1 FEMINIST CRITICAL HUMAN SECURITY - Open Collections

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FEMINIST CRITICAL HUMAN SECURITY:

WOMEN’S (IN) SECURITY AND SMUGGLING ON ECUADOR'S BORDERS

by

Claudia Donoso

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR

THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

in

THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES

(Interdisciplinary Studies)

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

(Okanagan Campus)

November 2016

© Claudia Donoso, 2016

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Examination Committee

The undersigned certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies

for acceptance, a thesis entitled:

FEMINIST CRITICAL HUMAN SECURITY: WOMEN’S (IN) SECURITY AND

SMUGGLING ON ECUADOR'S BORDERS

_____________________________________________________________________________

submitted by Claudia Donoso in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY.

Dr. James Rochlin, Department of Political Science.

Supervisor, Professor (please print name and faculty/school above the line)

Dr. Patricia Tomic, Department of Sociology.

Supervisory Committee Member, Professor (please print name and faculty/school in the line

above)

Dr. Ricardo Trumper, Department of Sociology.

Supervisory Committee Member, Professor (please print name and faculty/school in the line

above)

Dr. Susan Frohlick, Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies.

University Examiner, Professor (please print name and faculty/school in the line above)

Dr. Pablo Andrade, Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Ecuador.

External Examiner, Professor (please print name and university in the line above)

November, 2016

(Date Submitted to Grad Studies)

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Abstract

The study addresses the following central research question: What comprises the web of power

relations that have led to women’s insecurity in Ecuador’s border provinces, El Oro, Carchi and

Sucumbíos? A web of power relationships in those provinces has perpetuated intersectional

inequalities that lead women to become smugglers. This web is supported by systems of

oppression based on gender, class, race and geographical location that foster unequal access to

education, paid work, health services and domestic violence, thereby aggravating women’s

insecurity. Customs control, police and military subsumed under national and border security

aggravate women’s security conditions. To complement this militarized response, the government

of Rafael Correa launched Plan Ecuador and the Sovereign Energy Plan in 2007 and the

Comprehensive Security Plan in 2011. These plans sought to confront the involvement of

Ecuadorians in activities considered illegal by the security forces. While Plan Ecuador and the

Integral Security Plan incorporated a multidimensional approach and a human security discourse

to complement national security, they did not recognize the diversity of women's experiences of

insecurity and roles at border provinces. To address this empirical case, this dissertation advances

the concept of “feminist critical human security” to examine women’s security in Ecuador’s border

zones, specifically in El Oro, Sucumbíos and Carchi provinces. Drawing on Black feminism’s idea

of intersectionality and matrix of domination and on feminist critiques of national security, this

research establishes women smugglers as referents of security rather than as criminals, as the

border security discourse views them. By using a feminist critical human security lens that take

into account the intersections of gender, race, class and geographical location and that includes the

voices of women and their conceptions of local development and security, this research will

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enhance the ability of governments to improve their planning and policies related to increasing the

security of women in border zones.

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Preface

This dissertation is an original intellectual product of the author, Claudia Donoso. The fieldwork

reported herein was covered by UBC Okanagan Behavioural Ethics Board and UBC Ethics

Certificate number H12-02980. The results of the fieldwork were presented at the Canadian

Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CALACS) 2014 conference in Quebec

City on May 16-18, 2014, at the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development

(CASID) 2015 conference in Ottawa on June 3-5, 2015, and at the CALACS 2016 conference at

the University of Calgary on June 3, 2016.

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Table of Contents

Examination Committee .............................................................................................................. ii

Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ iii

Preface ........................................................................................................................................... v

Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... vi

List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ ix

List of Maps ................................................................................................................................... x

Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... xi

Dedication .................................................................................................................................... xii

Chapter 1. Conceptual framework and methodology ............................................................... 1

1.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Conceptual framework.............................................................................................................. 5

1.2.1 National Security ............................................................................................................ 8

1.2.2 Human Security and Critical Human Security ............................................................. 12

1.2.3 Feminist’s critiques of national security ...................................................................... 22

1.2.4 Intersectionality and women’s insecurity ..................................................................... 28

1.2.5 Feminist critical human security .................................................................................. 36

1.2.6 Border ........................................................................................................................... 43

1.2.7 Power ............................................................................................................................ 49

1.2.7.1 Power as domination ................................................................................................. 50

1.2.7.2 Power as empowerment............................................................................................. 54

1.2.7.3 Feminist critical human security’s conception of power ........................................... 58

1.2.8 Summary of the theoretical approach ........................................................................... 61

1.3 Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 63

1.3.1 Methods ........................................................................................................................ 64

1.3.2 Quantitative and Qualitative Data ................................................................................ 70

1.3.3 Successes and problems encountered in data collection activities ............................... 71

Chapter 2. Ecuadorian Policy on Security ............................................................................... 75

2.1 National Security as viewed by the Ecuadorian state ......................................................... 75

2.1.1 The State under Rafael Correa and Methods of Security Control ................................ 90

2.1.2 New threats to Ecuador’s border security under Rafael Correa ................................... 99

2.1.3 Smuggling of fuels and propane cylinders on Ecuador’s northern and southern borders

............................................................................................................................................. 103

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2.2 Human Security: a new paradigm in Ecuadorian security policy? ................................... 115

2.2.1 Human Security as a complement to National Security Initiatives on Ecuador’s

Borders ................................................................................................................................ 115

2.2.2 Lack of continuity within public policy and permanent shifts in security priorities .. 120

2.3 Summary of the Chapter ................................................................................................... 127

Chapter 3. Women’s Insecurity and National Security ........................................................ 128

3.1 National Security and Women Smugglers in Ecuador’s Borders Areas .......................... 128

3.2 Women’s Insecurity in Ecuador: Intersectional Inequalities ............................................ 143

3.2.1 Violence against Women............................................................................................ 149

3.2.2 Education and Women’s Security .............................................................................. 151

3.2.3 Labor Market and Women’s Security ........................................................................ 154

3.3 Planning Feminist Critical Human Security in Ecuador’s Border Zones ......................... 165

3.3.1 Gender mainstreaming vs. Intersectionality mainstreaming ...................................... 170

3.4 Intersectionality in Public Policy ...................................................................................... 176


Chapter 4. Women’s Insecurity in Carchi, Sucumbíos and El Oro ..................................... 186

4.1 Intersectionality and Women's Security in Sucumbíos, Carchi and El Oro ..................... 189

4.1.1 Northern Border ......................................................................................................... 192

4.1.1.1 Sucumbíos-Lago Agrio ........................................................................................ 196

4.1.1.2 Carchi-La Concepción -Chota Valley ................................................................. 217

4.1.1.2.1 Women’s organizations in Carchi ............................................................... 222

4.1.1.2.2 Border Security ............................................................................................ 224

4.1.1.2.3 Employment ................................................................................................. 227

4.1.1.2.4 Women and intersectional inequalities ........................................................ 229

4.1.2 Southern Border ......................................................................................................... 233

4.1.2.1 Women’s Insecurity in Huaquillas- El Oro ......................................................... 236

4.1.2.1.1 Women’s organizations in El Oro ............................................................... 239

4.1.2.1.2 Border Security ............................................................................................ 243

4.1.2.1.3 Employment ................................................................................................. 247

4.1.2.1.4 Women and intersectional inequalities ........................................................ 251


Chapter 5. Analytical Conclusions .......................................................................................... 258

5.1 Theoretical implications .................................................................................................... 258

5.2 Policy Recommendations .................................................................................................. 262

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 274

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Appendices ................................................................................................................................. 299

Appendix A: Contact letter for key informant ........................................................................ 299

Appendix B: Consent form for key informant ........................................................................ 300

Appendix C: Poster-Invitation for participants in workshop .................................................. 303

Appendix D: Consent form for participants in workshop ....................................................... 304

Appendix E: List of Key Informants Contacted ..................................................................... 307

Appendix F: Interview Guides for Key Informants ................................................................ 309

Appendix G: Interview Guide for Participants ....................................................................... 311

Appendix H: Certificate of Approval...................................................................................... 312

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List of Tables

Table 1. Value in US dollars of Apprehensions of Merchandise in Zone 1 ………………….. 110

Table 2. Value in US dollars of Apprehensions of Merchandise in Zone 7 ............................. 112

Table 3. Paid and unpaid average work hours per week by gender and ethnicity…………….. 160

Table 4. Average hours per week spent on unpaid work by gender and ethnicity……………. 161

Table 5. Work load by level of education, gender and ethnicity/ Average hours per week…... 162

Table 6. Ethnic groups in Sucumbíos, Carchi and El Oro .......................................................... 189

Table 7. Fields in which inhabitants of Sucumbíos, Carchi and El Oro work ........................... 190

Table 8. Homicide rate in the Andean Region ........................................................................... 194

Table 9. Human Insecurity Problems of Local Women from La Concepción and Chota Valley..226

Table 10. Employment problems of local women from La Concepción and Chota Valley ....... 227

Table 11. Equality demands of local women from La Concepción and Chota Valley .............. 231

Table 12. Border security demands of local women in Huaquillas ............................................ 245

Table 13. Employment demands of local women in Huaquillas ................................................ 249

Table 14. Gender equality demands of local women in Huaquillas ........................................... 253

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List of Maps

Map 1. Ecuador's Border ............................................................................................................ 191

Map 2. Sucumbíos Province…………………………………………………………………... 197

Map 3. Carchi Province……………………………………………………………………….. 217

Map 4. La Concepción Parish…………………………………………………………………. 219

Map 5. El Oro Province……………………………………………………………………….. 237

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Acknowledgements

I offer my enduring gratitude to the faculty, staff and to my fellow students at UBC-Okanagan,

who inspired me to continue my work. I owe particular thanks to my supervisor, Dr. James

Rochlin, to my committee members, Dr. Patricia Tomic and Dr. Ricardo Trumper, the university

examiner, Dr. Susan Frohlick, and the external examiner, Dr. Pablo Andrade, for their thoughtful

reading of this dissertation and their invaluable suggestions.

I thank the Transition Commission to the Council of Women and Gender Equality (CDT),

UN Women-Ecuador, Movimiento de Mujeres El Oro, Confederación Nacional de Mujeres

Negras del Ecuador (CONAMUNE), Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, and FLACSO-

Ecuador for enlarging my vision of equality and human security and providing coherent answers

to my endless questions.

This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development

Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada. Information on the Centre is available on the web at

www.idrc.ca

http://www.idrc.ca/

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Dedication

To my sons Juancho and Nacho, my companions during this journey.

To my father for his great emotional support.

To my mother and all those women who inspired this research.

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Chapter 1. Conceptual framework and methodology

1.1 Introduction

This dissertation analyzes the main critical human security problems faced by women in Ecuador’s

border provinces, namely unemployment, health, a lack of access to education and training, and

domestic violence. More particularly, the dissertation examines smuggling as a case study that

illustrates how systems of oppression based on intersected gendered, class, race and geographical

inequalities interact at the border.

My research seeks to understand what comprises the web of power relations that have led

to women’s insecurity in Ecuador’s border provinces, El Oro, Carchi, and Sucumbíos? Thus, it

analyses how women’s involvement in smuggling is related to conditions of insecurity at the

border. It also strives to assess the extent to which Ecuadorian public policies related to human

security at its northern and southern borders encourage the security and well-being of local women,

taking into consideration the intersections of gender, race, class and geographical location.

Through a feminist critical human security lens, this research establishes women smugglers as

referents of security rather than as criminals, as the border security discourse views them.

Intersectional inequalities may lead women to become smugglers, but they can be both empowered

and dominated by smuggling fuel, propane cylinders and other goods in Ecuador’s aforementioned

border provinces.

My research employs the theoretical framework of critical human security and feminist

security. The utility of the concept of human security from a feminist perspective is explained by

first outlining the history of the concept, culminating in the concept of “feminist critical human

security” drawing on the works of feminist critiques of national security. In addition, by applying

Black feminist Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw’s idea of intersectionality and Patricia Hill Collins’

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concept of the matrix of domination to the notion of a feminist critical human security approach,

it is possible to be attentive to power relations and to understand how insecurity is embedded into

people’s daily lives and livelihoods in ways that are classed, gendered, racialized and geographical

at Ecuador’s borders. By using a feminist critical human security lens that takes into account the

intersections of gender, race, class and geographical location and that includes the voices of

women and their conceptions of local development and security, this research will enhance the

ability of governments to improve policies related to increasing the security of women in border

zones.

The first chapter explains the conceptual framework and methodology used in this study. I

begin the conceptual discussion by explaining the state-centric concept of national security

through Realism as the dominant school of thought in International Relations Theory. I then

discuss the concept of human security as emancipatory and focused on the security of the

individual and communities rather than on the security of the state. By doing so, I question

traditional constructs of national security and national interest through a critical human security

approach and a feminist critique of national security that enrich the understanding of women’s

security. I argue that national security, as a masculinized, racialized and militarized discourse,

deploys border security practices that criminalize women smugglers. In this sense, security forces

as the “knowers” of security issues have excluded the security of women.

The concept of feminist critical human security is usefully advanced when analyzing the

need to transform the national security approach used by the state. In this dissertation, feminist

critical human security is understood as an emancipatory approach for women and their local

communities in which the intersectionality of women’s insecurity is recognized. Such a concept

recognizes that the conditions of insecurity of women are aggravated by border security practices

and the urban/rural dichotomy and by racial and class discrimination in Ecuadorian society.

3

Through this feminist critical human security framework, I analytically review the traditional

understanding of the border and other perceptions that view the border as a space of integration

where multiple identities encounter each other.

Regarding the methodological approach, in this first chapter I explain that feminist

methodologies in political sciences and international relations influenced the collection of

quantitative and qualitative data as well as the fieldwork carried out in Ecuador between June 2013

and May 2014, which included workshops with local women and interviews with functionaries,

feminist scholars, women’s organization leaders, and local women. The fieldwork was completed

by examining national statistics and census data and by conducting an analysis of Ecuadorian mass

media sources at the national and local levels.

The second chapter examines the Ecuadorian policy on security through two theoretical

approaches, namely national security and human security. Realism has been the dominant

approach in the field of international relations; it focuses on state security and national interests.

Smuggling, as an “illicit economy,” is viewed as a new threat to Ecuadorian national security;

national security initiatives to tackle it are patrolling and customs surveillance. In contrast, human

security emphasizes the importance of the security of the individual and their community. In this

chapter, I also reveal how Ecuadorian security policies have manipulated the concept of human

security to complement national security and to maximize national interests, provoking the failure

of women’s security at the borders.

In the third chapter, I take up the challenge of discussing feminist critical human security

as an emancipatory approach for the wellbeing of women and their communities in three provinces

on the Ecuadorian borders. The chapter studies the extent to which smuggling has become a

borderland economic dynamic that empowers and dominates women. The chapter applies the

concept of power as domination and empowerment from a feminist perspective. The chapter also

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examines border concepts explained by local experts, local authorities and women’s organization

leaders in order to better comprehend the debate between traditional and alternative

understandings of the border. The chapter recommends that the Ecuadorian government develop

feminist critical human security to emancipate local women and their communities rather than a

fake alternative that “complements” its national security, ultimately regulating women’s bodies

through border security practices.

Using a feminist critical human security lens, the fourth chapter assesses the extent to

which the intersectionality of inequalities based on race, class, gender and geographical location

at the Ecuadorian borders with Peru and Colombia has encouraged women to become involved in

smuggling. The chapter also reviews security and development planning agendas in Ecuador’s

border zone and the border dynamic in the three Ecuadorian provinces chosen for this study. This

chapter incorporates mainstream media analysis and a significant amount of testimony collected

during my fieldwork conducted in Ecuador during the summer of 2013. It also includes local

women’s contributions made during workshops conducted with the support of the Women’s

Movement in El Oro Province (MMO) and the Black Women’s Movement in Carchi Province

(CONAMUNE). The results of the Women Federation of Sucumbíos’ agenda are also included.

Finally, the fifth chapter presents my conclusions regarding the theoretical and policy

implications of my research for Ecuador, including suggestions for Ecuadorian public policy

initiatives that include women's voices. It is recommended to include intersectionality

mainstreaming in the policy design cycle. This chapter suggests the need for a public policy within

an intersectional framework to improve women’s wellbeing in Ecuador’s border zones.

