The Road to the Revolución Ciudadana

Abstract

The spaces of oil extraction in Ecuador are dynamic sites of negotiation, contestation, acquiescence, and resistance. Since the election of Rafael Correa in 2006, the uneasy coexistence of state, firm, and indigenous peoples in these spaces has shifted to reflect an explicitly anti-neoliberal and anti-imperialist platform. This chapter examines the conditions of this shift, and asks the question at the heart of this book: what is the possibility for a new political economy of oil in Ecuador? We use the concept of “entanglements” to frame this emerging direction, to move beyond a dualistic understanding of power relations, and to ask about the transformative promises that emerge out of the messy and intersecting relationships shaping life in Ecuador’s twenty-first-century oil frontier. In Ecuador’s Amazon region, crude entanglements take on a multiplicity of forms and have changed dramatically since the discovery of oil in 1967. A brief political economic history of oil boom, indebtedness, neoliberal policies, and tumult provides necessary context to understand the rise of President Correa and his party, Alianza Pais. Correa’s platform is encapsulated by the Revolucion Ciudadana, a developmentalist project of governance introduced by his administration in 2007. As we discuss, the term Revolucion Ciudadana can be interpreted in many ways, and these multiple meanings and valences possess a utility in describing and justifying the suite of policies and practices of the Correa administration. The project of the Revolucion Ciudadana is made possible via public spending using revenue generated by extractive activities disproportionally impacting socio-ecological communities in the Amazon region, an area of high biological and cultural diversity.