Ecuador Indians begin protest march against land policy

Several hundred Ecuadoran Indians began a two-week cross-country march Thursday to protest land and water policies of President Rafael Correa. Meanwhile, Correa's supporters rallied for Ecuador's president in the capital of Quito. The march was organized by Ecuador's main organization for indigenous tribes, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). After an ancestral rite, the marchers left the town of El Pangui, 700 kilometers (435 miles) south of Quito, in the Amazonian province of Zamora-Chinchipe. They say Correa's policies that would allow more mining in the Amazon region threaten the environment and their way of life. The protesters expect their march to grow in size as they pass through communities on the way to Quito, where they are scheduled to arrive March 22. "People are very motivated, there will always be more people in each village," provincial Governor Salvador Quishpe told AFP. CONAIE originally supported the leftist Correa when he was elected in 2007 but later accused him of abandoning their interests. The protest was prompted partly by an agreement signed this week between the governments of Ecuador and China for industrial mining of copper in the Amazon's Ecuacorriente Zamora-Chinchipe region. CONAIE, which claims to represent a third of Ecuador's population of more than 14 million residents, already has caused the downfall of two presidents, Abdala Bucaram in 1997 and Jamil Mahuad in 2000. Correa has accused CONAIE of trying to destabilize his government. He asked his sympathizers to rally Thursday in downtown Quito near the presidential palace to support the continuation of his "revolution." Correa still has popular support for social programs he developed and for renegotiating contracts with multinational oil companies.