5

1.2 Conceptual framework

The main critical human security problems faced by women in Ecuador’s border provinces are

unemployment, health, lack of access to education and training, and domestic violence. This

dissertation analyzes smuggling as a case study that illustrates how systems of oppression based

on intersected gendered, class, race and geographical inequalities interact at the border. This

chapter develops the conceptual framework and methodology that contribute to the analysis of the

security of local women in Ecuador’s border zones, specifically in El Oro, Sucumbíos and Carchi

provinces. Such an analysis makes possible to understand what comprises the web of power

relations that lead to women’s insecurity at the border and to determine whether their smuggling

indicates their empowerment or domination. My research combines the theoretical framework of

critical human security and feminist security. Subsequently, I propose the concept of feminist

critical human security, which draws on the works of feminist critiques of national security, on

Black feminist Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw’s idea of intersectionality, and on Patricia Hill

Collins’ concept of the matrix of domination. A feminist critical human security allows this

research to be attentive to power relations and understand how insecurity at Ecuador’s borders is

rooted in people’s daily lives in ways that are classed, gendered, racialized, and discriminatory

depending on geographical location. Through a feminist critical human security lens, this research

establishes women who smuggle as referents of security rather than as criminals, as the border

security discourse views them.

The conceptual discussion analyzes the state-centric concept of national security through

Realism as the dominant school of thought in International Relations Theory. The concept of

human security is then discussed as emancipatory and focused on the security of the individual

and communities rather than on the security of the state. By doing so, this dissertation questions

traditional constructs of national security and national interest through a critical human security

6

approach that incorporates feminist critiques of national security, in order to understand women’s

security in particular. The concept of feminist critical human security is proposed to support the

need to transform the national security approach used by the state. Feminist critical human security

is understood as an emancipatory approach for women and their local communities in which the

intersectionality of women’s insecurity is recognized. Thus, feminist critical human security

recognizes that the conditions of insecurity of women are aggravated by the urban/rural dichotomy

and by racial and class discrimination in Ecuadorian society in general and patriarchal and racist

border security practices in particular. Through this feminist critical human security framework, I

review the traditional understanding of the border and contrast it with views of borders as spaces

of integration and of intersection of multiple identities.

In this first chapter, I discuss the methodological approach of my dissertation. I used

feminist methodologies in political sciences and international relations to collect quantitative and

qualitative data during the fieldwork that was carried out between June 2013 and May 2014.

Feminist critical human security determined the methods chosen in this research, which included

workshops conducted with local women in Ecuador and interviews with Ecuadorian functionaries,

feminist experts and women’s organization leaders. The research topic was also approached by

examining national statistics and census data and by conducting an analysis of Ecuadorian mass

media sources at the national and local levels.

Even though, the women studied had not written security documents that I could read and

analyze, I set out to research security from the perspective of local women. In preparing for the

fieldwork, I conducted research on women’s organization in the three provinces chosen for this

study. I was then able to select key organizations that, in my view, represented the different

identities and interests of women at the border. To gain a better understanding of what security

meant to those women, I conducted interviews and workshops with local women in the provinces

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of Carchi, El Oro and Sucumbíos. The participants were low-income, black, Indigenous and

mestizo women that suffer at least a triple discrimination. Since they have experienced racism,

sexism, and classism, their security has multiple roots within the systems of power.

This section discusses the concepts that will be applied to the empirical case studied in this

dissertation. The central ideas from which I borrow to form the conceptual framework for my

thesis are national security, human security, critical human security, feminist security, feminist

critical human security, border and power.

I begin by explaining that, from the perspective of the realist school of thought, the state-

centric concept of national security is primarily concerned with the state’s national interest and

security agenda. In order to challenge this state-centric view, this dissertation discusses the concept

of human security as emancipatory and focused on the security of the individual and the

community rather than on the security of the state. To enrich the understanding of women’s

security, I question masculinized and militarized constructs of national security and national

interest through a feminist security lens. In this sense, the concept of feminist critical human

security seeks to transform the national security discourse deployed by border security practices

that criminalize women smugglers. This feminist critical human security framework challenges

the traditional understanding of the border, questions patriarchal border security practices and

locates women at the center of security concerns. By recognizing the intersectionality of women’s

insecurity experiences, the feminist critical human security perspective acknowledges that the

insecurity of women at the border is the result of inequalities based on race, class, gender and the

urban/rural dichotomy. The feminist critical human security approach is emancipatory, as it fosters

women’s empowerment and active participation in their communities.

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1.2.1 National Security

I analyze the concept of national security through Realism, which is the mainstream theory in

international relations. For Realism, states are the principal actors in global politics, emphasizing

issues such as power,1 national interest and national security. International politics has been linked

to the idea of human nature, where the concept of interest is defined in terms of power.2 The realist

view of security emanates from the survival of the state in an anarchic international system in order

to preserve a state’s sovereignty.3 For classical realism, political issues are ruled by human nature;4

anarchy, in the absence of international government, turns international relations into the realm of

competition and interest. Furthermore, state behavior seeks to maximize its power so as to survive

in an international anarchical system that lacks a higher authority to enforce laws. Hence, realism

views military superiority as the core of power, where inter-state relationships are dominated by

powerful states imposing demands on the less powerful. For realists, international relations have

included an important security component sustained and supported by a state’s national interest;

thus, the interrelation between a state’s security and national interest has fostered a national

security approach within international relations.

A national security approach fosters a self-interested agenda in which power is viewed as

the political and military manipulation of one’s own position to pressure others. In this sense, the

1 From a classical realist perspective, power is located in human nature. Hans Morgenthau in particular understood

power as a psychogenic and inter-subjective condition of politics. See more at Hans J. Morgenthau, ‘Über die Herkunft

des Politischen aus dem Wesen des Menschen’, 1930 (Container 151, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress,

Washington, DC), 43. 2 Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, 4th ed. (New York: Alfred A.

Knopf, 1967), 4-5. 3 Björn Hettne, “Development and security,” Security Dialogue 41, no. 1 (2010): 33. 4 In his book “Leviathan”, Hobbes views human nature as the right of nature that allows each man to use his own

power as his will to preserve his own life. This natural right of every man reveals that there is not security for any

man despite its strength or wisdom. The condition of man is the condition of “warre” where every man is against the

other. Every man is governed by his own reason. See Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan (London: The Guernsey Press,

1973), 66-67.

9

concept of national security is particularly important for the national interests of the state such as

Ecuador. National security is a part of government policy; its objective is the creation of national

and international political conditions favorable to the protection or extension of vital national

values against existing and potential adversaries.5 National security includes a traditional defense

policy and also the non-military actions of a state designed to ensure its total capacity to survive

as a political entity in order to exert influence and to carry out its internal and international

objectives.6 Nevertheless, it has been claimed that national security is an ambiguous concept that

remains a “weakly conceptualized, ambiguously defined, but politically powerful concept… For

practitioners of state policy, compelling reasons exist for maintaining its symbolic ambiguity…

An undefined notion of national security offers scope for power-maximizing strategies to political

and military elites, because of the considerable leverage over domestic affairs which can be

obtained by invoking it.”7 The ambiguity of the concept of national security is related to its

intrinsic subjectivity, particularly in defining threats to any nation’s security.8 A threat to national

security can be defined as an action or sequence of events that threatens drastically to degrade the

quality of life for the inhabitants of a state, or threatens significantly to narrow the range of policy

choices available to a government of a state.9 Consequently, a state’s definition of threats to

national security varies according to the national and international context, encouraging the

construction of self-interested security agendas and strategies based on a state’s national interests.

5 Frank N. Trager and Frank L. Simonie, “An Introduction to the study of national security,” in F. N. Trager and P.S

Kronenberg, National Security and American Society Theory, Process and Policy (Lawrence: University Press of

Kansas, 1973), 36. 6 Michael Louw, National Security a modern approach: (papers presented at the Symposium on national security held

at Pretoria, 31 March-1 April 1977), the quote is for the introductory note titled “The purpose of the symposium.”

Published 1978 by Institute for Strategic Studies, University of Pretoria. 7 Barry Buzan, People, States, and Fear: The National Security Problem in International Relations (Chapel Hill:

University of North Carolina Press, 1983), 4, 9. 8 Joseph J. Romm, Defining National Security The Non-Military Aspects (New York: Council on Foreign Relations,

1993), 3-4. 9 Richard H. Ullman, “Redefining Security,” International Security 8, no. 1 (Summer 1983): 133.

https://openlibrary.org/publishers/Institute_for_Strategic_Studies,_University_of_Pretoria

10

The pursuit of military and economic power has been the main motivation of a state’s

national interests to protect its own national security. Military power specifically has become

extremely relevant in a state’s relationship with others. Many traditional and non-traditional wars10

have been fought to increase military strength, to prevent another country from becoming

stronger11 and to minimize threats to national security. A traditional understanding of security, as

proposed by several feminist scholars, such as Caroline Thomas (1992), Ann Tickner (2005), and

Spike Peterson (1992), emphasizes the defense of states’ territorial boundaries and the protection

of their values, interests and resources.12 National security therefore accepts a permanent state of

war in which a state’s interests are seen as the main issue for national and international relations.

Despite being the predominant school of thought in international relations, realism provides

a limited approach to a state-centric analysis of power, international relations and security. “Naive

realism” holds the view that the world is self-evident or that the facts simply “speak for

themselves.”13 Realism remains fascinated with security-seeking reason, legitimizing the use of

10 Traditional wars are between states, while non-traditional wars can be led by one or several states against terrorism,

transnational crime and other non-state actors considered as threats for those states’ national security. Traditionally,

the concept of security has referred to the security of states. In this regard, governments have defined their respective

agendas based on threats from abroad, as military interventions, or those of internal origin that put at risk government

institutions, as was the case of the armed movements with revolutionary intentions. For further discussion on

traditional threats and non-traditional threats to states’ national security see Gerardo Rodríguez Sánchez Lara,

Antiguas y Nuevas Amenazas a la Seguridad de América Latina, Fundación Preciado. 15-18.

http://www.fundacionpreciado.org.mx/biencomun/bc152/gerardo_rodriguez.pdf. Also refer to Lucia Dammert.

Nuevas Amenazas para la Seguridad. (Octubre 2011) ANEPE-Chile. Power point presentation.

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CE0QFjAE&url=http%3A%

2F%2Fwww.anepe.cl%2Fwp-

content%2Fuploads%2FDammert_Anepe_Octubre2011.ppt&ei=GS5xUoHdCq_oiAKLp4GgBg&usg=AFQjCNFZl

9eO4XdmMaJAr_v_ZiwnEiG31A (accessed September 13, 2013). 11 Edward Hallet Carr, Twenty Years´ Crisis 1919-1939 (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2001), 111. 12 Caroline Thomas, “Third World Security,” in International Security in the Modern World, ed. Roger Carrey and

Trevor C. Salmon (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992), 93; Ann Tickner, “Gendering a Discipline: Some Feminist

Methodological Contributions to International Relations,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30, no. 4

(2005): 2173-2188; and V. Spike Peterson, “Security and Sovereign States: What is at stake in taking feminism

seriously?” in Gendered States. Feminist (Re) Visions of International Relations Theory, edited by. V. Spike Peterson

(Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992), 31-64. 13 Klaus-John Dodds and James Sidaway, “Locating Critical Geopolitics,” Environment and Planning D: Society and

Space 12, no. 5 (1994): 518.

http://www.fundacionpreciado.org.mx/biencomun/bc152/gerardo_rodriguez.pdf

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CE0QFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.anepe.cl%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2FDammert_Anepe_Octubre2011.ppt&ei=GS5xUoHdCq_oiAKLp4GgBg&usg=AFQjCNFZl9eO4XdmMaJAr_v_ZiwnEiG31A




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force according to states’ territorial ambitions and predatory agendas.14 It tells us very little about

non-state actors, inter-state cooperation, levels of threat perception15 or how national security

initiatives affect people’s everyday lives, thereby creating more insecurity.

National security as a state-based security paradigm is failing to protect people in

Ecuador’s border zones. A self-interested national security agenda does not pay enough attention

to the well-being of citizens and their communities. Rather, national security involves a state-

centric vision that is used to protect the state’s political and economic interests and values, using

a military approach to combat local, national and regional threats. For instance, the national

security approach is useful when analyzing a border security discourse that criminalizes threats to

national security, such as smuggling, which has been a traditional way of living in border zones.

In the Ecuadorian context, the smuggling of subsidized fuel and propane cylinders for domestic

use to Colombia and Peru has come to be perceived as a threat to national security and has been

made the main target of border control security practices. As a result, national security practices

criminalize individuals who become involved in smuggling activities.

This section has addressed the national security approach that views the state as the referent

of security. The following section examines the concept of human security understood as a

paradigm shift in security studies that gives priority to the individual as the referent of security

analysis.

14 Martin Griffiths, Rethinking International Relations Theory (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 4; See also

Kanti Bajpai. Human Security: Concept and Measurement. Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. .

http://www.ciaonet.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/wps/baj01/ (accessed July 20, 2012). 15 Griffiths, Ibid., 4.

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1.2.2 Human Security and Critical Human Security

In the post-Cold War 90s, multidimensional security challenges and threats were re-discovered.

In fact, from the perspective of the states in general the debate over what issues constitute a threat

to national security has been renewed and has mutated. The new threats to security do not come

exclusively from an external enemy or from territorial conflicts; rather, they come from within the

state in such form as underdevelopment, diseases, poverty, pollution, internal conflict or criminal

violence. In addition, nonmilitary problems such as economic, energy and environmental

security, have become serious threats to security.16 Thus, the security discourse and agenda have

widened their scope to include new actors and topics, such as gender, equity and the environment.17

This new security agenda requires preventive diplomacy and development18 and the equal

participation of marginalized groups such as Indigenous peoples and women.19 New security

threats occur when the state fails to protect the civilian population, 20 thereby creating human

insecurity. Therefore, this shift in the security discourse recognizes that, for individuals and their

communities, a feeling of insecurity arises from worries about daily life, such as food security,

income security, health security or environmental security.

The 1994 Human Development Report is considered the foundational document for the

new security paradigm. It emphasizes human security rather than state security.21 Human security

provides an alternative approach to security studies by locating security at the personal level (and

16 Joseph J. Romm, Defining National Security The Non-Military Aspects (New York: Council on Foreign Relations,

1993), 1-2. 17 William Bain, “Against Crusading: The Ethic of Human Security and Canadian Foreign Policy,” Canadian Foreign

Policy 6, no.3 (1999): 86. 18

Kanti Bajpai, Human Security: Concept and Measurement. Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies

(August, 2000). http://www.ciaonet.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/wps/baj01/ (accessed July 20, 2012). 19 Charlotte Bunch, “Feminism, Peace, Human Rights and Human Security,” in Feminist Politics, Activism and Vision.

Local and Global Challenges, ed. Luciana Ricciutelli, Angela Miles and Margaret H. McFadden. (London and New

York: Zed Books, 2004), 79. 20 Pol Morillas Bassedas, “Génesis y evolución de la expresión de la seguridad humana. Un repaso histórico,” Revista

CIDOB d'Afers Internacionals 76 (2006): 48. 21 Gary King and Christopher Murray, “Rethinking Human Security,” Political Science Quarterly 116, no. 4 (2001):

589.

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especially regarding the UN’s 2006 review of the human security approach at the community

level). Traditionally, state sovereignty promotes national security practices and discourses that

foster government’s control of territory and it recognition by other states. Human security, in

contrast, challenges practices and institutions that give priority to “high politics” rather than to

individual experiences of insecurity. By fostering the evolution of state sovereignty, it suggests

that state sovereignty must serve the people from whom it draws its legitimacy.22 The human

security approach argues that an exclusive emphasis on state security denies individuals’ wellbeing

needs.23 Since human security challenges a state-centric approach to security based on the military

defense of territory against external threats, it attempts to influence public policy to address

individual’s security needs. The seven dimensions of human security (economic, food, health,

environmental, personal, community, and political) cover a wide range of issues. Thus, the 1994

Human Development Report states that human security is concerned with human life and dignity.24

It addresses all the threats to human survival, daily life and dignity because the individual must be

free from want (socioeconomic rights) and fear (political and civil rights).

The idea of freedom is embedded in the human security approach of the UN Human

Development Report of 1994. Development is a process of expanding individual freedoms.25

Hence, freedom involves processes of decision making and opportunities for achieving valued

outcomes.26 For example, by escaping from poverty, which is as a source of un-freedom,

individuals become free when they have access to social services, political participation and so on.

Therefore, human security as a person-centric approach increases individuals’ freedom by

22 Newman, Edward. “Critical Human Security Studies,” Review of International Studies 36, no.1 (2010): 79. 23 Newman, Ibid. 24 United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 1994 (New York: Oxford University Press,

1994), 22. 25 Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 3. 26 Sen, Ibid., 291.

14

improving their quality of life. Freedom, from a human security perspective, is achieved when the

economic and political rights of individuals and communities are continuously respected and

guaranteed through effective and decentralized public policies.

