Marta Peñafiel and Marco Andino, from Chimborazo Province, have joined these struggles and their lives a few decades ago, so when they remember the struggles they are remembering their own lives.

Since the time of Leonidas Proaño (1910-1988), the “Bishop of the Indians” and his influence in the protection of the right to land, up to the current Agroecological Farm Committee in Chimborazo, Tungurgua and Bolivar provinces, practices of local association and crop rotation, cooperation approaches and ancestral practices to produce without exhausting the land have been rescued and strengthened.

Ecuador has a Constitution that is in many ways a model in terms of inclusion of rights and recognition of the different cultures. However, it is far from being an effective protection measure for the communities against threats such as mining concessions, unfair intermediation, tree felling and lack of answers to the climate crisis, say Marta and Marco in an interview with Real World Radio.

The members of Ecovida and the network for the right to food FIAN Ecuador made reference to the differences between the form of the Constitution and Laws and their contents, which continue benefiting agribusiness in the hand of a few companies.

This is the case of the water and food sovereignty laws that were passed without the support of indigenous and peasant organizations: “in the beginning, the government strongly supported the organizations, but their positions have been permanently criticized by the organizations”, said Marco Andino.

Meanwhile, Marta stated that the peasant communities are the ones that are truly “feeding the country”, and despite this, governmental measures tend to favor banana and African palm companies and the agriculture for export.

While issues such as access to land, investment in irrigation works or saving native seeds to break with the dependance on input providers, for instance, do not receive the attention of the government, the activists said.

The processes of intervention in Chimborazo province, one of the provinces with largest indigenous presence in the Ecuadorian Andean region, represent for Marta Peñafiel and Marco Andino experiences to learn from and to avoid making the same mistakes. From political groups that ’’appropriate’’ communities to their own benefit, to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that deepen the dependance links, Marco and Marta had to understand the importance of listening to the real needs of the communities, recognizing the creativity to solve the problems of peasants turned into ’’engineers’’, ’’teachers’’, or ’’architects’’.

The concept of organization, said Marta Peñafiel, had to be re-learned by the people, who systematically suffer -through the rise of the price of lands, through climate change, etc- the advance of capital over the countryside and the natural resources.

Marco also remembered the role of Bishop Proaños in terms of changing the way of working with communities, and also how he opened the doors to international solidarity.

Marco Andino believes that the concrete practices of the peasant
communities today are a message of hope in light of the structural crises that affect the environment, climate and the right to food.

’’We found out that everything we are fighting for is a matter of rights’’, said Marta Peñafiel.

Photo: Real World Radio