Amazonian indigenous women: Emerging actors in state relations – Amazonian indigenous organizations, during the Alianza País government in Ecuador

Abstract

In a dialogue with studies on ethnicity, indigenous politics and gender in Latin America, the article analyzes the complex relations between the State and Amazonian indigenous organizations in Ecuador and deepens in the politicization of women in the context of the deepening of oil extractivism and the impulse of large scale mining on the decade 2007 - 2017 during the government of Alianza País, aligned to the Socialism of the XXI Century. Although indigenous organizations granted initial support to the government, due to their acceptance of demands such as the recognition of plurinationality and interculturality, since 2013 they have diverged between positions of defense of indigenous territories, and in other cases of alliance with government policy. In the midst of organizational fragmentation and weakening, women leaders from the Kichwa, Shuar, Shiwiar, Sapara and Waorani peoples found opportunities to sustain resistance, respond to the state promises of development and Good Living, while at the same time positioning specific gender demands.