Currently, there is no agreement about how broad the concept of human security should be;

nor does it have a single definition. Some prefer a broad definition, but others suggest a narrow

definition because they believe that this is easier to operationalize. The narrow definition of human

security is more reactive in cases of human rights violations and post-conflict interventions, while

the broader definition includes a preventive approach that addresses threats to human life,

livelihood and the dignity of individuals, including poverty alleviation and environmental

protection within an inter-sectorial policy framework. Since the 90s, Canada, Norway and Japan

have become the pioneers in encouraging foreign policies based on human security. For Canadian

foreign policy, both the Human Security Network27 and The Responsibility to Protect Report28

narrow the concept by requiring human security to put an emphasis on human rights. Canada’s

perspective reflects a narrower focus, emphasizing antipersonnel landmines, small arms, children

in armed conflict and international humanitarian and human rights law.29 Hence, it is important to

be careful with the use of the narrow definition of human security, which has suffered from a

tendency towards militarization in humanitarian international conflicts. This narrow definition

links human security to a state-based approach that may not overcome the issues that motivated

27 The Lysøen Declaration in Norway which took place in 1998 was the first step to the creation of the Human Security

Network. This network is composed by 14 member countries (Austria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Greece, Ireland,

Jordan, Mali, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, South Africa (observer), Switzerland, and Thailand) who believe

that human security has become both a new measure of global security and a new agenda for global action. 28 The Report “The Responsibility to Protect” is a response of the Government of Canada to the UN Secretary-

General, Kofi Annan who in his Millennium Report to the General Assembly in 2000 restated the dilemma that if

humanitarian intervention is an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should the international community should

respond to human rights violations. See International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty- ICISS. The

Responsibility to Protect, (Ottawa: International Development Research Center, 2001), 2. Accessed July 29, 2012

http://responsibilitytoprotect.org/ICISS%20Report.pdf 29 Gary King and Christopher Murray, “Rethinking Human Security,” Political Science Quarterly 116, no. 4 (2001):

590.

15

its creation when the concept emerged in the early 90s. In contrast, by focusing on development,

Japan’s foreign policy, the Human Development Report (1994) and the Human Security Now

Report (2003), foster a broader human security agenda that is more inclusive than Canada's and

the above-mentioned reports.

The Human Development Report of 1994, which is considered the origin of the human

security approach, has been criticized for its lack of precision and its broad definition. Scholars

such as Roland Paris (2001), Adrián Bonilla (2002), and Pol Morillas Bassedas (2008) claim that

the seven components of human security30 examined in the Human Development Report of 1994

are too broad to be applied in practice.31 Therefore, the core task facing the human security agenda

is how to delineate a narrower and more manageable approach.32 The efforts to sharpen the

definition of human security encounter resistance from actors and institutions who believe that the

concept's strength lies in its holism and inclusiveness.33 Attempts to narrow the concept of human

security overlook the fact that a holistic approach fosters civil society participation. Furthermore,

a holistic approach involves an interdisciplinary thinking34 that allows the construction of inter-

sectorial policies to influence several problems simultaneously.35 Broadening securitisation will

bring resources and attention to a wider range of security problems and actors, extending beyond

30 The seven dimensions of human security mentioned in the United Nation Human Development Report 1994 include:

economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security, and

political security. 31 Adrián Bonilla, “Seguridad Humana en la Región Andina,” in Seguridad humana, prevención de conflictos y paz

en América Latina y el Caribe. eds. Aravena, Francisco y Goucha, Moufida (Santiago, Chile: FLACSO-Chile, 2002);

Pol Morillas Bassedas, “Génesis y evolución de la expresión de la seguridad humana. Un repaso histórico,” Revista

CIDOB d'Afers Internacionals 76 (2006): 47-58; Roland Paris, “Human Security: Paradigm Shift or Hot Air?,”

International Security 26, no. 2 (Autumn, 2001): 87-102. 32 Pauline Ewan, “Deepening the Human Security Debate: Beyond the Politics of Conceptual Clarification,”

POLITICS 27, no. 3 (2007): 183. 33 Roland Paris, “Human Security: Paradigm Shift or Hot Air?” International Security 26, no. 2 (2001): 102. 34 Donna Winslow, “A Broad Concept that Encourages Interdisciplinary Thinking,” Security Dialogue 35, no.3,

(2004):362. 35 Francisco Rojas Aravena y Andrea Álvarez Marín, “Seguridad Humana: un estado de arte,” in Seguridad humana,

nuevos enfoques, ed. Francisco Rojas Aravena, 1ª. ed. (San José, C.R.: FLACSO, 2012): 27.

16

the state.36 The new threats to security are not only multidimensional but interdependent. For this

reason, the birth of the concept of human security appeared as a critique and a challenge to a

monolithic understanding of security, since it recognizes several sources of insecurity and fosters

multi-sectorial coordination and intervention between the state, civil society, communities and

international donors.

Human security encourages the generation of policies that include active civil society

participation, because it focuses on the protection and empowerment of individuals. The

recommendations of both the 2003 Human Security Now report and the 2006 United Nations Trust

Fund for Human Security involve policies aimed at empowerment and protection. In particular,

the 2006 United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security claims that the concept, as an

interdisciplinary, people-centered, multi-sectorial, comprehensive, context-specific and

prevention-oriented approach, introduces a dual focus on protection and empowerment to achieve

the goal of human security.37 Moreover, this report links a protection/top -down or state-centered

approach with an empowerment/bottom-up perspective that empowers the marginalized through

participatory mechanisms.38 Human security emphasizes the capacities of individuals and

communities to make autonomous and informed decisions. Moreover, a human security

perspective in public policy design must include the demands and concerns arising from the

citizens themselves and must recognize their own definitions and priorities for the risks and

vulnerabilities that affect their everyday lives.

In sum, the human security discourse is a progressive approach for conducting security

issues. Human security shifts the focus from the security of borders to the lives of people and

36 Newman, Edward. “Critical Human Security Studies,” Review of International Studies 36, no.1 (2010): 86. 37 Human Security Unit, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations, Human Security in

Theory and Practice (New York: United Nations, 2006): 7-8. 38 Human Security Unit, Ibid., 9.

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communities inside and across those borders.39 The concept of human security, therefore, stresses

that all people should have the opportunity to meet their most essential needs and to earn their own

living.40 Thus, human security includes more than simply protecting people; it entails empowering

people and communities to fend for themselves: empowering is equivalent to emancipation.41 The

inhabitants of local communities can contribute directly to identifying and implementing solutions

to the quagmire of insecurity.42 Certainly, a human security approach seeks to empower people to

achieve their own development, but it is mainly the responsibility of the state to contribute to

people’s wellbeing. However, states’ national security interests can jeopardize the security of

individuals and their communities.

Arguably, the human security agenda cannot be implemented without recognizing the

particularities and needs of each region, state, or community. The seven dimensions of the human

security approach, explained in the Human Development Report of 1994, include a comprehensive

vision of development that can be applied in conflict regions. For instance, the Andes region has

been considered by the United Nations as seriously insecure in human terms due to structural

violence, chronic political instability, the exercise of violence to achieve political agendas43 and

transnational crime. Implementing human security must take into account diverse and local

realities, including public policy beneficiaries’ participation and their opinions about how and in

which areas those policies might improve their quality of life. In my view, human security

generates improvements in the quality of life of people by getting to the roots of social problems

and reducing levels of violence, inequality and exclusion by breaking the patterns of domination

39 Human Security Commission. Human Security Now (New York: Commission on Human Security, 2003), 6. 40 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Report 1994 (New York: Oxford

University Press, 1994), 24. 41 Human Security Commission. Ibid., 4. 42 Human Security Commission. Ibid., 6. 43

Adrián Bonilla, “Seguridad Humana en la Región Andina,” in Seguridad humana, prevención de conflictos y paz

en América Latina y el Caribe. eds. Rojas Aravena, Francisco y Goucha, Moufida (Santiago, Chile: FLACSO-Chile,

2002), 361.

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(such as those based on race, class, gender and geographical location) upon which Andean

societies in the region were built. For the reasons mentioned above, in this dissertation, I utilize

human security from a critical perspective.

The critical school of security has found weaknesses with the original concept of human

security. Critics of human security argue that it is analytically weak and primarily a hegemonic

discourse used by governments to include a problem-solving approach within public policies.

From a critical security studies perspective, human security’s pragmatic tendency towards finding

solutions encourages the belief that the state can effectively work on people’s interests. In contrast,

critical security approaches doubt state “kindness” and believe that state elites are not truly

interested in or committed to promoting human welfare, because structural injustices can be found

within the state.44 Edward Newman (2010) explores why human security arguments, which

emphasize the individual as the referent of security analysis and seek to influence policy, have

been disregarded in critical security studies. Since human security scholars want to retain their

access to policy circles, they have been hesitant to explore critical security studies.45 This policy

orientation of human security has made critical security scholars suspicious of human security as

a hegemonic discourse used by the state. Furthermore, human security problem-solving arguments

do not engage in epistemological, ontological or methodological debates.46 Therefore, human

security is considered as uncritical and unsophisticated by critical security scholars.

Another weakness of the human security approach is its tendency to securitize any threat

that could provoke a human impact and affect the physical integrity of the individual. Thus,

nowadays almost everything is treated as a security issue, which impede good policy making and

44 Edward Newman, “Critical Human Security Studies,” Review of International Studies 36 (2010): 87. 45 Newman, Ibid., 77. 46 Newman, Ibid., 77.

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implementation by confusing the sources and consequences of insecurity.47 Critical security

studies show that the human security approach has demonstrated its lack of an analytical and

critical framework. Despite these critiques, the richness and popularity of the human security

approach within international organizations derives precisely from its problem-solving approach,

securitizing issues that were excluded from the national security discourse and its initiatives. The

birth of human security appeared as a critique and a challenge to one exclusive understanding of

security. Human security does not confuse sources of insecurity; it recognizes multiple sources

and fosters multi-sectorial coordination and intervention.

Human security does not question the values and interests of its own initiatives. Human

security scholars do not problematize the values and institutions that are currently related to human

welfare and do not question the interests that are served by those institutions. Problem-solving

theories are framed in previous social relationships and the institutions into which they are

organized; these institutions and relationships are not questioned, because of their ability to resolve

problems.48 In contrast, critical approaches question the interests that the state and institutions

represent and do not unquestionably accept existing policy as legitimate.49 Therefore, from a

critical security perspective, it is relevant to ask whose interests human security serves. Who

benefits from it? There is a need for a more critical human security approach.

There are a number of steps in which critical and human security studies might engage. First,

it is relevant to consider that both human security and critical security studies challenge the state-

centric approach of conventional security, which is based on the military defense of territory and

national interests against external and internal threats.50 Second, critical security studies and

47 Newman, Ibid. 48 Robert Cox, “Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory,” Millennium 10,

no.2 (1981): 126–155. 49 Newman, Ibid., 89. 50 Newman, Ibid., 77.

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human security studies could learn more from each other; for instance, human security scholarship

could be developed conceptually to overcome its analytical weaknesses, while critical security

studies could become more practical, so as to have an impact upon policy.51 The normative strands

of critical security studies, such as the optimistic perception of security by the Welsh School52 of

critical security theorists, could engage human security as a bridge between critical security studies

and policy.53 Third, exploring human agency in solutions to human security challenges is a

necessary next step in the human security discourse.54 Although many threats to individual security

emanate from weak or abusive states, human security scholarship still views the state as the main

provider of individual security. Thus, the issue of agency requires further study. Furthermore,

human security scholarship assumes that the individual-state relationship is the fundamental

binary. In reality, the individual is a social animal in numerous contexts and communities, not just

a member of a state.55 If these aspects are taken into consideration by critical security studies a

more critical human security is possible.

For this reason, I use the broader definition of the concept of human security derived from a

critical human security perspective. Critical human security (CHS) is a concept under construction

that can be adapted to a particular context.56 It remains policy-relevant and views the individual as

a social subject immersed in various contexts and communities.57 The critical human security

51 Newman, Ibid., 91-92. 52 By using a critical approach, the Welsh School questions realist theories of security. This security theory, influenced

by critical theory, is associated with the work of Ken Booth and Richard Wyn Jones, who view security as

emancipation. See more at Ken Booth, “Security and Emancipation,” Review of International Studies 17 (1991): 314-

315; Richard Wyn Jones, “Message in a Bottle'? Theory and Praxis in Critical Security Studies,” Contemporary

Security Policy 16, no.3 (1995): 310. 53 Newman, Ibid., 92. 54 Newman, Ibid., 93. 55 Newman, Ibid., 94. 56 James Rochlin and Gustavo Gallón, “Introduction,” in Profits, Security, and Human Rights in Developing

Countries. Global Lessons from Canada’s Extractive Sector in Colombia (New York: Routledge, 2015), 6. 57 Newman, Ibid., 94.

21

perspective is influenced by post-development, as understood by Arturo Escobar,58 and celebrates

local knowledge and a strong community participation in security planning.59 CHS embraces the

concerns of the marginalized and those who lack political power60 in order to empower local

women and their communities. This broader definition of human security serves as a practical

guide for governmental policymaking and academic research. By integrating concern for the

security of individuals and communities into public policy, a critical human security approach to

security studies identifies, analyzes and addresses insecurities affecting individuals and groups in

specific contexts. In the case of women’s insecurity on Ecuador’s borders, this approach includes

the voices of local women in the three provinces where my study was conducted. The goal is to

identify the structural inequalities that create insecurity in the communities and to find alternatives

to transform current conditions of insecurity.

Human security policies must consider all the interconnected factors that create insecurity

in the intervention zone. The human security agenda must find interdependent issues to be

addressed, particularly in the border zones, leading to the formulation of effective policies to solve

the inequalities that have provoked social, economic, cultural or environmental problems in critical

contexts. For instance, gender equality must be seen as a component of human security without,

however, excluding other intersecting factors of inequality such as class and race.

I use critical human security and the feminist analysis of security and international relations

to challenge the state-centric concept of national security. Thus, critical human security is analyzed

as an emancipatory approach for women and their local communities. In the next section, I present

feminist critiques of the notion of national security. These critiques take as their starting point that

58 Arturo Escobar, Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World (Princeton: Princeton

University Press, 1994). 59 James Rochlin and Gustavo Gallón. Ibid, 7. 60 James Rochlin and Gustavo Gallón. Ibid, 7.

22

the protection of the state’s boundaries and interests is limited to military terms, denying women’s

security.

1.2.3 Feminist’s critiques of national security

Traditionally, security studies are informed by theories that have used positivist methods rather

than post-positivist orientations. Rational choice theory, as a positivist methodology, explains

states’ international behavior as rational and scientific. Thus, cooperation among states is also

explained as a result of a rational self-interest.61 In contrast, post-positivist methodologies employ

theoretical frameworks such as critical social theory, historical sociology, discourse analysis and

postmodernism.

As a branch of critical social theory, feminist scholarship entered the study of security and

international relations at the end of the 1980s, at about the same time as the third feminist wave.62

The feminist lens explores how we think, or do not think, about gender in international relations.

In particular, it raises gender-sensitive critiques of security politics. Feminist security theories are

concerned with the everyday politics of security.63 They emerged from ideological, trans-

epistemological multi-voiced conversational debate among multiple feminisms, including liberal,

empiricist, modified standpoint and qualified postmodern perspectives.64 Feminist security

theories question the academic and political foundations of gendered insecurity, revealing

gendered hierarchies in society and theory, and fostering alternative visions of security. Feminist

understandings of security, then, seek to eliminate patriarchal structural violence. Furthermore,

61 Ann Tickner, “Gendering a Discipline: Some Feminist Methodological Contributions to International Relations,”

Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30, no 4 (2005): 2175. 62 Tickner, Ibid., 2176. 63 Erin Blanchard, “Gender, International Relations, and the Development of Feminist Security Theory,” Signs:

Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28, no. 4 (2003): 1294. 64Blanchard, Ibid., 1295.

23

they challenge realism by revealing its gender bias and androcentric framework,65 thereby seeking

to reduce gendered global insecurities.66 The incursion of feminism into the field of security studies

contests the restriction of security to “high politics” and fosters the widening of threats.

In the early 1990s, first generation international relations feminists, such as Cynthia Enloe

(1989), Ann Tickner (1992), V. Spike Peterson (1992), and Christine Sylvester (1994), challenged

the masculinist biases of the core concepts in the field, such as, the omission of women in the

masculine discourse on national security led by the military.67 This generation, questioned state-

centricity and the dependence on positivist ways of knowing.68 Many of the feminist scholars who

participated in the first generation of a feminist perspective on international relations have also

contributed to a second generation of international relations feminist scholarship that is more

empirical.69 The second generation of international relations feminists, such as Christine Chin

(1998), Elisabeth Prügl (1999), Charlotte Hooper (2001), Ann Tickner (2001) and V. Spike

Peterson (2003),70 investigated a variety of empirical cases, making gender and women’s lives

visible in international relations and using gender as a central category of analysis.71 Moreover,

65 Blanchard, Ibid., 1305. 66 Blanchard, Ibid., 1307. 67 For further discussion, Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International

Relation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990); Ann J. Tickner, Gender in International. Relations.

Feminist Perspectives on Achieving Global. Security (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992); Spike Peterson.

