CONAIE was founded at a convention of some 500 indigenous representatives on November 13–16, 1986. Initially forbidding its leaders from holding political office, CONAIE opposed alliances with political parties and presidential candidates. Instead, it promoted local campaigns. By 1996, however, grassroots pressure had pushed the organisation to rethink their position on electoral politics, with the president of CONAIE,
Luis Macas running for national congress and the launching of the
Pachakutik Plurinational Unity Movement - a political party based on the Indigenous movement. Through the 1990s and early 2000s, CONAIE organised at least five national Indigenous uprisings, mobilising thousands of
campesinos to shut down
Quito. During these uprisings CONAIE made demands for land rights and plurinationalism while protesting corruption, deregulation, privatisation, and
dollarisation of the Ecuadorian economy.
1990 uprising In May/June 1990, CONAIE organised the largest uprising in Ecuador's history, using trees and boulders to block roads, paralyze the transport system, and shutting down the country for a week. The 1990 uprising is generally regarded as marking the emergence of Indigenous peoples as new political actors on the national level, as CONAIE forced negotiation on their demands for bilingual education, agrarian reform, and recognition of the plurinational state of Ecuador. The 1990 uprising marked the 500th anniversary since Columbus' first trip to the Americas. In
Quito, protestors occupied the Santa Domingo Church and, protesting the failure of the legal system to process land claims. The protesters intended to occupy the church until CONAIE was able to meet with a government representative to discuss changes in policy regarding their land claim issues. Police surrounded the church. The occupiers in the Santa Domingo church were about to begin a hunger strike when "hundreds of thousands of Indians, in some areas with the support of mestizo peasants, blocked local highways and took over urban plazas. Their demands were focused mostly on land, but also included such issues as state services, cultural rights, and the farm prices of agricultural products. This movement caused so much disruption that the government relented and met with the leaders of CONAIE; the government made some concessions to people in rural areas and settled some land disputes, but the status of ancestral lands in the lowlands remained an unresolved issue. Additionally, Mendoza was contacted by senior
White House policy makers who threatened to end all
bilateral aid and
World Bank lending to Ecuador. The next morning, General Mendoza dissolved the new government and ceded power to Vice President
Gustavo Noboa.
2002 elections and the FTAA In 2002, CONAIE split its resources between
political campaigning and a
mobilization against the
Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) 7th Summit, which was being held in
Quito. In the presidential elections CONAIE backed
populist Lucio Gutiérrez, a military man who had supported the 2000
coup. Gutiérrez was not widely trusted, but he was seen as the only alternative to rival candidate
Álvaro Noboa, the richest man in Ecuador who embodied popular fears of
crony capitalism. Lucio Gutiérrez won the presidential race with 55% of the final vote, owing much of his victory to support from
Pachakutik.
2005 uprising Six months after the election of Gutiérrez, CONAIE proclaimed its official break with the government in response to what CONAIE termed a betrayal of "the mandate given to it by the Ecuadorian people in the last elections." Among other things, Gutiérrez's signing of a Letter of Intent with the
International Monetary Fund sparked outrage. (
see Indigenous Movement Breaks with President Lucio Guiterrez) In 2005, CONAIE participated in an uprising which ousted president
Lucio Gutiérrez. In an April 2005 Assembly of Peoples, and in their own contentious assembly in May, CONAIE made public calls for the ouster of both Gutiérrez and the entire mainstream political class under the slogan "Que se vayan todos" (They all must go), a phrase popularized by the
December 2001 Argentine uprising. In August 2005 CONAIE called for action among indigenous peoples in the
Sucumbios and
Orellana provinces to protest political repression,
Petrobras' attempt to expand their petroleum extracting activities to the Yasuní National Park, and the general activities of Occidental Petroleum in the Amazon. Hundreds of protestors from the Amazon region took control of airports and oil installations in the two provinces for five days, which has prompted a strong response from
Alfredo Palacio's government in Quito. The government called for a state of emergency in the two provinces and the army was sent in to disperse the protestors with tear gas, but in response to the growing crisis the state oil company has temporarily suspended exports of petroleum. Protestors have gone on record as saying that they want oil revenues to be redirected toward society, making way for more jobs and greater expenditures in infrastructure.
2010 and 2014 protests against water privatisation A water bill proposed by the government of
Rafael Correa was opposed by Indigenous organisations who charged that the legislation would allow transnational mining corporations to appropriate water (and privatisation of water in general), and that the bill would violate protection of water provided by the 2008 constitution. In April and May 2010 massive nationwide protests condemned Correa's legislation; protestors viewed the water bill as a neoliberal, extractivist policy that violated the tenets of
sumak kawsay. CONAIE coordinated a National Mobilization in Defense of Water, Life, and Food Sovereignty, and protests blockaded the congressional building and roads across the country. Police responded with violent repression, but the campaign did result in the delay of the water law pending a referendum in Indigenous communities.
2012 protests In 2012, the Ecuadorian government under Rafael Correa made agreements with China to enable investment of $1.4 billion to develop copper-gold mines in the Amazon rainforest in the
Zamora Chinchipe province. Following these agreements, CONAIE organized several weeks of marching and
demonstration in 2012 demanding consultation with affected Indigenous people and protection of water. Chinese companies eventually developed the
Mirador mine, which exported its first copper in 2019, although Indigenous opposition stopped development of the
San Carlos Panantza mine in 2020.
2013 The largest involvement CONAIE has had in recent politics is with large national oil companies who wish to drill and build on indigenous land. On "November 28th, 2013, plain-clothes officers in Quito, Ecuador summarily closed the offices of Fundación Pachamama, a nonprofit that for 16 years has worked in defense of the rights of Amazonian indigenous peoples and the
rights of nature. The dissolution, which the government blamed on their “interference in public policy,” was a retaliatory act that sought to repress Fundación Pachamama's legitimate right to disagree with the government's policies, such as the decision to turn over Amazonian indigenous people's land to oil companies."
2015 2019 protests over austerity measures 2022 uprising ==Leadership==