DECOLONIZE INTERNALLY? TRACKING THE MILITARY AND COLONIZING PATTERNS IN ECUADOR THROUGH RISK MANAGEMENT

Abstract:

A techno-scientific and military approach predominates risk management in Ecuador, focusing on national security and immediate response to disaster. Drawing from two historical cases, the eruption of the Tungurahua volcano (1999-2006) and the coastal earthquake (2016-2018), we discuss the internal colonial trajectory of risk management in Ecuador as being fundamentally subordinated to the political and economic interests of the governments and powerful. Additionally, we shed light on the trajectory taken by the concerned institutions, the production of “official” knowledge and the role of the Armed Forces. since the 90s with regard to risk management. Although there have been certain institutional and policy advances, an important bias prevails in the attention to risks and disasters that continues to impact local populations, indigenous peasants and Afro-Ecuadorians, and their opportunity to empower themselves in the management of their own territory and their economic resources, equaling to prolonged forms of internal colonialism in ethnic and gendered dimensions. We conclude that the preventive reduction of vulnerability through an adequate legal framework, still absent today, would imply that vulnerable populations are recognized as relevant participating actors in education, prevention and mitigation.

Año de publicación:

2021

Keywords:

• Tungurahua
• ECUADOR
• Disaster management
• Civil Defense
• Decoloniality

Fuente:

scopus