if you´re into politics, read on. sorry, its a book

When I spoke about my week in Quito, I failed to mention that we were visited by representatives from the Embassy, US AID, and the Military group. I found these visits extremely helpful in understanding the current climate here in Ecuador, and in what the US & Ecuadorian governments deem to be important for the country. It was super-illustrative of the current political situation, so read on if you´re interested.
Politics are always a hot topic here. Ecuador has been very unstable politically, with such strong institutional fallout. 20 constitutions have been written since the country´s independence, and 57 presidents have been kicked out of office. They have had 8 presidents in the past 10 years, none of who have completed their terms. Congress has removed many presidents by declaring them ¨medically incompetent¨or claiming that they had ¨abandoned post.¨
To combat this instability, a Constituent Assembly is being formed to write a new constitution, which is hoped to be a framework to guide society in a more stable manner. It does not seem to me that many Ecuadorians are currently guaranteed many rights outlined in the constitution, and many laws are loosely enforced and interpreted in different ways. I am suspicious as many others are, as to whether a new constitution will create much change if neither the masses not those in power follow the rules. But we can hope.
Voting is mandatory is Ecuador, therefore all citizens will nominate candidates in the September 30th election for Constituent Assembly. Frustration and confusion seems to be the attitude of many, as 3,229 candidates from 500 parites are running for 130 spots. The ballot in one of the larger provinces, Guayas, will be 5 sq feet in size and contain 600 names.
The current president is Rafeal Correa who won with 57% of the votes in January 2007. He ran with a campaign emphasizing ¨socialism of the 21st century,¨with a focus on egalitariansim, civil participation, and a new constitution for transformational reform. He shares many values with Venezuela´s Chavez and Bolivia´s Morales, but wishes to remain independent and has a nacionalistic attitude in wishing to centralize the government. It will be really interesting to see how all of this plays out over the next few months. Effective politics and political strategies seem to take place on a local level. The ¨system¨ seems to work for those who have the benefits. Ecuador has been known as a ¨rich country with a lot of poor people.¨ 10 families own 90% of the country´s wealth.
The judicial system is very interesting to me, as it reveals the priorities of those in power as well as the influence from countries offering political or monetary support. In this system the victim is responsible for hiring an attorney and pursuing protection without help from the government. It is an extremely expensive and lengthy process, taking a minimum of 1 year. If found guilty of drug trafficking, the criminal is sentenced to 25 years in jail; rape is 16, homocide 12, robbery 5, and theft 5. Drug trafficking is another hot topic in Ecuador, as we border both Columbia and Peru. Furthermore, the US govt feels very strongly about such issues, and therefore they place great emphasis on counter-narcotics.
Sexual abuse and rights are becoming less of a taboo for discussion, although there are quite a few obstacles in protecting citizens ...Homosexuality was considered a crime only 10 years ago in Ecuador. Homosexuality was considered a ¨disorder¨ by the American Psychiatric Association until 1973, and by the World Health Organization until 1991. The inadaquate rape sentence is quite disturbing when taking into account that 90% of families experience domestic violence in Ecuador. Even if a victim wanted to press charges, sexual assault evidence kits are not available in Ecuador, therefore the accussed must consent to a DNA test. On the topic of sexual rights, in rural areas (which the World Bank states accounts for 67% of the country) an extremely small percentage of people use birth control, and the most common method used is for women to get their ¨tubes tied,¨ which is a free service provided by the government. Only 2.5% of people use condoms, which is the only effective method of protection against HIV and STDS. 10% of girls ages 15-19 are married or have kids, although I would argue this percentage is much much higher. 16% of pregnant women are between the ages of 12-19. 72% of women don´t know about the Free Maternity Law...although even if they were aware of their rights or had access to a public health clinic, there is a great chance that the the clinic would lack fundamental services required to guarantee their rights, such as staff, machinery, or medicine. 70% of women have never had a pap smear, and at least 23% of women give birth in their house.
Back to the topic of drug trafficking and the US´s hand in Ecuadorian politics. Counter-narcotics and anti-terrorism are 2 of the U.S.´s most ¨important¨ missions in Ecuador. US AID/Ecuador does not receive any funding for health programs here, as they are mostly allocated for economic and business development grants. Moreover, their bugget has been cut in half over the past couple years because ¨Ecuador is not on the map,¨ says one US AID representative. With over 50% of Ecuadorians living on less than $2 a day, maybe this country should be ¨put on the map.¨ I think the US government and people must review our priorities and which type of activities we continue to fund. The US calls Ecuador a reactive country, as opposed to one who takes preventative measures. Yet as a country we are not funding health programs which would support preventative behavior. We are spending billions of dollars on military and counter-narcotics missions, while ignorning basic human needs.
Another fun fact is that Ecuador uses the US dollar for financial transactions. In the constitution the official currency is still the sucre, but it is no longer used after the 1990 banking crisis occured and the sucre became worthless. Ecuador is struggling to monitor or manage their own banking system and are apparently using the dollar to stabilize the economy, which has functioned to decrease inflation and increase wages.
I don´t promise that all my stats and facts are perfect, as statistics are always volatile and difficult to measure, and also vary according to their source. I hope you found this info interesting!