The Andean Revolution

As Peru begins making payments to indigenous widows and disabled survivors of the 20-year war against the Quechua highlanders, Ecuador has arrested Shuar political figures currently organizing a nationwide indigenous peoples political party. While the Sendero Luminoso liberation army fought the Peruvian army for Quechua independence, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador is seeking to run its own candidate, Pepe Luis Acacho, for president of Ecuador. Involved in protests against the privatization of water, the Shuar leaders are being charged as “saboteurs and terrorists”. Perhaps of interest to scholars of the Andean revolution, privatization of natural resources in Bolivia contributed to the downfall of the neoliberal system, a new constitution that supports the rights of indigenous peoples, and the election of Evo Morales, an Aymara activist and union organizer.