El despertar político de los indígenas evangélicos en Ecuador

La reciente aparición del movimiento indígena evangélico en el escenario político ecuatoriano (2000) constituye un hecho histórico que resalta dos aspiraciones importantes del sector indígena. La una es la recuperación de la libertad y justicia y el rechazo a formas de explotación y violencia impuestas por la actual sociedad dominante, basada en los principios económicos neoliberales. La otra tendencia que emerge de estos movimientos son nuevas formas de organización política basadas en la religión y la etnicidad, las cuales han acentuado la ruptura con el control ideológico de los misioneros norteamericanos, quienes mantenían la idea que la actividad política era demoníaca.The recent appearance of the indigenous evangelical movement on the Ecuadorian political scene (2000) is a historic fact that highlights two important aspirations of the Indian people. One is to recover the people`s right to freedom and justice, and to reject forms of exploitation and violence imposed by the current governing culture, modeled on neo-liberal economic principles. The other one deals with new forms of political organization based on a religious and ethnic identity, from which has resulted a rupture from the ideological control of the North American missionaries, who maintain that participation in political activities is contrary to God´s teachings and should consequently be seen as demonic. The division between “things of the world “ and “things of God” forged by the missionaries has begun to be examined and questioned with respect not only to political activity, but also to indigenous culture and religiousnes