Pachakutik Plurinational Unity Movement – New Country

The Pachakutik Plurinational Unity Movement – New Country () is a political party in Ecuador that's described as Indigenist and left-wing. It was founded primarily as a way to advance the interests of a wide variety of Indigenous peoples' organizations throughout Ecuador.

History

In the context of Ecuador's Indigenous movement, Pachakutik emerged in 1995 after civil society mobilizations by large Indigenous organizations such as CONAIE and CONFENAIE. These movements had previously espoused an abstentionist position in relation to electoral politics, but came together to form Coordinadora de Movimientos Sociales (Social Movement Cooperation, CMS) and then Pachakutik to serve as an alternative to the traditional cluster of political parties that had ruled Ecuadorian politics. However, the party is not formally affiliated with CONAIE.

Pachakutik is a term taken from the Quechua ''pacha'', meaning "time and space" or "the world"; and ''kuti, meaning "upheaval" or "revolution". Its aim is not just to win elections but to initiate a democratic transformation of Ecuadorian society, centring on the neglected needs of the Indigenous.

In 1996, its electoral strategy was to concentrate on areas where CONAIE or CMS were strong, but it was able to recruit TV personality Freddy Ehlers and CONAIE leader Luis Macas to its list, adding to its national prominence.

The party has been a topic of controversy among Indigenous peoples throughout Ecuador because of its nature as a political party.

According to American-Venezuelan lawyer Eva Golinger, during the 2010 Ecuador coup d'état attempt, Pachakutik stated that President Rafael Correa was authoritarian and issued a press release opposing him and supporting police and army rebels. Golinger accused Pachakutik of having accepted funding from USAID and NED, and playing a role as part of a United States plan to destabilise Latin American democracies in the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA). Pachakutik denied "having any relationship at all with the organism known as USAID, previously NED, not today nor ever". Golinger responded by referring to a National Democratic Institute (NDI, one of the four institutes funded by NED) report from 2007 describing Pachakutik being trained by the NDI in "Triangle of Party Best Practices and strategic planning methodologies" as part of NDI's Latin American/Caribbean Political Party Network of over 1400 individual members, funded under NED Core Grants 2000-031, 2001-048, 2003-028, and 2004-036.

Political position

The party's core commitments are to environmentalism, social justice and Indigenous rights to recognition and land.

One of the most determined adversaries of the
Correa government is Marlon Santi (of the Amazonian Sarayaku people, president of CONAIE (2008-2011) and national coordinator of Pachakutik since 2016) described this eco-socialist position:

The development proposed by the national government is an aggressive development that fails to view Mother Earth as a space of life, or a space that generates life … We promote an alternative and progressive development that respects the rights of the environment, of human beings and of nature. The government, or the economic power, does not understand the model of life that the Indigenous movement has launched regarding our spaces of life where also the majority of natural wealth is to be found, such as water, oil and minerals.

According to left-wing Ecuadorian scholar Pablo Ospina Peralta, it is "a social movement that is diverse, popular, and multicultural. It has been forged in social mobilization, community resistance, and the chaotic and disorganized work of grassroots organizing."

The Rights of Nature: Sumak Kawsay

After lobbying by the four Pachakutik members of the Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly, the 2008 Ecuadorian Constitution enshrined the Quechua concept of ''Sumac Kawsay'' ('' buen vivir'' in Spanish, meaning "good living", signifying the rights of nature).

Electoral history

Pachakutik participated in the presidential elections of 1996 despite having only been formed a few months beforehand. In order to give a strong media boost to the party in their first presidential election, they recruited a former TV personality named Freddy Ehlers to represent the party on the highest national stage. Although Ehlers failed to win the election, he placed third with nearly twenty percent of the popular vote despite having less than five months to prepare his campaign. In addition, eight members of Pachakutik won seats as national deputies, including CONAIE president Luis Macas, and although they constituted less than ten percent of the seats in the National Congress of Ecuador, the presence of the party was undeniable. For the first time Indigenous citizens of Ecuador were present in Congress, representing the interests of all groups throughout the country.

Pachakutik, along with a strong civil society

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