Correa, Indigenous Movements, and the Writing of a New Constitution in Ecuador

Abstract

In 2008, voters in Ecuador approved a new and progressive constitution. Indigenous leaders questioned whether the new document would benefit social movements or strengthen the hand of President Rafael Correa, who appeared to be occupying political spaces that they had previously held. Correa’s relations with indigenous movements point to the complications, limitations, and deep tensions inherent in pursuing revolutionary changes within a constitutional framework. Although the indigenous movements, as well as most social movements, shared Correa’s stated desire to curtail neoliberal policies and implement social and economic strategies that would benefit the majority of the country’s people, they increasingly clashed over how to realize those objectives. The political outcome of the new constitution depended not on the actions of the constituent assembly but on whether organized civil society could force the government to implement the ideals that the assembly had drafted.