“Security and Sovereign States: What is at stake in taking feminism seriously?” In Gendered States. Feminist (Re)

Visions of International Relations Theory, ed. V. Spike Peterson, 31-64. (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner

Publishers, 1992); Christine Sylvester, Feminist Theory and International Relations in a Postmodern Era.

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1994). 68 Jacqui True, Engendering international relations: What difference does second-generation feminism make? May

2002. http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/02-1.pdf (accessed on March 8, 2016), 2. 69 True, Ibid., 3. 70 Christine Chin’s In Service and Servitude: Foreign Female Domestic Workers and the Malaysian “Modernity”

Project (1998) builds on Marxist/Gramscian critical theory introduced into International Relations by Robert Cox;

Elisabeth Prügl’s The Global Construction of Gender: Home-Based Work in the Political Economy of the 20th Century

(1999) uses linguistic constructivism, associated with the work of Nicholas Greenwood Onuf (1989); and Charlotte

Hooper’s Manly States: Masculinities, International Relations, and Gender Politics (2001) is based in political theory

and textual analysis. 71 Tickner, J. Ann. “Gendering a Discipline: Some Feminist Methodological Contributions to International Relations.”

Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30, no. 4 (2005): 2176, 2178. In this article Tickner recognizes that

the first and second generation of IR feminism does not coincide with first and second waves of feminism.

http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/02-1.pdf

24

these feminists utilized sociological, identity-based, interpretive or linguistic methodologies.72

Thus, these international relations feminists rectify women’s traditional exclusion by adding them

to the theoretical framework and studying women’s everyday life.73 Second-generation feminists

understand that to encourage feminist perspectives in international relations theory, it is important

to demonstrate how research that uses gender as an analytic category can be conducted and how

that research transforms our understanding of global politics.74 For example, for these feminists it

is important to consider how women are affected by war or by their inclusion in conventional

development models; they argue that, since women reproduce future soldiers, citizens, and

workers, their contributions must be recognized. However, the second-generation does not really

involve a critical perspective.

Third-generation scholars argue that women cannot simply be added to the study of global

politics. Gender as the social meaning that shapes our bodies cannot be simply added to the study

of international relations and to masculine constructions of world politics. According to Laura

Shepherd (2010) gender is an integral part of and affects the practices of global politics.75 For this

reason, third-generation scholars, such as V. Spike Peterson (2004), focus their efforts on

deconstructing traditional theoretical understandings or, in more concrete terms, present a new

form to interpret gender and international relations.76

72 Tickner, Ibid., 2178. 73 V. Spike Peterson, “Feminist Theories Within, Invisible to, and Beyond IR,” Brown Journal of World Affairs 10,

no 2 (Winter/Spring 2004): 37-38. 74 Jacqui True, Engendering international relations: What difference does second-generation feminism make? May

2002. http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/02-1.pdf (accessed on March 8, 2016), 3. 75 Laura Shepherd, “Sex or Gender? Bodies in World Politics and Why Gender Matters,” in Gender Matters in Global

Politics. A Feminist Introduction to International Relations, ed. Laura J. Shepherd (New York: Routledge, 2010), 4-

5. 76 V. Spike Peterson, “Feminist Theories Within, Invisible to, and Beyond IR,” Brown Journal of World Affairs 10,

no 2 (Winter/Spring 2004): 39.

25

The empirical case studied in this dissertation borrows ideas from these three generations.

It starts from the premise that masculine national security discourses and practices are gendered,

racialized and discriminatory towards women’s everyday life experiences of insecurity in

Ecuador’s borders. The influence of a feminist security analysis in this study not only attempts to

make women’s insecurities visible or to recognize the ways in which women challenge traditional

gender roles at the border; but it also strives to encourage the state to include women in human

security planning within a framework that is sensitive to the intersections of race, class, gender

and geographical location. Thus, this analysis seeks to turn the state into a competent guarantor of

women’s security.

The relationship between gendered bodies and security is well documented by first

generation international feminist scholars. The works of Ann Tickner (1992), Jill Steans (1998),

Rebecca Grant (1991) and Christine Sylvester (1994) contribute to the understanding that national

security suffers from gender blindness,77 meaning that it obscures and excludes women’s

insecurity experiences. Gender matters in security studies because we theorize gender daily when

we think about appropriate or inappropriate gendered behaviours at the global, national and local

levels. Thus, security is studied and practiced by gendered bodies.78 Examples include

masculinized bodies, such as security forces, and feminized bodies, such as women smugglers on

the border. Regarding the exclusion of women in security, Cynthia Enloe (1989) argues that

77 Christine Sylvester, Feminist Theory and International Relations in a Postmodern Era (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1994); Jill Steans, Gender and International Relations: An Introduction (Cambridge: Polity Press,

1998); Rebecca Grant, “The Sources of Gender Bias in International Relations Theory,” in Gender and International

Relations, eds. Rebecca Grant and Kathleen Newland (U.K.: Open University Press, 1991); J. Ann, Tickner, Gender

in international relations: feminist perspectives on achieving global security (New York: Columbia University Press,

1992). 78For specific discussion of global politics implemented by gendered bodies refer to Laura Shepherd, “Sex or Gender?

Bodies in World Politics and Why Gender Matters,” 4, 6; Marysia Zalewski, “Feminist International Relations:

Making Sense…” in Gender Matters in Global Politics. A Feminist Introduction to International Relations, ed. Laura

J. Shepherd (New York: Routledge, 2010), 34; and Ann Tickner, You Just Don't Understand: Troubled Engagements

between Feminists and IR Theorists,” International Studies Quarterly 41, no. 4 (1997): 625.

http://webcat2.library.ubc.ca/vwebv/search?searchArg=Tickner,%20J.%20Ann.&searchCode=NAME&searchType=4

26

women’s roles in security issues have been marginalized due to male control in the field.79 Hence,

a feminist approach to security dismantles mainstream understanding of security and includes

women’s explanations of how their governments control their labor, hopes and fears.80 Asking

how women and their communities are secured or unsecured leads us to tell the story of security

in a different way. Therefore, a feminist perspective to security includes the voices of women

breaking the silencing of their everyday lived experiences of insecurity on the border.

For first-generation international feminists, the traditional definition of security, which has

been framed in state-centric terms, generates women’s insecurity. Military capability as an

assurance against outside threats to the state frequently is antithetical to the interests of individuals,

particularly to women.81 In fact, national security is a contradictory concept for women: it

provokes structural gender violence and women’s insecurity as it involves unequal power relations

between men and women. States implement a national security approach in order to centralize

authority, to keep coercive power and to legitimize structural violence through the institutionalized

patriarchal customs82 that implement national security practices. States appear as historical

constructs that have been reproduced, defended, and re-legitimised socially as an episteme.83 Thus,

they have become the absolute “knower” of security issues to the exclusion of other understandings

of security by non-state actors. V. Spike Peterson argues persuasively that the national security

approach, as a masculine discourse, constructs security based on states’ national interest and sees

79Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Relation (Berkeley:

University of California Press, 1990), 4. 80 Enloe, Ibid., 201. 81 Ann Tickner, “You Just Don't Understand: Troubled Engagements between Feminists and IR Theorists,”

International Studies Quarterly 41, no. 4 (Dec., 1997), 625. 82 V. Spike Peterson, “Security and Sovereign States: What is at stake in taking feminism seriously?,” in Gendered

States: Feminist (Re) Visions of International Relations Theory, ed. V. Spike Peterson (Bolder and London: Lynne

Rienner Publishers, 1992), 31-50. 83

R. B. J Walker, “Gender and Critique in the Theory of International Relations,” in Gendered States: Feminist (Re)

Visions of International Relations Theory, ed. V. Spike Peterson (Bolder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers,

1992), 180.

27

males as the sole providers of protection and knowers of security issues while women are viewed

as mere passive recipients of that protection84and completely ignorant of security. These masculine

constructions of security are present within the security discourses and practices deployed along

Ecuador’s borders, maintaining the discrimination of women, excluding them from a full exercise

of their rights and impeding any improvement of their security conditions. For this reason, it is

important to pay attention to the conceptions of security utilized in specific scenarios, because not

all of them contribute to women’s security. These masculine discourses and constructs of security

create a system of hierarchy and domination in which masculinity as an ideology reproduces

structural insecurities, including the centralization of political power in men and the exploitative

gender division of labor and identities. Therefore, a different and new conception of gender

relations and equality is required in order to transform traditional security constructs of masculinity

and femininity.

In this section, I have explained that the study of state’s security, national security and

border security have dominated the understanding of what security is, limiting more

comprehensive understandings that view women and their communities as referents of security.

National security, defined as the protection of the state’s boundaries and interests, is limited to

political and military terms. More particularly, the national security discourse is part of masculine

high politics that renders women invisible.85 In contrast, feminist definitions of security and

explanations of insecurity differ from the traditional understanding.86 Feminist critiques of

national security are useful for my empirical case study, since they contribute to the understanding

that state’s security creates insecurities for non-state actors, such as local women involved in

84 Peterson, Ibid., 3-5, 34-36. 85 Erin Blanchard, “Gender, International Relations, and the Development of Feminist Security Theory,” Signs:

Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28, no. 4 (2003): 1289, 1292. 86 J. Ann Tickner, “You Just Don't Understand: Troubled Engagements between Feminists and IR Theorists,”

International Studies Quarterly 41, No. 4 (1997): 623.

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smuggling activities in the Ecuadorian borders. Furthermore, security has to be defined in

multidimensional and multilevel terms, involving the diminution/elimination of all forms of

violence to women and their communities. Feminist perspectives of security are concerned, in

particular, with women’s security and the several forms of violence that women face in their

everyday lives. Influenced by feminist security analysis, my study urges the state to include women

within an intersectional framework in human security planning. I propose that a precondition for

constituting a theoretical framework able to shed light on the question of women’s insecurity and

smuggling in border zones in Ecuador is that the concept of critical human security must be

informed and enriched by an intersectional feminist lens of security that considers the intersections

of gender, race, class and geographical location. Intersectional analyses of inequality understand

that race captures social realities affected by gender and class differences. The category of class is

also connected to gendered and racialized differences. For this reason, it is important to examine

interlocked inequalities that undermine women’s security.

1.2.4 Intersectionality and women’s insecurity

The White feminist movement has been contested by currents of Black feminism and Third World

feminism that respond to the invisibility of the particularities of women’s experiences of

discrimination. The notion of “sisterhood” and the implicit feminist assumption of the existence

of common interests amongst all women are, however, problematic. In feminist theory, the term

intersectionality was introduced as a metaphor in 1989 and as a concept in 1991 by the Black

feminist legal scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, one of the founders of Critical Race Theory

in the U.S. legal academy.87 However, intersectionality has a long history in Black feminism. Its

87 For further discussion, see Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and

Violence against Women of Color,” Stanford Law Review. 43, no. 6 (Jul., 1991): 1241-1299; and Kimberlé

29

antecedents include the notion of “double jeopardy”88 or “multiple jeopardy.”89 It also involves

the concept of “interlocking systems of oppression,” defined in a social movement context by the

Combahee River Collective on “A Black Feminist Statement,” as the experience of simultaneous

oppressions.90 Therefore, the idea of “intersections” to understand multiple sources of

discrimination had already been circulating in earlier antiracist feminist thought.

Intersectionality emphasises the importance of including the perspectives of marginalized

people. It is concerned with the experiences of discrimination of several social groups, especially

women of color.91 Intersectionality also conceptualizes the relation between systems of oppression

as they construct our multiple social locations in hierarchies of power and privilege.92 Because

antiracism reproduces patriarchy and feminism reproduces racism, women of color cannot be

limited to choosing between two inadequate analyses, because both constitute a denial of a

fundamental dimension of subordination.93 Women of color are located within at least two

subordinated groups that often pursue conflicting political agendas.94 In this sense, inequalities are

reproduced and perpetuated within several systems of oppression. By examining gender in the

Crenshaw, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination

Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 1989: Iss. 1, Article 8.

Available at: http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8 88 Frances Beal. “Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female,” in The Black Woman. Ed. Toni Cade Bambara. (New

York: Signet, 1970). 89 Deborah K. King, “Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology,” Signs

14, no. 1 (Autumn, 1988). 90 Demita Frazier, Beverly Smith, and Barbara Smith were the primary authors of the Combahee River Collective

Statement in 1977. They proposed the concept of multiple oppressions in order to critique both sexual oppression in

the black community and racism within the feminist movement. This document was one of the earliest explorations

of the intersection of multiple oppressions, including racism and heterosexism. See more at: The Combahee River

Collective, The Combahee River Collective Statement: Black Feminist Organizing in the Seventies and Eighties

(Albany, New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1986). 91 Hae Yeon Choo and Myra Marx Ferree, Practicing Intersectionality in Sociological Research: A critical analysis

of inclusions, interactions and institutions in the study of inequalities. University of Wisconsin-Madison (September,

2009) http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~mferree/documents/choo_ferree_intersectionality_final0909.pdf (accessed on June

2016). 92 Anna Carastathis, “The Concept of Intersectionality in Feminist Theory,” Philosophy Compass 9/5 (2014): 304–

314. 93 Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of

Color.” Stanford Law Review 43, no.6 (1991): 1252. 94 Crenshaw, Ibid., 1251-1252.

http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8

http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~mferree/documents/choo_ferree_intersectionality_final0909.pdf

30

context of other social divisions, it is possible to view women’s location in multiple hierarchies.

For example, gender is fundamentally affected by class, race/ethnicity and other hierarchies such

as geographical location (urban/rural).

In an intersectional perspective, women may suffer at least a triple oppression based on

race, gender and class. Gender, race and class cannot be analyzed separately, because they are

entangled in each other, and the particular intersections produce specific effects. Thus,

intersectionality studies the interaction between gender, race, class, and other categories of

difference “in individual lives, social practices, institutional arrangements, and cultural ideologies

and the outcomes of these interactions in terms of power.”95 For instance, (racialized and gendered)

bodies have been structured by the needs of capitalism for cheap labour or migrant labour. These

systems of oppression prioritize different spheres of social relations and exist within the context

of the others. Therefore, power relations and the material inequalities that constitute oppression

must be taken into account in the conceptualization of racism, class exploitation and gender

discrimination. Since every feminist struggle has a specific ethnic, as well as class context, the

analysis of women’s security has to acknowledge these contexts, in which power relations take

place.

Despite its significant contribution, the concept of intersectionality has come under

criticism in feminist theory. Marxist feminists were among the first to criticize intersectionality.

Marxist approaches assert that class has priority over gender and race. Marxist feminists, therefore,

disagree with intersectionality theorists’ claims that oppression is produced through the interaction

of multiple and co-constitutive axes.96 In this vein, intersectionality has been criticized as nothing

95 Kathy Davis, “Intersectionality as buzzword: A sociology of science perspective on what makes a feminist theory

successful,” Feminist Theory 9, no.1 (2008): 68. 96 Anna Carastathis, “The Concept of Intersectionality in Feminist Theory,” Philosophy Compass 9/5 (2014): 308.

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more than a sophisticated version of identity politics that merely undermines the class struggle.

Nonetheless, the so-called oppressed working class is made up of diverse social groups such as

women, Black and queer workers. When intersectionality theory was first formulated by Black

feminists, it emerged as a critique of and an alternative to identity politics.97 Firstly,

intersectionality questions the notion of particular aspects of identity as fixed and coherent. For

instance, liberal feminism’s essentialist understandings of identity failed to address how a Black

woman’s experience is inflected with a different gendered form of racism and a racialized form of

sexism. Secondly, intersectionality theory is more about how systems of oppression are

inseparably intertwined at a structural level rather than about the identity of the individual.98

Identity politics does not fail to recognize differences, but it frequently ignores intragroup

differences.99 Controversies have emerged about whether intersectionality should be limited to

studying of individual experiences, to theorizing identity, or should be understood as a property of

social structures and discourses.100 In my view, if intersectionality is merely used to theorize

identity it can be confused with identity politics. In contrast, intersectionality theory overcomes

the limitations of identity politics by analysing systems of oppression that materially and

discursively create difference and discrimination.

Another alleged weakness of the concept of intersectionality is related to its ambiguity and

open-endedness. The more incoherent a theory is, the more it is argued, it will require further

97 Feminist Fightback, Intersectionality another for of identity politics? January 11, 2015.

http://www.feministfightback.org.uk/is-intersectionality-just-another-form-of-identity-politics/ (accessed on May

18, 2016. 98 Feminist Fightback, Ibid. 99 Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of

Color,” Stanford Law Review 43, no.6 (1991): 1242. 100 Kathy Davis, “Intersectionality as Buzzword: A Sociology of Science Perspective on What Makes a Feminist

Theory Successful,” Feminist Theory 9, no.1 (2008): 68.

http://www.feministfightback.org.uk/is-intersectionality-just-another-form-of-identity-politics/

32

elaboration, combining unrelated ideas into a coherent whole that overcomes ambiguity.101

Paradoxically, its ambiguity and open-endedness make it a successful feminist theory.102

Intersectionality as broad, open-ended and inclusive is a remarkable conceptual tool for feminist

analysis.103 It stimulates a process of discovery, encouraging creativity in looking for new forms

of doing feminist analysis.104 Therefore, each research project allows us to adapt intersectionality

to diverse contexts and to different intersections of discrimination, such as those based on gender,

class, race, sexuality, age, etc.

