WRITE A LETTER TO the GOVERNMENT OF ECUADOR and to the IMF Project Underground's letter to President Noboa is below.

Please feel free to write to President Noboa and the IMF, using this text, or to write your own thoughts to all decision makers involved.

February 2, 2001

President Gustavo Noboa
Presidencia de la República

Dear President Noboa,

We are writing to you to express our solidarity with the members of social movements who took part in a nonviolent protest action yesterday at Ecuador's Consejo Nacional de Modernizacion. Hopefully, this assemblage of environmentalists, human rights activists, women's liberationists, and unionists coming together in direct challenge to your government's policies, has sent a powerful and clear message to you. It is our hope that you can hear the message of the thousands of indigenous peoples engaging in peaceful action across your country.

These people have organized themselves in movements, each representing fundamental aspects of humanity: labor, freedom, survival of body and culture in the face of genocidal violence, harmony with the larger environment, and the majority of people who are women and girls. That people who have organized their lives around these human capacities, which we all share, are now united in opposition to your policies should be a reminder of the harsh consequences of your government's policies upon the human lives that make up your nation.

The organizations occupying CONAM address themselves to the International Monetary Fund and its current delegation to Ecuador. They write:

"Your efficient policies, which have been applied by successive governments in turn, have resulted in the destruction of Ecuador's natural resources, have dedicated more than 50% of the national budget to paying an illegitimate foreign debt, have burdened the country with the highest rates of inflation on the continent, the highest levels of corruption, the most advanced rate of deforestation and contamination, the worst example of mal-distribution of wealth ... and this disaster, the result of your policies, is repeating itself throughout the Third World in which you have intervened to "help us rise out of poverty."

President Noboa, you stand at a point of choice between challenging and reinforcing violence and racism; between demanding justice from the world system or imposing injustice on your fellow Ecuadorians; between embracing their cries for humanity and snuffing out your own humanity.

We urge you, do not seek to silence the growing calls for justice from Ecuadorians. We urge you to respect the human rights of all people. We urge you to order your government, armed forces and police to refrain from the use of violence in response to protests. Finally, we urge you to join your words and your actions to their struggle for a just, human, and living world.

Sincerely,

M.E. Dueker
Acting Director
Carwil James Oil Campaign Coordinator Project Underground

cc:
Ministry of Defense of Ecuador, Quito
Ambassador Ivonne A-Baki, Embassy of Ecuador, Washington
Accion Ecologica
Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador

CONTACT INFORMATION

Doctor Gustavo Noboa
PRESIDENTE DEL ECUADOR
F: (593 2) 580-735
E: despresi@presidencia.ec-gov.net

Ambassador Ivonne A-BAKI
2535 15th Street NW
Washington, DC
20009
t: (202) 234-7200
F: (202) 667-3482

Horst Köhler
Managing Director,
IMF International Monetary Fund
700 19th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20431
T: (202) 623-7000
F: (202) 623-4661

Intro
Article
Letter
Sign-on letter
Summit and Speaking tour