Luis Macas
Who is Luis Macas?
He was elected as the new leader of Ecuador's powerful indigenous organisation, Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas de Ecuador, Conaie, on 23 December.
Why watch him?
Like his predecessor Leonidas Iza, Macas is an outspoken critic of the government. Macas served in the government of President Lucio Gutiérrez for Pachakutik, the political arm of Conaie, before Pachakutik's acrimonious split with the government after it failed to implement the social policies that were the bedrock of Gutiérrez's election campaign.
Born: 3 June 1950
Place of birth: Saraguro, in the province of Loja, Ecuador.
Education: Macas is a lawyer by training. He was educated at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador.
Public life: Macas is a Quechua Indian. He is married with children.
Timeline:
1980: Founding member of the Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador (Conaie).
1981-1986: Professor of Quechua at the Politécnica Universidad Católica del Ecuador, PUCE.
1986-1988: Director of Conaie's press office.
1988-1990: Vice-president of Conaie.
1990 (May 28): Organises a massive general strike when more than a million indigenous people around the country stopped working. Forces government to negotiating table over indigenous rights after highways were blocked and food supplies to the capital were cut off.
1990-1996: President of Conaie.
1994: Awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for his role in negotiating a land transfer of 3m acres of rainforest back to indigenous control.
1996-1998: Becomes the first indigenous person elected to Ecuador's National Congress. Serves as a legislator for the Movimiento Pachakutik. By 1998, there were eight indigenous representatives in congress.
1998-2004: Executive director of the Instituto Científico de Culturas Indígenas
2000-2002: Rector of the Comisión de Creación de la Universidad Intercultural de las Nacionalidades y Pueblos Indígenas (UINPI).
2003: Appointed as Minister of agriculture and livestock in the government of President Lucio Gutiérrez. Serves for eight months until his party, Pachakutik, breaks away from the ruling coalition.
2004: Member of the political council of the Confederación de la Nacionalidad Quechua del Ecuador, Ecuarunari.
2004 (December): Elected for a second spell as president of Conaie.
Strengths
Macas has the requisite experience for the job, having already served for six years at the helm in the first half of the 1990s. He is widely respected for championing the peaceful uprising or 'levantamiento', and the protection of the environment. He was one of the founding fathers of Conaie and, as such, helped to fashion the indigenous political consciousness. He also recognises the need to improve the education of indigenous people if they are to gain greater political power. Knowing that it is difficult for many of them to leave their communities in order to study he is advocating the creation of a system which would bring the university to the communities.
Weaknesses
Although Macas has extensive experience, his election as leader of Conaie could in some respects be seen as a backward step because he left the organisation in order to pursue a more active role in Ecuadorean politics and, during his brief tenure as agriculture and livestock minister, was involved in shaping policy on land reform. Although Macas' ability to bring together many other indigenous movements under the Conaie banner was a notable achievement (Peru, for instance, has no comparable umbrella organisation), the indigenous cause is still weakened by a lack of unity. Confeniae, the Amazonian branch of Conaie is split over oil exploration in the region. Although former President Rodrigo Borja granted legal title to three million acres of homelands in the Amazon's Oriente region to 148 communities of indigenous peoples in 1992, they are still at loggerheads with multi-national companies drilling for oil in the area. The government is frequently able to exploit differences between disparate indigenous groups.
Prospects
Macas's main challenge will be unifying the popular forces, such as the main trade union organisation, the Frente Unitario de Trabajadores (FUT), and indigenous peoples to protest against the government's neo-liberal economic policies. Macas will also want to keep the vexed question of land rights at the forefront of the domestic political agenda. His policy of peaceful demonstrations and protests may not appeal to young firebrands who want to force the government to take action to improve their lot; Macas himself is unlikely to back an uprising against President Gutiérrez, akin to that which brought down former president Jamil Mahuad.