Intersectionality is a critical feminist concept that became popular, unavoidably creating a

black-boxing effect. “Black-boxing” means that concepts turn into rhetorical tools used in a

decontextualized manner. Intersectionality is not an explanation in itself, so it is necessary to

analyse how social categories (gender, race, class, sexuality, etc.) intra-act105 at the micro and

macro social levels; otherwise these categories are reduced to a black box. If intra-acting power

differentials and identity formations are not analysed in a specific context, the concept of

intersectionality merely reflects a group of meaningless social categorizations (gender, race,

class).106 Therefore, it is important to approach the concept of intersectionality as a nodal point

and to avoid black-boxing it by always contextualizing it.107 The concept of intersectionality

viewed as a nodal point does not encourage a fixed definition; rather, intersectionality must be

viewed as a discursive site where different feminist positions are in critical dialogue with each

101 Murray S. Davis, ““That ‘s Classic!” The Phenomenology and Rhetoric of Successful Social Theories,” Philosophy

of the Social Sciences 16, no. 3 (1986), 296-297. 102 Kathy Davis, Ibid., 67; Murray S. Davis, 296-297. 103 Nina Lykke, “Intersectional Analysis Black box or useful critical feminist thinking technology,” in Framing

Intersectionality, edited by Supik, Linda, Ms, Herrera Vivar, Maria Teresa, Ms, Lutz, Helma, Professor (Ashgate,

December 2012), 208. 104 Kathy Davis, Ibid., 79. 105 According to Nina Lykke by replacing “interact” with the term “intra-act” it is possible to analyse how

categorizations are interwoven. The notion of intra-action refers to the interplay between non-bounded phenomena

that mutually transform each other while interplaying. In contrast, interaction does not generate transformations. 106 Nina Lykke, Ibid., 210. 107 Nina Lykke, Ibid., 207-208.

33

other.108 Thus, a nodal point permits a shared framework for the negotiation of conceptualizations,

thereby becoming a productive concept.109 In this sense, a conceptual nodal point provides enough

analytical sophistication to foster political action and solidarity.

The use of the concept of intersectionality needs to be celebrated but it also needs to be

critically evaluated. By creating segmented representation in unequal societies, a

misunderstanding of the achievement of equality through an intersectional perspective may

obscure, and therefore reproduce, the phenomena that intersectionality seeks to illuminate and

overcome. Through the study of two wildly different parties, Chile's right-wing Unión Demócrata

Independiente (UDI) and Uruguay's left-wing Frente Amplio, Juan Pablo Luna (2014) analyses

the extent to which, in representative democracies, the success of a political party rests on its

ability in order to engage voters in highly unequal and individualized societies. Parties

simultaneously segment and strategically harmonize their linkages to appeal to different electoral

bases. Electoral segmentation is structured in terms of socioeconomic categories, territorial

dimensions or both. In ethnically diverse societies, this type of segmentation can also be

implemented along ethnic or religious lines.110 In this vein, the massive incorporation of previously

excluded groups into electoral democracy has become a relevant strategy, especially when

competing in unequal social settings. Once inequality becomes politicized, it becomes feasible to

shape partisan mobilization strategies. For instance, powerful non-state actors finance party–voter

linkages so as to provide material patronage to supporters from other social groups or geographical

areas. Representational differences have consequentially affected public policy outcomes.

However, the political inclusion of the masses has not produced consistent results in reducing the

108 Nina Lykke, Ibid., 208. 109 Nina Lykke, Ibid., 209. 110 Juan Pablo Luna, Segmented Representation: Political Party Strategies in Unequal Democracies. Oxford

Scholarship Online: June 2014. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199642649.001.0001

34

inequalities that characterize the social, political and economic landscapes of the so-called

developing democratic world.111 Juan Pablo Luna’s understanding of the relation between social

inequality and electoral-institutional factors in a political democracy demonstrates that, if the

inclusion of social categories and territorial dimensions is used to segment representation for

political gain, inequality will be perpetuated. Hence, any attempt to design and implement public

policy aware of the intersections of race, gender, class, and geographical location will lose its

richness. Such a segmented representation will not empower excluded populations; rather it will

keep them oppressed and marginalized.

In the context of women’s insecurity, systems of inequality based on women’s identity

play a significant role. The insecurities experienced by women are often shaped by other

dimensions of their identities, such as race and class. Race, gender, class and other identity

categories are often treated as frameworks of domination in which social power excludes and

marginalizes those who are different. For this reason, the concepts of intersectionality and matrix

of domination offer a theoretical basis for understanding how different types of interconnected

discriminations interact. For instance, classism, racism and sexism intersect in the lives of people.

In this sense, the intersection of these identities is incorporated within systems of power, such as

national and border security practices, that reproduce race, class, and gender hierarchies affecting

women’s security.

A matrix of domination reconceptualises race, class and gender as interlocking systems of

oppression. For Patricia Hill Collins (2000) gender is not the most important category within these

systems; she assigns the same level of importance to race and class. Indeed, she argues that it is

important to view the power structures organized in the intersecting relations of race, class and

111 Juan Pablo Luna, Ibid., 8.

35

gender that frame the social position of individuals. This matrix explains the interlocking

inequalities experienced by women as gendered, raced, classed and sexualized bodies.112 An

analysis of an interlocking system of inequalities, for instance, can challenge the idea that the

overrepresentation of Black (or Indigenous) women in poverty statistics is due to their poor work

ethic. Black women have always worked, but they have been actively restricted to jobs that kept

them in poverty. In fact, employers see Black women as secondary and undesirable workers.

Certainly, race limits Black women’s occupational opportunities, but it is not the only source of

Black women’s struggle. In order to understand the devalued work assigned to Black women, it is

necessary to analyze the racism and sexism imbricated in the occupations available to them. Thus,

an approach that focuses only on the race or the gender of Black women fails to take into account

intersecting systems of power.

Hill-Collins matrix of domination is useful to examine the interlocking inequalities based

on race, gender and class that affect the security of local Black women, Indigenous women and

mestizo women in border zones. In the Ecuadorian context, Indigenous and Black women

experience racism in ways not always the same as those experienced by Indigenous and Black

men, and sexism in ways not always similar to the experiences of sexism of mestizo women. The

diversity of women, which depends on their particular social class, racial/ethnic and geographical

identities, influences the treatment that they receive from security authorities. When race, class,

gender and geographical location (urban-rural) are considered in the context of women’s insecurity

and smuggling at the borders in Ecuador, intersectionality can map the ways in which racism,

112 Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment.

(Routledge, 2000).

http://philpapers.org/rec/COLBFT

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sexism and classism have shaped conceptualizations of women smugglers as criminals within the

national security discourse, ignoring the unique characteristic of their interlocked inequalities.

1.2.5 Feminist critical human security

Drawing on a critical human security perspective, feminist critiques of national security, the idea

of intersectionality advanced by Black feminist Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw113 and the concept

of the matrix of domination of Patricia Hill Collins, the concept of feminist critical human security

is proposed in this study. A feminist critical human security approach attentive to power relations

understands how insecurity is related to people’s daily lives in sexist, racist, classist and

geographical ways in Ecuador’s borders. The significance and originality of this dissertation lie in

part in the application of this adapted approach to an under–researched case study.

By explaining the differences, similarities and complementarities of feminism and human

security, the proposed concept of feminist critical human security serves to analyze the experiences

of insecurity of women, specially those involved in smuggling, in Ecuador’s borders.

First, I shall mention the differences. Feminism and human security differ substantially

when viewed in terms of methodology. Unlike liberal feminism, which is based on positivistic

assumptions, critical and post-modern feminist scholars reject the problem-solving approach that

human security entails. On the contrary, the practical implementation of human security by

development institutions and non-governmental organizations worldwide is reminiscent of the

problem-solving positivist approach of neorealism.114 According to realist and neorealist security

politics, the state and international system reign in security studies. Since the human security

113 The term intersectionality was coined by American professor Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. The concept already

existed but she put a name to it. For instance, in 1892 Anna Julia Cooper’s A Voice from the South discusses the

intersections of race, class and gender of women’s discrimination. 114 Mohammed Nuruzzaman, “Paradigms in Conflict The Contested Claims of Human Security, Critical Theory and

Feminism,” Cooperation and Conflict Journal of the Nordic International Studies Association 41, no. 3 (2006): 298-

299.

37

paradigm stands closer to Waltzian neorealism in terms of methodological issues, it is difficult for

this paradigm to survive independently. In perfect harmony with the realist security perspective

and in the name of policy recommendations, human security attempts to reform the existing system

and supports the prevailing social order and the socially powerful rather than challenges them.115

The narrow definition of the human security approach has been usually practiced at the policy

level in the form of military and humanitarian interventions.116 In contrast, my view is that a

contextualized feminist critical human security approach is able to challenge the power relations

intrinsic to universal “recipes” designed to solve security issues with socio-economic roots.

Another main disagreement between feminism and human security involves the critique

by the former of the term “human.” A critical feminist perspective on the study of human security

emphasizes the idea that the term “human” has been constructed as an exclusionary and gendered

category that obscures the matrices of power that differentiate individuals socially.117 Human

security, therefore, reinforces the reproduction of dominant norms and power relations118 within

its liberal humanist normative intellectual heritage.119 Human security discourse humanizes

security, setting fully human life conditions from a liberal point of view.120 In addition, the liberal

tradition views a universal human who shares common rights and innate capabilities. The human

security discourse is rooted in the capabilities approach developed by Amartya Sen.121 In that

approach, the individual is constructed as an autonomous chooser that is concerned about securing

115 Nuruzzaman, Ibid., 299 116 For further discussion, refer to International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty- ICISS’ The

Responsibility to protect report. 117 Natasha Marhia, “Some humans are more Human than Others: Troubling the ‘human’ in human security from a

critical feminist perspective,” Security Dialogue 44, no 1 (2013): 19. 118 Fiona Robinson, “The importance of care in the theory and practice of human security,” Journal of International

Political Theory 4, no 2 (2008): 168. 119 Natasha Marhia, “Some humans are more Human than Others: Troubling the ‘human’ in human security from a

critical feminist perspective,” Security Dialogue 44, no 1 (2013): 20. 120 Marhia, Ibid., 21. 121 Marhia, Ibid., 21.

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his/her own life and dignity. Nevertheless, this construction fails to acknowledge that an

individual’s security, well-being and capability to choose depend on its social location and its web

of social relations.122 For instance, the term “human” does not overcome certain gender silences.123

Despite the inclusive nature of the human security approach, the gender dimension is overlooked,

which results in only a partial understanding of security issues. Moreover, the term “human” may

camouflage the gendered foundations of security practices.124 By highlighting the need for identity

politics, the ambivalence of human security as both a political project of emancipation and an

analytical framework might be clarified.125 For instance, the inclusion of women as a category of

identity within security studies also needs to integrate gender as a unit of analysis in order to

prevent silences.126 Since gender is intertwined with other identities such as race, class and

nationality, a critical feminist perspective connects individual experiences in a particular

location.127 Therefore, context-based interpretations of women’s security need to recognize how

their different identities affect their human security conditions. It is necessary to rethink human

security in ways that assign more importance to context than to the abstract individual. In my view,

this type of interpretation leads to the inclusion, protection, and empowerment of women in border

zones.

This study assumes that human security and feminist security, viewed from a critical

perspective, are not irreconcilable standpoints. Indeed, these two approaches to security studies

have similarities and complementarities. Although human security appeared as the main paradigm

shift from the traditional realist security approach after 1994, mainly because of the changed nature

122 Marhia, Ibid., 22. 123 Heidi Hudson, “Doing’ Security as Though Humans Matter: A Feminist Perspective on Gender and the Politics of

Human Security,” Security Dialogue 36, no. 2 (June 2005): 155-156. 124 Hudson, Ibid., 157. 125 Hudson, Ibid., 155. 126 Hudson, Ibid., 158. 127 Hudson, Ibid., 158.

39

of threats at the end of the Cold War, feminism had previously propagated similar concepts and

referents of security beginning in the 1980s.128 Feminist analysis of security also pays attention to

the individual and community rather than to the state or the international system.129 From this, it

can be concluded that both human security and feminism experience a deep dissatisfaction with

the realist security paradigm, which interprets security through the restrictive lens of the security

of the state. Such a paradigm distracts attention from the insecurities that individuals, groups and

communities face in their everyday lives. Moreover, both feminism and human security encourage

a multidimensional approach, broadening the threats to security. In this sense, security involves

the absence of the threat of violence, discrimination, unemployment, lack of food, housing and

other social and economic provisions that provide individuals and communities with decent living

conditions. Therefore, from a critical viewpoint, human security and feminist security can

complement each other by simultaneously being policy-relevant and normatively rich.

Both approaches have their own strengths. If these strengths are combined, it is possible to

increase the normative weight of human security and the relevance of feminist security

perspectives in policy.130 Feminists have made a particular contribution to gendering the human

security approach. By gendering human security, it is feasible to expand the understanding of what

security can and does mean131 beyond a local/civilian/bottom-up perspective. A gender-based

human security analysis reveals what human security means when understood through power and

practices of domination and marginalization.132 Therefore, gendering human security introduces

128 Mohammed Nuruzzaman, “Paradigms in Conflict the Contested Claims of Human Security, Critical Theory and

Feminism,” Cooperation and Conflict 41, no. 3. 286, 298. 129 Ann Tickner, “You Just Don't Understand: Troubled Engagements between Feminists and IR Theorists,”

International Studies Quarterly 41, no. 4 (Dec., 1997), 624. 130 Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv, “Gendering Human Security: how gender theory is reflected and challenged in civil-

military cooperation,” 1

http://www.academia.edu/4473317/Gendering_Human_Security_how_gender_theory_is_reflected_and_challenged

_in_civil-_military_cooperation (accessed on February 4, 2015). 131 A. T. R. Wibben, “Human Security: Toward an Opening,” Security Dialogue 39, no.4 (2008): 455-462. 132 Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv, Ibid., 3.

http://www.academia.edu/4473317/Gendering_Human_Security_how_gender_theory_is_reflected_and_challenged_in_civil-_military_cooperation

http://www.academia.edu/4473317/Gendering_Human_Security_how_gender_theory_is_reflected_and_challenged_in_civil-_military_cooperation

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perspectives that make explicit the role of the various actors in creating security and the power

relations between them. By doing so, it offers analytical and empirical insights that release human

security discourses from the influence of a state-centric perspective.133 Since human security

cannot be based on state-based military measures, it needs to understand the roles and interactions

of multiple actors and fronts. This understanding has become a powerful analytical tool when

analyzing non-state actors within security dynamics, as well as recommendations for practices on

the ground.134 Gendering human security thus contributes to policy-making and normative

developments, which is vital for moving debates and practice forward.135 Since gendering human

security includes a feminist position on security, it is concerned with gender inequality and the

inclusion of women’s experiences in security analysis.136 If human security seeks to achieve social

justice, it must reduce not only gender inequality but the multiple social inequalities experienced

by women based on their race, class, gender and geographical location.

In this sense, women’s multiple experiences of inequality must be taken into consideration

when formulating human security policies. Expanding the state-centric approach to security to one

that includes human security inclusive of the intersections of gender, race, class and geographical

location will help overcome the structural violence contained in systems of domination that

naturalize inequalities and limit the achievement of justice. An intersectional perspective of the

human security approach revitalizes the need of women to move from being the subjects of

discussion to being agents of a transformative change. Such a human security perspective

emphasizes the protection and empowerment of people through their active participation and, of

course, of human agency and particularly women's agency. Human security cannot view women

133 Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv, Ibid., 2. 134 Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv, Ibid., 4. 135 Ann Tickner, “Responsible Scholarship in International Relations: A Symposium,” International Studies Review

10 (2008): 661-666. 136 Mohammed Nuruzaman, “Paradigms in Conflict the Contested Claims of Human Security, Critical Theory and

Feminism,” Cooperation and Conflict September 41 (2006): 296.

41

as passive beneficiaries of state or patriarchal benevolence, in scenarios of critical insecurity.

Rather it has to see them as participants with policy inputs, knowledge, experience and other

resources.137 Women’s knowledge of development, security and equality within their daily

experiences, as well as their understanding of how these issues should be conducted by themselves,

the state and non-state actors, needs to be taken into account. By moving the state security agenda

in the direction of people's security, human security enables women sharing multiple identities to

move from the margins to the center of this agenda. To make the most of the advantages of the

variety of perspectives, a feminist critical human security approach is influenced by critical human

security, feminist critiques of national security, the idea of intersectionality and the concept of

matrix of domination of Black feminism. A feminist critical human security approach is sensitive

to power relations within systems of oppression, acknowledging that insecurity is related to

people’s daily lives on Ecuador’s borders based on their gender, race, class and geographical

location.

