Gerlach, Allen. Indians, Oil, and Politics: a Recent History of Ecuador.

• Author: Dawsey, James M.
• Position: Book Review

Gerlach, Allen. Indians, Oil, and Politics: A Recent History of Ecuador. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, Inc., 2003. 286 pp. Cloth, $65; paper, $23.95.

The anthropologist David E. Stuart describes Ecuador as "like living in a Russian novel, only worse." It is certainly true that no South American country has experienced a more tumultuous history than Ecuador. From the formation of the first Republic in 1830, when General Juan Jose Flores led the break with Gran Colombia, until the summer of 2000, when Allen Gerlach's account breaks off, Ecuador suffered through nineteen different constitutions and 113 presidents, interim presidents, and governing juntas--an average of a different executive leader every eighteen months.

Gerlach's study focuses on the years 1996-2000, a dreadful period marked by soaring poverty, runaway inflation, rampant corruption, and mass demonstrations culminating in Gustavo Noboa Berjano's elevation as Ecuador's sixth president in four years. The author's purpose, however, is not to illustrate the government's continuing instability but to chronicle the coming of age of the Indians' fight for political expression. Thus, after surveying Ecuador's geography, demography, and history (especially economic history), Gerlach turns his pen to the creation of the politically active Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and to the role it played in bringing down the Abdala Bucaram/Rosalia Arteaga regime in 1997 and the Jamil Mahuad presidency in early 2000. Then, in the book's strongest section, Gerlach details the role of CONAIE working with the military to take over Congress and transfer executive power to Noboa.

As the book's title makes clear, Gerlach believes that Ecuador's recent history has been most marked by two factors: (1) the rise of an indigenous nationalism with the incorporation of once-voiceless Indians into the political arena; and, (2) a failed economic policy that depends too much on oil exports as a source of government revenues. While his account of presidential campaigns, the rise and fall of Ecuadorean politicians, and even the formation of the Indians' movement and its machinations with the military is often tedious, it is thorough and filled with insight into the political workings of Ecuador. No doubt, Gerlach's book should be on the must-read list for Latin Americanists trying to make sense of the recent political unrest in Ecuador.

With regard to the thesis that Ecuador's...