By AFP

Quito, February 03, 2008 — The Ecuadorian Government will prevent its country from falling into bankruptcy as a consequence of anti-mining and anti-oil groups, president Rafael Correa stated last Saturday in a warning to the indigenous movement.

“They want to impose their agenda: no to oil, no to hydroelectric plants. So, then, let’s all turn off the lights, let’s all become immigrants and leave, because what they want is to push the country into bankruptcy. And we can not accept those things,” the president said in his weekly radio address.
Despite the criticism, Correa was cautious not to mention by name the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), whose main representative, Marlon Gualinga, threatened a national strike if mining and crude oil extraction do not stop. Ecuador’s national income relies on oil exports.

The Conaie’s leader threatened the administration with a “revolt” if it does not surrender to indigenous control of natural resources. Correa, who has some of the natives’ backing, dismissed the threats and defended his administration’s environmental concerns, but said he will never fall into a “childish environmentalism.”

The Ecuadorian government is currently renegotiating oil contracts with five international companies, and reviewing thousands of mining concessions, to regain state control over natural resources.

The indigenous communities claim to constitute up to 35 percent of the nation’s 13.5 million population, but there are no official census statistics to support their claim.

Since the failed alliance with the former president Lucio Gutierrez, in 2003, the Conaie’s political importance has only waned and deepened fractures within the movement.