The empirical case analyzed in this dissertation reveals that neither Ecuadorian security

authorities nor women as an identity group living at the border represents a monolithic category

of analysis. For instance, the experiences of Black women in Carchi Province differ from the

experiences of Mestizo women in El Oro province or of Indigenous women in Sucumbíos

Province. A feminist critical human security perspective that takes into account these intersecting

conditions of inequality is useful for understanding the particularities of these women’s

experiences and for influencing the design of public policy, encouraging contextualized responses

to women’s security conditions to be implemented on Ecuadorian borders. Discrimination based

on race, ethnicity, gender and class impedes the complete fulfilment of social, political and

economic opportunities, affecting deeply human security conditions. In the case of women on the

137 Viviene Taylor, “From State Security to Human Security and Gender Justice,” Agenda 59 (2004): 67.

42

borders of Ecuador, these intersecting experiences of inequality have provoked unequal access to

education, healthcare and have hindered their political and economic participation, thereby

undermining their security. Women’s security is assured only when they can live free of

interlocked violence, exploitation and discrimination in their everyday lives.

By tackling interlocking inequalities, a feminist critical human security approach challenges

an exclusive state-centric understanding of security. This approach is especially concerned with

women’s daily life experiences of insecurity; it views women as “knowers” and argues that,

through their local knowledge of security and development, women can achieve emancipation

because they know best what is needed to improve their security conditions. Moreover, feminist

critical human security is useful in approaching and analyzing the differences and similarities

between local women in each of the three border provinces where this study was carried out.

The feminist critical human security perspective employs a multidimensional approach to

threats to security that can affect women. Furthermore, feminist critical human security views

insecurity as structural violence, involves fewer military values and adds more recognition of

women’s contributions to society. It understands that a national security approach, through

repressive border control, escalates complex security problems when security forces abuse the use

of force to combat issues categorized as “threat” or “crime.” Moreover, traditional security

approaches to smuggling, such as national security, view this activity as a crime and a threat to the

state, demanding and emphasizing border security. In contrast, a feminist critical human security

analysis of smuggling prioritizes the security of the individuals and establishes as referents of

security those women who smuggle or who help a family or a community member to do so. Border

security treats women smugglers as criminals, overlooking the circumstances that have motivated

smuggling in a specific context. Therefore, the state and its border security practices neglect the

voices and agency of women smugglers, whose access to alternative sources of income is limited

43

in the three provinces where this study was conducted. Moreover, the treatment that women on the

border receive from the security authorities depends on their particular racial/ethnic, socio-

economic and geographical identities. The feminist critical human security approach, therefore,

aims to decrease women’s insecurity and to achieve equality by encouraging the elimination of

power relations based on domination and subordination within state-centric perspectives of

security by identifying potential feminist policy initiatives that are aware of intersectional issues

within a development planning framework. This approach must pay attention at least to the

intersections of race, gender, class and urban-rural dichotomy.

1.2.6 Border

In order to understand that women’s security can be undermined by national security practices that

take place in border zones, it is relevant to examine several concepts of the border. The term

border can refer to the physical-territorial limit or to the cultural, social or ideological boundaries

that serve to highlight the differences between “us” and “the others.” A traditional understanding,

or a state-centric perspective, of the border is based on the categories of state and territory and

views the border as an instrument of exclusion constructed between two or more states.138 Thus,

the territorial delimitation and demarcation between states become matters of broad interest,

allowing the exercise of power wherever borders have been marked. Since its territory is the space

where the state exercises its sovereignty,139 states protect their borders from a standpoint of

military defense. Therefore, the border, as understood by the state, is the territorial marker of the

138 Chris Rumford, “Towards a Multiperspectival Study of Borders,” Geopolitics 17, no. 4 (2012): 888. 139 Juan Carlos Arriaga-Rodríguez, “Concepto jurídico de frontera,” Caribe: Economía, Política y Sociedad. Disputas,

conflictos y cooperación transfronteriza, in Juan Carlos Arriaga-Rodríguez and Tania Camal-Cheluja compiladores,

XII Seminario Internacional de Verano, 7 al 9 de septiembre 2011. Universidad de Quintana Roo. División de Ciencias

Políticas y Humanidades. http://www.academia.edu/3840238/Concepto_juridico_de_frontera (accessed January 5,

2015).

http://www.academia.edu/3840238/Concepto_juridico_de_frontera

44

limits of the sovereign political power.140 The state’s understanding of the border permits security

practices that ensure the state’s survival in an anarchical self-help system,141 promoting a national

security approach that identifies what, who and where the threat to the state is. In addition, the

border, as understood from a national security perspective, views human border crossings as highly

selective. However, the border cannot be properly understood from a single masculinized and

privileged point of view; it must be interpreted and constructed from diverse perspectives.

The border viewed solely as a dividing line serves to establish a state’s domain and

sovereignty. This understanding of the border (generally by governments) offers little help to

interpret the border phenomena in all theirs complexity.142 Unlike state-centric border

perspectives, multiperspective border studies are critical of the idea that borders are physical

dividing lines that belong to states.143 This perspective treats the border as an object of study rather

than as a mere dimension of national security.144 The statist perspective of the border is contested

when different interpretations of the border are presented.145 Multiperspective border studies

challenge the core assumptions associated with the study of borders; these assumptions refer to

the fact that states’ borders require consensus and mutual recognition in order to exist and that for

a border to function properly it must be visible to all.146 However, if borders are viewed as cultural

encounters, it becomes easier to study them as constructed by diverse non-state actors. By re-

framing borders as cultural encounters rather than simply as mechanisms of division, the

fundamental assumption of consensus is challenged.147 Borders do not always need to be visible

140 Nick Vaughan-Williams, Border Politics: The Limits of Sovereign Power (Edinburgh: University Press, 2009), 14. 141

Vaughan-Williams, Ibid., 3. 142 Nilo Meza Monge, Espacios Regionales Fronterizos. Teoría, política y práctica del desarrollo y la integración

fronteriza (2008) http://www.eumed.net/libros-gratis/2008b/400/index., 19-20. 143 Chris Rumford, “Towards a Multiperspectival Study of Borders,” Geopolitics 17, no. 4 (2012): 887-888. 144 Rumford, Ibid., 900. 145 Rumford, Ibid., 894. 146 Rumford, Ibid., 888. 147 Rumford, Ibid., 889.

45

or constituted through consensus.148 Therefore, the assumption that consensus and visibility must

exist needs to be discarded.149 Since borders do not refer only to state borders, it is relevant to take

alternative conceptions of borders seriously.

The concept of the border has also been understood as the intersection of identities and the

formation of the self. For example, Gloria Anzaldúa and Ruth Behar developed feminist analyses

of the border and identity in Latin America. Ruth Behar’s Translated Women (1993) portrays the

story of Esperanza, a Mexican Indigenous woman from Mexquitic who became the author’s

comadre. By identifying the structural inequalities of race, class and nationality that separate

Esperanza and the author as women located on opposite sides of the border between the United

States and Mexico, Behar frames the construction of her own identity as an academic, Cuban

immigrant in New York City and victim of patriarchy like her comadre.150 At the same time, Behar

recounts Esperanza’s struggles at the other side of the physical border that separates them.

In the same sense, the concept of border explored by Gloria Anzaldúa (2007) is imbued

with a postcolonial feminism framework, showing the author’s inner struggle as Chicana, Latina,

feminist and lesbian. Borderlands are viewed as a place simultaneously defined as safe and unsafe,

distinguishing us from them.151 In Borderlands/La Frontera The New Mestiza, Anzaldúa views

the border as a cultural dividing line in the sense of identity. In addition, the psychological, sexual

and spiritual borderlands are seen as the space where different cultures meet each other, “where

people of different races occupy the same territory, where under, lower, middle, and upper classes

touch, where the space between two individuals shrinks with intimacy.”152 Specifically, women

148 Rumford, Ibid., 895. 149 Rumford, Ibid., 891-892. 150 Ruth Behar, Translated Woman. Crossing the Border with Esperanza’s Story (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993), 320-

342. 151 Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera. The New Mestiza. Third Edition (San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books,

2007), 25. 152 Anzaldúa, Ibid., 19.

46

who live on the margins of the border permanently shift their multiple identities, because the

border not only distinguishes their multiplicity of identities, it also unites and enriches the

intersecting identities of the individual.

Another aspect to take into account when discussing the concept of border is the idea that

distance contributes to the creation of “otherness.” The distance and isolation from the state’s

center of power and the sustained interactions with foreigners encourage the population of the

border to think of themselves as different from the people in the state’s interior zones. Hence,

borderlanders better understand racial, ethnic and cultural differences.153Many traders,

furthermore, view themselves as members of a self-directed border economic community rather

than as “pure” citizens of the state whose behaviour must conform strictly to national norms.154

For this reason, the population living on the border tends to ignore national laws that are unrealistic

and insensitive to the cross-border reality.155 Locals do not necessarily see borders in the same

way as do governments. Only border dwellers who interact with the everyday life of the border

fully understand such a complex scenario. In their logic, the border is no longer just a physical

line; economic and social relations are responsible for erasing this line that separates territories

with common features. The border is a point of convergence of territories and populations, which

include geographical, economic and social processes. The border is no longer the point of

separation, it has become a place, a space and, especially, a way of life156 where migration, tourism,

trade and smuggling take place as modes of interaction among the borderlanders. Therefore, the

153 José Luis Gómez-Martínez, “Mestizaje y frontera como categorías culturales iberoamericanas,” Estudios

Interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe- EIAL (Tel Aviv) 5, no 1 (1994), 12.

http://www.tau.ac.il/eial/V_1/martinez.htm 154 Martínez, Ibid., 13. 155 Martínez, Ibid., 12. 156 Martínez, Ibid., 5-19.

http://www.tau.ac.il/eial/V_1/martinez.htm

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border cannot be seen as a merely physical dividing line that guards against the strange, the

unknown and the dangerous.

The interaction among borderland populations through trans-boundary trade, migration,

and social-cultural relationships also invites us to rethink the official understanding of the border;

the border cannot serve only to limit and block. Nowadays, the border’s role should be reversed:

the border is a place to unite and integrate states and the borderland populations. Understanding

the border as a space of integration and social interaction recognizes its multidimensional dynamic.

The idiosyncrasies of the people inhabiting the border do not view it as a dividing line; unlike the

discourse of sovereignty they see it as a common history157 and as a space where multiethnic

groups interact. Among the main ethnic groups who cross the border between Ecuador and

Colombia or Peru are Awa, Pastos, Cofán, Siona, Otavalos, Afro-Ecuadorians, and Mestizos. The

population living on the border is hybrid because it has multiple identities and flexible identities,158

such as Ecuadorian, Colombian, Peruvian, bi-national, regional and even transnational.

The borderland society becomes transnational when it maintains significant ties with the

neighboring nation. Through a bi-national system Ecuadorians, Peruvians, and Colombians take

advantage of every opportunity to visit, shop, work, study or live on the “other side” of the border.

Transnationalism is seen as the location at the edges of states where borders dissipate, mutual

antagonisms are overcome and substantive social and economic interchanges begin to emerge at

the common border.159The degree of transnationalism in an interdependent borderland

157 Ricardo Montenegro Coral, “Frontera Colombo-Ecuatoriana: Historia y Destino Común,” Aldea Mundo Revista

sobre Fronteras e Integración Año 10, no. 18 (2005): 21-22. 158 Chainarong Sretthachau, “Living Across Border: The Tactics of Everyday Life Practice of Cambodian-Lao Migrant

Worker in Thailand in the Context of Mekong Regionalization of Development,” 4th Asian Rural Sociology

Association (ARSA) International Conference (2010): 72; Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera. The New

Mestiza. Third Edition (San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books, 2007), 19-25. 159 Oscar Martinez, “The dynamics of border interaction. New Approaches to Border Analysis,” in Global

Boundaries: World Boundaries volume 1, ed. Clive H. Schofield (London: Routledge, 1994), 6, 9.

48

demonstrates that stability prevails most of the time, increasing economic and social cross-border

interaction and allowing significant convergence of cultures to take place. Borderlanders,

moreover, carry on friendly and cooperative relationships.160 The flow of economic resources and

people across the border allows the economies involved to be structurally bonded to each other. In

contrast, concerns over immigration, trade competition, smuggling and ethnic nationalism compel

the central governments to carefully monitor an interdependent borderland,161 mainly through

patrolling, immigration control and customs. In response to excessive border security controls, bi-

national human security initiatives must be carried out in interdependent borders, such as those

between Ecuador and Peru or Ecuador and Colombia.

In sum, what really matters is not only how the border should be conceptualized but also

where boundary-producing practices are actually located. Power relations are embedded in the

making of borders and in their use as ideological tools in governance and security agendas.162

Borders are not only policed lines, but also processes, social institutions and symbols. As social

processes, borders are located in a number of institutionalized practices, discourses, and symbols

throughout the state territory.163 According to this viewpoint, borders are an exercise of power and

can be constructed as a way to protect a privileged position of security. Since borders are socially

constructed through foreign policy and security discourses, they serve particular purposes and

motivation that reflect power relations.164 Borders, therefore, can be labeled as discursive

landscapes of social power and technical landscapes of social control. The former resonates more

clearly with such notions as a nation, national identity, nationalism and memory, and the latter

160 Martínez, Ibid., 3, 5. 161 Martínez, Ibid., 4-5. 162 Anssi Paasi, “Borders and Border-Crossing,” in Nuala Johnson, Richard Schein and Jamie Winders eds. Wiley

Blackwell Companion to Cultural Geography (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), 2,4. 163 Paasi, Ibid., 6, 15. 164 Paasi, Ibid., 8,10.

49

with state, sovereignty, citizenship, governance, security and control.165 Both landscapes have

often been maintained in the name of national security.

In this dissertation, I critically analyze the state-centric understanding of the border while

discussing the border security discourses and practices of Ecuadorian security forces to tackle

smuggling activities. I use a multidimensional approach when referring to the locals’

understanding of the border. Such an approach views the border as a space of integration, self-

directed economy, social interaction, a cultural encounter and a way of living. One way to

approach intersectionality is to analyze how border security authorities and their power dynamics

frame and interpret the stories of the Indigenous, Mestizo, and Black women who cross the border.

Smuggling at the border creates a closer contact between the intersecting identities of local women

and security forces within a national security discourse. The concepts of national security, critical

human security, feminists’ critiques of national security, feminist critical human security and

border contribute to developing an analytical framework that seeks to support the main argument

of this research, which is the fact that a web of power relationships on the border has increased the

intersectional inequalities that lead women to become smugglers.

1.2.7 Power

I have argued broadly that power relations are present in the daily interactions on the border, in

conceptions of security and development and in systems of inequality base on gender, class and

race. For this reason, it is important to elaborate on the understanding of how power is going to

be understood in this study and how this concept is going to influence the research question,

namely what led women to become smugglers and if smuggling shows the empowerment or

165 Paasi, Ibid., 15.

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domination of women. Thus, in this section, I analyze power as domination, power as

empowerment and the feminist critical human security conception of power.

1.2.7.1 Power as domination

In this section, the model of power as domination will be linked to power-knowledge regimes and

to the Foucauldian early disciplinary power/docile bodies thesis. Power-knowledge regimes create

dominant discourses around practices of national security deployed on Ecuador’s borders. These

knowledge regimes are sustained by a disciplinary power that is essential to maintaining the status

quo and monitoring women’s bodies and their practices of femininity.

I shall argue briefly, that within power-knowledge regimes, the understanding of power as

domination is most commonly recognized as a relationship of domination and subordination or

“power over.” From a Foucauldian perspective, relations of power are “means by which

individuals try to conduct, to determine the behaviours of others.”166 The model of power as

domination, which is influenced by violence, repression and discrimination, is imbued in

knowledge regimes. Consequently, this model of power produces reality and rituals of truth,

creates objects of analysis, forms discourses and constructs knowledge.167 Power is located in the

episteme manifested in the everyday social relations or “micro-practices” that have created the

politics of everyday life. This type of power is exercised in personal, social, economic and political

relations between individuals and groups. Hence, power is everywhere and it is expressed through

a multiplicity of force relations that are crystallized in the state’s apparatus. Power thus acts on

human beings through institutions such as prisons, schools or border controls. Knowledge as

166 Michael Foucault, “Ethic of Care for the Self as Practice of Freedom,” an interview translated by J Gaultier, in

James Beranuer and David Rasmussen, eds., The Final Foucault (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1988): 18. 167 Amy Allen, The Power of Feminist Theory (Boulder: Westview, 1999), 31-34.

