial performance and to hold them accountable for the revenue generated when selling the state’s oil.
Topic:
Civil Society, Government, Oil, and Business
Political Geography:
Africa, South America, Nigeria, Ecuador, and Democratic Republic of Congo