Ecuador’s Indigenous movement splinters over presidential election support

Still, Gonzalez’s Indigenous supporters emphasise that she is not Correa. And Noboa, they say, has the potential to do worse.

“Noboa is a neoliberal fascist,” Taco said. “If he were to win again, there will be no stopping him.”

The son of Alvaro Noboa, the candidate Correa defeated in each of his three elections, the younger Noboa came to power in a snap election in 2023. His mandate was to serve the remainder of his predecessor’s tenure.

So far, during his truncated year-and-a-half term, Noboa has expanded large-scale foreign mining and petroleum concessions. He has also pledged to build maximum-security prisons on Indigenous territory.

To pursue these projects, critics say he bypassed the legal right to consent that Indigenous people have in Ecuador before any resource project can be launched on their lands.

Noboa, however, has repeatedly responded to Indigenous protests by deploying security forces.

For instance, when Indigenous leaders protested Canadian mining activity in the Palo Quemado territory of Cotopaxi, Noboa’s administration sent in the military, injuring at least 36 people.

The prosecutor’s office ultimately charged 70 of the protesters with “terrorism” and accused another 45 of “organised crime”. The United Nations Human Rights representative for South America met with the protesters’ lawyers in June 2024. Though the protesters were let out of prison, their cases are still ongoing.

A man in Latacunga, Ecuador, carries one of the cardboard cut-outs of President Daniel Noboa that have become popular among supporters [Douwe den Held/Al Jazeera]

“‘This territory isn’t Indigenous,’ they told us,” said Diocelinda Iza, an Indigenous activist and former MICC president who participated in the protests.

She sees Noboa’s re-election as an imminent threat. “If Noboa wins, they’re going to come back and kill people.”

For Diocelinda and her fellow Indigenous leaders, voting for Gonzalez is simply choosing the lesser of two evils.

“I’ll vote for RC, though I’m ashamed of it,” Taco said, adding that it was akin to choosing a more strategic adversary. “I’m choosing who to fight.”

Taco added that a change in government could work to the Indigenous people’s advantage.

If Gonzalez were elected, for instance, the RC would “have to get up to speed, to change ministers”, Taco explained. “And that gives us a bit of time to breathe.”

Even those who oppose Gonzalez’s candidacy agree that Ecuador’s Indigenous political movement needs to be prepared for a confrontation.

“Whichever of the two candidates wins, the Indigenous movement will have to be ready to fight,” Guaman said.