51

power represents what has been decided to be true by a specific epistemic community or interest

group. Thus, holistic epistemic communities perpetuate certain beliefs through social

discourses.168 The role of the epistemic communities at the discursive level exerts a dominant

control of “the recognized knowledge.” This ability to control gives these communities the power

to impose a discourse that influences people’s understandings, desires and interests.169 In the

empirical case under analysis, a power-knowledge regime creates dominant discourses around the

ideas of border security and the practices of national security deployed at the borders. These

discourses and practices are good ways to illustrate the powerful role of border security authorities

in protecting the state’s interests.

Power-knowledge regimes are also present in discourses and interactions based on gender,

race and class. Since differences between gender, race and class are defined by power knowledge

regimes they are the reified effects of dominance in which a disciplinary power excludes and

marginalizes those who are different and who act differently. This type of power maintains systems

of dominance based on racism, sexism, and classism. These systems of dominance have many

negative associations for women, such as repression, force, coercion, discrimination, and abuse.

Depending on women’s social locations, power-knowledge regimes deploy different disciplinary

practices, such as the kind of job or education that a woman can obtain. When, due to their different

social locations, women are denied access to important rights, such as land, education, healthcare,

and employment, “power over” perpetuates inequality, injustice and poverty. Since they have little

knowledge of alternative models of power, individuals repeat the “power over” pattern in their

personal, institutional and community relationships. Thus, different degrees of power are sustained

168 Andreas Antoniades, “Epistemic Communities, Epistemes and the Construction of (World) Politics,” Global

Society 17, no 1 (2003): 28. 169 Antoniades, Ibid., 29.

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and perpetuated through social divisions such as gender, age, class, ethnicity, race and the urban-

rural and north-south dichotomies. As a result, power is unequally distributed, with some

individuals and social groups having greater control over the sources of power and others having

little or no control.

The disciplinary model of power as domination is connected to the notion of docility. The

“docile bodies” thesis is helpful in understanding the transition from sovereign/monarchical power

to a modern power that involves disciplinary regimes and systems of surveillance.170 From a

Foucauldian perspective, the disciplinary power centers on the body and manipulates it so that it

can become useful and docile.171 Once the docile body is manipulated and trained to obey and

respond172 to commands, discipline adjusts power through surveillance exercised by

institutions.173 A “gentle” power is deployed with just a gaze through the Foucauldian metaphor

of “the panopticon” as it produces self-monitoring subjects174 and individuals who have learned to

police themselves, thus becoming their own overseers. The model of the panopticon is a

compelling explanatory paradigm for women's acceptance of patriarchal standards of

femininity.175 Thus, the body is under the control of a constant coercive power that imposes

prohibitions and obligations on it, but that also supervises the body’s activities.176 Furthermore, a

well-disciplined body makes correct use of its time, becoming useful for the system.177 This micro-

170 Monique Deveaux, “Feminism and Empowerment: A Critical Reading of Foucault,” Feminist Studies 20, no. 2,

Women's Agency: Empowerment and the Limits of Resistance (Summer, 1994): 224. 171 Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collège de France 1975–1976 (New York: Picador,

2003), 249. 172 Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (New York: Vintage Books edition, 1979), 136. 173 Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collège de France 1975–1976 (New York: Picador,

2003), 246-250 174 Davina Cooper, “Productive, Relational and Everywhere? Conceptualizing Power and Resistance within

Foucauldian Feminism,” Sociology 28, no 2 (1994): 437. 175 Monique Deveaux, “Feminism and Empowerment: A Critical Reading of Foucault,” Feminist Studies 20, no. 2,

Women's Agency: Empowerment and the Limits of Resistance (Summer, 1994): 225. 176 Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (New York: Vintage Books edition, 1979), 136-137. 177 Foucault, Ibid., 152.

53

physic of power understands the relation of docility-utility as one that brings a discipline that

becomes a formula of domination of the docile bodies,178 such as, women’s bodies crossing the

border. Thus, disciplinary power has a coercive link with the control apparatus of the state,

constantly monitoring women’s existence.

Disciplinary power coerces by means of observation. Power needs to see without being

seen.179 Consequently, the observatories, such as schools, hospitals, prisons or customs follow the

model of a military camp, where power has a hierarchized surveillance in order to control an

individual’s conduct.180 Disciplinary power prevents confusion and disorder and triggers projects

of exclusion181 for the disobedient bodies. Thus, power does not only involve force; it is also a set

of soft and invisible surveillance relations that operate through disciplinary practices. The

disciplinary power is located at the center of a system of dividing practices that isolate those who

challenge the status quo,182 such as those smugglers considered delinquents by the border security

authorities. Therefore, power creates a knowledge regime materialized as a belief, a discourse, a

way to know and a way to do things in a particular individual or community. The disciplined body

is a believer in the truth that has been constructed by the disciplinary power. In the case of this

study, this belief is related to the idea that “smugglers are criminals.” Once disciplined, the social

body cannot become a threat to societal, economic or political orders. Thus, this disciplinary power

is essential to maintaining the status quo. For instance, a female body that performs an emphasized

femininity has become docile through the exercise of a disciplinary power. But a female body that

challenges the disciplinary power embedded in border security practices and discourses is

excluded, punished and discriminated against.

178 Foucault, Ibid., 136-139. 179 Foucault, Ibid., 171. 180 Foucault, Ibid., 171-172. 181 Foucault, Ibid., 199. 182 Monique Deveaux, “Feminism and Empowerment: A Critical Reading of Foucault,” Feminist Studies 20, no. 2,

Women's Agency: Empowerment and the Limits of Resistance (Summer, 1994): 224.

54

At this point, I would like to emphasize the fact that someone can be subordinated in one

context, for instance by being a woman, and yet be dominant in another context, such as by being

a white, upper-middle class and heterosexual woman. If we combine the Foucauldian idea of docile

bodies subjected by discipline with Crenshaw’s conception of intersectionality and Hill Collins’

matrix of domination within systems of power such as patriarchy, capitalism and racism, it

becomes easier to comprehend that, within border security discourses and practices, the social

location of women influences the disciplinary treatment that they receive when crossing the border.

For instance, due to her intersected social position, a poor Afro-Ecuadorian woman should not

dare to challenge border security practices.

1.2.7.2 Power as empowerment

An alternative to overcome the conception of power as domination is to view power as

empowerment. This type of power is associated with positive ways of expressing power, such as

“power with,” “power to” and “power within.” For instance, by building collective strength,

“power with” transforms and reduces social conflict and promotes equitable relations. “Power to”

refers to the potential of every person to shape his or her life. Finally, “power within” has to do

with a person’s sense of self-worth, recognizing individual differences while respecting others. It

affirms the common human search for dignity and fulfillment.183Power understood as

empowerment can, therefore, be a product of consent and can foster feminist solidarity.184 This

type of power unveils realities and creates new ones.185 In this sense, power cannot always be

183 Lisa Vene Klasen and Valerie Miller, “Power and empowerment,” PLA Notes 43 (2002): 39-41. 184 Amy Allen, The Power of Feminist Theory Domination, Resistance, Solidarity (Boulder, Colorado: Westview

Press, 1999), 56. 185 Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958), 200.

55

understood within the dominator/dominated relationship; it is also based on relations of solidarity,

dignity, collaboration and agreement among actors.

Empowerment as “power with” can be perceived as a collective force within solidarity

networks. I would like to refer to Arendt’s conception of power, because it involves a different

orientation from the conception of power as domination, defined as the ability to get one’s

commands obeyed. In particular, she identifies the type of power that humans use in the fulfillment

of their distinctively human potential. According to Hannah Arendt (1970), power is not just the

human ability to act, but the ability to act in concert.186 Therefore, power is not exclusively the

property of an individual, but also that of a group. Power in that sense exists as long as the group

remains together.187 Thus, Arendt’s concept of power understands that power appears when people

act together. When people live together as an organized unit, they produce power through action.188

From an Arendtian perspective, empowerment occurs within a network of human relationships

and is, therefore, a collective phenomenon. Certainly, a focus on individual capacity-building fails

to recognize the extent to which the development of the individual occurs within a context of social

and political relationships as well as within discourses.189An individual’s act becomes empowering

as long it turns into an action that occurs within the web of human relationships.190 This Arendtian

formulation of empowerment as collective power is associated with the concept of solidarity

articulated by Amy Allen’s power of feminist theory. Allen defines solidarity as “the ability of a

collectivity to act together for the agreed-upon end of challenging, subverting, and, ultimately,

186 Hannah Arendt, On Violence (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970), 44. 187 Arendt, Ibid., 44. 188 Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958), 200-201. 189 Shari McDaid, “Redefining empowerment in mental health: an analysis using Hannah Arendt's power concept,”

Journal of Power 3, no. 2 (2010): 212, DOI: 10.1080/17540291.2010.493701. 190 Arendt, The Human Condition, 181-184.

56

overturning a system of domination.”191 Since solidarity is a collective empowerment, it represents

power with. Collective power rejects the assumption that power is always exercised in strategic

ways,192 or “power over.” Power also emerges from the relationship between individuals that share

a common goal,193 such as economic survival through smuggling activities that are considered

illegal by border security authorities. Power as action has no physical limits in human nature; its

only limitation is the existence of other people who divide power.194 Arendt’s analysis recognizes

that, when power as action is fragmented, the force of collective power that can transform reality

by fostering solidarity or resistance within a social group is difficult to achieve. Security practices

at the border divide the power and solidarity that smugglers have as a group while crossing from

one side to the other. To prevent the division of this power, in the case under study some women

are able to mobilize and organize themselves in order to work together with their male

counterparts. Therefore, against the common belief of submissive and helpless women, there is a

strong female agency within the smuggling networks.

The concept of power as empowerment is useful to understand women’s emerging power

as agents of knowledge. Some women have internalized the values of the dominant culture. Their

guilt when they deviate from the norm and their need to avoid conflict in order to accommodate

and please, have prevented them from empowering themselves. Nevertheless, women cannot be

genuinely empowered until we understand our own need for power and, of course, our fear of it.

It is only by having power, by using it and by misusing it that we learn to know ourselves195 and

to seek empowerment within the domination framework of security practices in the border and

intersectional inequalities in society. In this sense, Black feminism reveals the role that knowledge

191 Amy Allen, The Power of Feminist Theory Domination, Resistance, Solidarity (Boulder, Colorado: Westview

Press, 1999), 127. 192 Allen, Ibid., 82. 193 Allen, Ibid., 100. 194 Arendt, On Violence, 201. 195 Helene Moglen, “Power and Empowerment,” Women’s Studies hr. Forum, 6, no. 2 (1983): 131-134.

57

and consciousness play in empowering oppressed individuals and groups. New knowledge from

subjugated groups is important for both the change of consciousness of individuals and the social

transformation of the institutions that perpetuate oppression and inequality.196The

conceptualization of power as empowerment is also viewed as the power of the powerless. This

perspective acknowledges that empowering practices of women are still shaped by relations of

domination.197 In patriarchal societies, men are in a position of dominance over women; but

women choose to understand power as the ability to empower oneself, others and the world.198

Women may want to be powerful in order to simultaneously enhance rather than diminish the

power of others.199 In concrete terms, power, as empowerment, is a creative ability that women

have in order to pursue certain life projects.200 Therefore, this approach has a transformative

component that can be understood as a process that fosters power in women for use in their own

lives and in their communities.

Nevertheless, power viewed as empowerment has to be aware of the social locations where

relations of domination and subordination take place. Empowerment is not a universal location:

some women can subordinate others201 or be more empowered than others depending on their

different social locations based on their race, class, gender or location (urban-rural). An

intersecting perspective recognizes that local women in border zones are a heterogeneous group

who might share experiences of racist, classist and gendered oppression. Based on women’s

socially constructed identities, border security discourses and practices reduce women’s lives to

196 Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment

(Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990), 221–238. 197 Amy Allen, The Power of Feminist Theory: Domination, Resistance, Solidarity (Boulder, Colorado: Westview

press, 1999), 24. 198 Allen, Ibid., 18. 199 Jean Baker Miller, Women and Power (Wellesley, Mass.: Stone Center for Developmental Services and Studies,

Wellesley College, 1982), 247-248. 200 Allen, Ibid., 21. 201 Allen, Ibid., 25.

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negative stereotypes that deny their agency. By understanding power as a negotiation between

domination and empowerment, it is possible to visualize how women move from one context of

power to the other depending on their social location. Feminist critical human security

acknowledges the interplay between these two understandings of power.

1.2.7.3 Feminist critical human security’s conception of power

To effectively influence the power structures within border control and inequality systems in

Ecuador, feminist critical human security acknowledges other sources and understandings of

power such as resistance or empowerment. Power, as both dynamic and multidimensional, changes

its expressions according to context and interests. Hence, its expressions can range from

domination and resistance to collaboration and transformation.202 Despite the predominance of

power as domination, feminist critical human security does not encourage women to believe that

we are powerless. Women exercise power daily to resist and challenge the patriarchal, racist and

classist system in border zones. In this sense, a feminist critical human security’s conception of

power reveals the unequal power relations that exist in every social relation, thereby showing that

subordinate forces can also exercise power.203 Thus, the viewpoint of power as an unchanging

relation of domination can be overcome if power is seen as empowerment.

Feminist critical human security displays a deep dissatisfaction with views of power as

domination and as the punishment of “undisciplined” bodies, because these views do not take into

account women’s agency and empowerment. Feminist critical human security is aware of the role

of power as domination, both at the structural and discursive levels, and of the challenge of

confronting power because it does not always operate in visible ways, but it nevertheless,

202 Lisa Vene Klasen and Valerie Miller, “Power and empowerment,” PLA Notes 43 (2002): 39-41. 203 Davina Cooper, “Productive, Relational and Everywhere? Conceptualizing Power and Resistance within

Foucauldian Feminism,” 442.

59

encourages us to view empowerment as an alternative model of power that creates more equitable

relationships.

Feminist critical human security rejects the conception of power as domination/punishment

imbued in the national security paradigm which interprets security through the restrictive lens of

the security of the state, thereby distracting attention from the insecurities that individuals, groups

and communities face in their everyday lives. Border security treats smugglers as criminals,

overlooking the circumstances that have motivated smuggling in a gendered, racist, classist and

geographical context of inequality. The state and its border security practices neglect the voices

and agency of women smugglers, whose access to alternative sources of income is limited in the

three provinces where my study was conducted. Feminist critical human security incorporates a

multidimensional approach to threats to security that can affect women, but it does not involve

military principles. Moreover, it prioritizes the security of the individual and establishes women

smugglers as referents of security. It acknowledges the emancipatory alternatives for them, in

order to ameliorate their security conditions. By tackling the interlocked inequalities that

undermine women’s security, feminist critical human security contributes to giving women the

tools of survival, dignity and sustainable livelihoods. In this sense, feminist critical human security

emphasizes not only the protection of women but also their empowerment through their active

participation in policy inputs, knowledge and experience to achieve their own development and

security. The feminist critical human security approach, therefore, aims to decrease women’s

insecurity and to achieve equality through feminist policy initiatives that are sensitive to

intersectional issues in development planning.

This section serves to explain how the concept of power is understood in the empirical case

under study. Arendt’s concept of collective power contributes to the understanding that, when

women are organized, they produce power through their daily activities. In the context of women

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on the borders, smuggling networks allow women to be powerful as a clandestine group on both

sides of the border. However, the security forces’ border control practices fragment this power. In

this sense, the Foucauldian conception of disciplinary power is useful to understand the discourse

and practice of border security. Such a conception prevents disorder at the border by means of

observation, excluding and punishing disobedient female bodies involved in smuggling. In the

discourse of national security, smugglers are disempowered by the border control authorities.

Women continuously move from one context of power relations to another, so they can be

dominated and empowered at the same time. The understanding of power in the case under study

demonstrates that smuggling can involve the empowerment or the domination of women,

depending on the context in which the smuggling takes place and the social location of women

who get involved in it. For this reason, from a feminist critical human security perspective, a

conception of power applied to the case of women’s insecurity and smuggling on Ecuador’s

borders recognizes the interplay between domination and empowerment. Such a conception

recognizes domination, empowerment, resistance, and solidarity. The interest in domination

focuses on the type of power consciously or unconsciously exercised over women by border

control and systems of oppression based on race, class, nationality and gender, while the interest

in empowerment and resistance focuses on the power that women have to act despite or in response

to the particular circumstances of domination in the border provinces. Finally, the interest in

solidarity focuses on the power that women exercise with each other and with men during

smuggling activities in border zones as they strive to improve their economic security. It is

important to recognize that, if Ecuador’s development initiatives truly want to encourage the

security of local women on the border, they need to be sensitive to the diversity of women’s

experiences deriving from their social location.

