Luis Macas
Encyclopedia
Kichwa
Kichwa is a Quechuan language, and includes all Quechua varieties spoken in Ecuador and Colombia by approximately 2,500,000 people...
politician and intellectual from Saraguro Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
.
Macas has honorary university degrees in anthropology, linguistics and jurisprudence. He was one of the founders of the CONAIE
CONAIE
The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador or more commonly, CONAIE, is Ecuador's largest indigenous organization. Formed in 1986, CONAIE has pursued social change on behalf of the region's significant native population using a wide range tactics including direct action...
and of the Pachakutik Movement
Pluri-National Pachakutik United Movement - New Country
The Pachakutik Plurinational Unity Movement – New Country is a left wing indigenist party in Ecuador. It was founded in January 1996 primarily as a way to advance the interests of a wide variety of indigenous peoples' organizations throughout Ecuador...
, and was member of the National Congress of Ecuador
National Congress of Ecuador
The National Congress was the unicameral legislative branch of the government of Ecuador prior to November 2007....
. In 2003 he joined Lucio Gutiérrez
Lucio Gutiérrez
Lucio Edwin Gutiérrez Borbúa served as President of Ecuador from January 15, 2003 to April 20, 2005.- Political rise :Gutiérrez was prominent in a popular uprising that replaced President Jamil Mahuad for three hours in January 2000...
's government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
as Minister of Agriculture, quit because of disagreements with his neoliberal policies.
Macas was vice-president of the CONAIE (Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas de Ecuador) from 1988 to 1991, and CONAIE president from 1991 to 1996 and from 2004-2008.
On May 24, 2006 Macas was proclaimed by the Pachakutik Movement as presidential candidate for the October 15, 2006 election. He came in seventh (out of 13 candidates), with just over 2 percent of the vote.
Related videos
- Globalization from Below. Lecture given by Luis Macas, Ecuadoran Indigenous Leader and Human Rights Activist. November 16, 2006. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.