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1.2.8 Summary of the theoretical approach

This chapter has provided the theoretical framework that informs the analysis of women’s security

and smuggling on Ecuador’s borders. The conceptual framework that I use to analyze the empirical

case recognizes that national security is a state-centric security paradigm whose main concern is

to protect the state’s political and economic interests and values using a military approach to

tackling threats at the local, national, regional and global levels. Nonetheless, national security’s

self-interested agenda has failed to protect people, since it pays inadequate attention to the well-

being of citizens and their communities. National security discourses and practices on the border

criminalize women involved in smuggling activities, whereas the inhabitants of the border view

smuggling as a way of life. In contrast, I use feminist critical human security as a progressive

approach for understanding security issues. In order to ensure the implementation of effective

policies in solving social, economic, cultural or environmental problems in critical contexts,

feminist critical human security policies must consider all the interconnected factors that create

insecurity in the area in question. For instance, intersecting factors of inequality, such as sexism,

racism and classism, provoke women’s insecurity. Equality based on race, gender, class and

geographical location must be seen as the main components of a feminist critical human security

approach. For this reason, this dissertation is informed by a feminist critical human security

perspective that questions the intersectional relations of domination and subordination embodied

in state-centric perspectives of security. That perspective holds that an unequal access to education,

healthcare and political and economic participation, combined with a traditional social

construction of gender roles undermines women’s security. The achievement of material needs

clearly matters, but it is not enough. It is necessary to transform the socially constructed power

relations that have fostered structural inequalities and exclusion on allegedly undisciplined bodies.

Women’s security, within a feminist critical human security approach, is assured only through

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feminist policy initiatives within a context of development planning, so as to decrease the

intersecting factors of inequality.

The combination of critical human security and feminist security applied in the empirical

case studied in this dissertation analyzes human security as an emancipatory approach for women

and their local communities in the three border provinces where the study was carried out. By

using a feminist critical human security approach, the border is not viewed as a dividing line

between states; rather it is understood as a space of integration, social interaction, cultural

encounter and a way of life where the intersecting identities of women and security forces

interconnect. The vision of development also needs to foster the inclusion of local voices of women

as a precondition for successfully planning and implementing policies to improve their security.

My analysis of women’s (in) security on Ecuador’s borders posits development as a pre-

condition for achieving the security of women. Feminist critical human security is an emancipatory

conception that fosters strong community participation and engagement while repositioning

women and their potentialities at the center of development objectives. A feminist critical human

security approach can be enriched by post-development, because this understanding contributes to

the construction of people-centered development and security models that appreciate local

knowledge and culture. Such a conception encourages the agency of communities rooted in local

identities to address their own problems. It also recognizes local women’s knowledge development

in the provinces where this research was conducted. Finally, it emphasizes the idea of group

solidarity as a social process that fosters women’s efforts and joint work for the benefit of

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themselves, their families and their communities in the seven dimensions204 of the human security

approach.

1.3 Methodology

Doing feminist critical human security research in women’s insecurity and smuggling in border

zones involves an intersectional analysis of power relations that uncovers the hidden relationships

of oppression and inequality. Acknowledging the importance of intersectionality, in the case of

women’s insecurity, requires analyzing the intersection of multiple forms of discrimination based

on gender, race, class, ethnicity, nationality, geography and so on. On one hand, this research is

interdisciplinary and critical of the traditional understanding of security, since it implies a

challenge to dominant constructions of security as predominantly masculine. On the other hand,

feminist critical human security acknowledges that women within local communities must become

involved when development and security plans are designed in order to identify the issues that

create insecurity in specific contexts.

The methodology utilized in this dissertation is influenced and informed by a feminist critical

human security approach, which focuses on the security of women and their communities on

Ecuador’s border zones, specifically in El Oro, Sucumbíos and Carchi provinces. A feminist

critical human security viewpoint allows this study to arrive at a different, silenced and

marginalized notion of security that rejects the dominant discourses and practices on the topic.

Thus, the study addresses the following primary research question:

What comprises the web of power relations that have led to women’s insecurity in

Ecuador’s border provinces of El Oro, Carchi and Sucumbíos?

204 According to the 1994 UN Human Development Report, the human security approach involves seven dimensions:

personal security, economic security, community security, political security, environmental security, food security

and health security.

64

The study also addresses the following secondary research questions:

How is women’s involvement in smuggling related to the conditions of

insecurity at the border?

To what extent do public policies related to human security on Ecuador’s northern

and southern borders include a focus on women’s security and well-being that take

into account the intersections of gender, race, class and geographical location?

1.3.1 Methods

The study utilizes methods for research shaped by a feminist critical human security framework

that is guided by two sets of methodological approaches: a critical human security perspective and

feminist approaches to the methodology for international relations and political sciences.205 These

methodological approaches affect the methods chosen for this study. Thus, the study relies on the

following methods for gathering information: (a) analyzing documents; (b) interviews and (c)

workshops.

a) Analyzing documents

At the macro level, this research reviewed a broad array of relevant secondary sources, official

documents and relevant statistics in Ecuador, as well as newspaper articles.

The study analyzes several publications of experts on national security, human security,

international relations feminism, gender studies, intersectionality and development theory. The

205 Brooke Ackerly and Jacqui True, Doing Feminist Research in Political and Social Science (Palgrave Macmillan:

New York, 2010); Carol Cohn, “Motives and methods: using muti-sited ethnography to study US National Security

discourses,” in Feminist methodologies for International Relations. Brooke Ackerly, Maria Stern and Jacqui True

editors. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2006), 91-107; Maria Stern. “Racism, sexism, classism, and much

more: reading security-identity in marginalized sites,” in Feminist methodologies for International Relations. Brooke

Ackerly, Maria Stern and Jacqui True editors. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2006), 174-198; Kleinman,

Sherryl. Feminist Fieldwork Analysis. (Sage Publications: Los Angeles, 2007).

65

research also examined and analysed government documents and official sources of information

given to me by governmental officials or included in web pages such as the National Agenda for

Women and Gender Equality 2014-2017 (translated as Agenda Nacional de Mujeres y Equidad de

Género 2014-2017), development plans such as the National Plan for Buen Vivir 2009-2013 and

the National Plan for Buen Vivir 2013-2017, and security plans such as Plan Ecuador 2007 and

Comprehensive Security Plan 2011.

Finally, the study systematically analyzed five daily Ecuadorian newspapers Hoy, El

Comercio, El Telégrafo, El Universo and La Hora. The criteria of selection of these newspapers

involved the need to analyze the content of articles in national and local newspapers (El Comercio

is a national newspaper, and La Hora is a local newspaper). Over the one-year period 2013-2014,

I collected and studied online newspaper articles corresponding to the period 2007-2014. The

articles reviewed were retrieved using the terms “security plans at Ecuador’s border”, “smuggling

of fuel and propane cylinders at the border”, “development planning at the border”, “development

at the border”, “equality in Ecuador” and “gender equality in Ecuador.” This selection yielded

useful information about these topics of public concern in the country as a whole and established

a background for understanding the local concerns in the areas where I was working in. Thus, I

was able to collect data regarding national and local authorities’ attitudes, perceptions and

discourses towards particular issues, such as smuggling in the three provinces, border control and

government policies on gender issues, security and development, all of which are relevant to the

issue of women’s security on the border. Overall, the analysis of these articles yielded a broader

understanding of smuggling as a border security concern for the Ecuadorian authorities and of

women’s insecurity conditions in the Ecuadorian society.

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b) Interviewing

At the micro level, this study involved a process of selecting participants for interviews that

included those who could best address the research questions and enhance the understanding of

the phenomenon under study. The criteria were based on 1) perspective (those who approved or

disapproved governmental policies regarding border security, development and gender equality)

and 2) diversity (middle/low class, rural/urban and Black/Indigenous/Mestizo women). Thus, this

research analyzes the contents of individual semi-structured interviews, including open-ended

questions, followed by a short informal discussion at the end of the interview with academics,

government functionaries and leaders of women’s organizations. The research also analyzes

unstructured groups interviews with local women conducted during the fieldwork. Group

interviews were particularly useful with shy women. Those interviews were more social, and they

resulted in collective responses and the discussion of minorities’ viewpoints about the intersecting

factors of inequality in the everyday life of local women in the border provinces where this study

was carried out. As I became more involved in the course of my field research, I changed some of

the original questions and added new questions for my interviewees.

The first stage of my fieldwork took place in Ecuador, partly in 2013. Between June and

August 2013, I conducted interviews with leaders of women’s organizations and local authorities

in the three selected border provinces.206 Additional interviews were conducted in Imbabura

(Ibarra) and Pichincha (Quito) provinces with feminist scholars and the representatives of the

Ecuadorian government working on gender, security and development planning.

The second stage of the field work of this research was conducted in Quito on May 26,

2014 when I attended a meeting with a representative of the Transition Commission to the Council

206 The three selected provinces were Carchi (La Concepción) and Sucumbíos (Lago Agrio) at the Northern border,

and El Oro (Machala, Chacras, and Huaquillas) at the Southern border.

67

of Gender Equality of Ecuador in order to discuss the process of creation and the content of the

National Agenda for Women and Gender Equality 2014-2017. Overall, the fieldwork involved 22

interviews, all done in person.

Each individual interview lasted between 45 and 60 minutes. The group interviews lasted

between 45 and 90 minutes. All the interviews were taped, transcribed and translated from Spanish

into English. The transcribed interviews were read several times, and their content was classified

by themes (gender equality, border security, development planning, inequality based on race,

inequality based on class) and by location. I shared the transcripts with the interviewees who

wanted a copy of the interview. In two cases,207 I was able to do follow-up interviews after studying

the transcripts.

In the interviews with border security authorities and leaders of women’s organizations in

the three provinces and in the group interviews with local women in Huaquillas-El Oro and La

Concepcion-Carchi, I learned that border security institutions in Ecuador are racialized

organizations dominated by Mestizo men, and that their predominant practices of border security

are affected by the gender and race of the smugglers. For instance, Black women are more often

stopped by border security officers. The gendering and racialization of interactions at the border

show the inequality of power in border security practices. I also learned from the interviews with

the Ecuadorian authorities that there is a persistent lack of political will and budget to promote

projects for women in the border.

207 The follow-up interviews were with an Ecuadorian functionary working on gender equality and with a Customs

officer.

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c) Conducting workshops

This research analyzes the contents of two workshops conducted with local women in two border

provinces, El Oro (Huaquillas) on July 13, 2013, and Carchi (La Concepción) on August 31, 2013.

Workshops were chosen as the method of data collection because they are an effective technique

for achieving public participation and setting up a plan of action. Methods such as focus groups

and workshops are consultative in nature. Focus groups, as a research method based on group

interaction, can be viewed as a controlled discussion in which the participants collectively produce

interpretations of proposed topics.208 Focus groups tend to be homogeneous in terms of

demographics, typically involving between 6-10 people;209 smaller groups with four to six

participants can be useful to discuss sensitive topics. A typical focus group lasts less than two

hours.

Workshops, on the other hand, are extended group discussions (from three hours to one

day), often with more participants than in a focus group. Generally, workshops allow more in-

depth exploration of an issue than is in a focus group.210 There is the potential, as with any type of

facilitated discussion, for particular interests or voices to dominate,211 but workshops offer the

possibility for achieving a consensus or decision.212 They may also encourage the participants to

208 Janeth Smithson, “Using and analysing focus groups: limitations and possibilities,” INT. J. SOCIAL RESEARCH

METHODOLOGY 3, no. 2 (2000): 104-105. http://www.sfu.ca/~palys/Smithson-2000-

Using&AnalysingFocusGroups.pdf (accessed in June 2016). 209 Janeth Smithson, Ibid., 106. 210The National Social Marketing Centre, Qualitative research methodologies.

http://www.thensmc.com.temporarywebsiteaddress.com/oss/node/129 (accessed in June 2016). 211Collaboration and Participation. Focus groups and workshops.

http://www.tba.co.nz/kete/PDF_files/ITP206_focus_groups_and_workshops.pdf (accessed in June 2016). 212University College London-UCL, Evaluation Methods for Public Engagement Projects.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/public-

engagement/documents/evaluationtoolkits/evaluationmethods/100831_Methods_for_evaluation.pdf (accessed in

June 2016).

http://www.sfu.ca/~palys/Smithson-2000-Using&AnalysingFocusGroups.pdf

http://www.sfu.ca/~palys/Smithson-2000-Using&AnalysingFocusGroups.pdf

http://www.thensmc.com.temporarywebsiteaddress.com/oss/node/129

http://www.tba.co.nz/kete/PDF_files/ITP206_focus_groups_and_workshops.pdf

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/public-engagement/documents/evaluationtoolkits/evaluationmethods/100831_Methods_for_evaluation.pdf

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/public-engagement/documents/evaluationtoolkits/evaluationmethods/100831_Methods_for_evaluation.pdf

69

generate creative or new ideas,213 often ending with an action plan.214 In this study, workshops

were chosen as one method of data collection because they allow the generation of information on

collective views and generate a rich understanding of women's experiences of insecurity and

inequality on the border as well as recommendations to improve the security conditions of women

and their communities. A total of 32 women participated in the workshops. 24 participated in the

workshop in La Concepción, Carchi Province, and eight in the workshop in Huaquillas, El Oro

Province. Two local women organizations, El Oro Women’s Movement (MMO) in Huaquillas and

the National Confederation of Black Women (CONAMUNE) in La Concepción, actively

contributed to the success of the workshops. The themes to be discussed during the workshops

(border security, employment and gender equality) were selected by the representatives of the

women’s organizations and myself. Local women were invited by the representative of the local

women’s organizations in their community. The invitation to participate in the workshops

explained that the study would like to know about the participants’ security experiences as

inhabitants of the border and the major problems of development and equity in their province in

order to articulate a proposal for human security in the area. Each workshop lasted four hours,

including 30 minutes for a lunch break. My role was to moderate the discussion and to prevent the

discussion from being dominated by few participants in order to hear a range of views and to allow

different opinions to be discussed fairly. The results of the workshops were taped, transcribed and

translated from Spanish into English.

A total of 63 individuals participated either in the workshops or as interviewees. The

invitation to the interviews and the workshops explained the objective of the research. Consent

213The National Social Marketing Centre, Qualitative research methodologies.

http://www.thensmc.com.temporarywebsiteaddress.com/oss/node/129 (accessed in June 2016). 214 Collaboration and Participation. Focus groups and workshops.

http://www.tba.co.nz/kete/PDF_files/ITP206_focus_groups_and_workshops.pdf (accessed in June 2016).

http://www.thensmc.com.temporarywebsiteaddress.com/oss/node/129

http://www.tba.co.nz/kete/PDF_files/ITP206_focus_groups_and_workshops.pdf

70

forms were submitted and explained to the participants. For further detailed information about the

interviews and the workshops refer to Appendix E: List of Key Informants Contacted, Appendix F:

Interview Guides for Key Informants, and Appendix G: Interview Guide for Participants.

1.3.2 Quantitative and Qualitative Data

The research utilizes quantitative data, such as national statistics, census data and confiscations

data. The analysis relies on statistical data about employment rates, labor force participation rates

by sex, female population, female households, single mothers, and domestic violence by province

obtained from the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Ecuador (INEC). The quantitative

data used in this research gave me general information about the following:

a) gallons of fuel and gas cylinders for domestic use confiscated from trans-border smugglers;

b) losses to the Ecuadorian economy in millions of dollars due to fuel smuggling across the

border in 2013;

c) the number of women arrested for smuggling at the border in 2012-2013;

d) the employment situation and access to education of women by ethnicity in Ecuador; and

e) women victims of domestic violence.

The qualitative data obtained from the analysis of newspapers, interviews and workshops with

local women gave me the details about:

a) local women’s experiences of discrimination due to domestic violence, economic insecurity

and intersecting identities based on race, class and geographical location;

b) understandings of the border by local women and the leaders of women’s organizations;

c) perceptions of development and security by local women and the Ecuadorian authorities;

71

d) perceptions of smuggling as a crime by the local authorities and as a way of life by local

women and Ecuadorian academics;

e) gender relations within smuggling activities.

1.3.3 Successes and problems encountered in data collection activities

I introduced myself as a researcher interested in women, smuggling and human security policies.

Initially, given my age and gender, I looked unthreatening. But my social position as a young

Mestizo middle-class woman affected my interactions with my interviewees. At the beginning of

my interviews, my gender and age probably served as an icebreaker with many male government

functionaries. In contrast, my status as “Ph.D. student and researcher from a Canadian university,”

which enhanced my interaction with academics and experts in the fields that I was researching,

did not have such a positive effect with some developing planning and border security officials.

Once you put those identities together, they translate into an educated middle-class Mestizo

woman who might criticize the current policies of the government. The result was varying degrees

of openness in the interviews. A high percentage of the Mestizo female professional interviewees

were extremely open, often revealing things that clearly would cause difficulties for them if

exposed. In contrast, the government officials were unforthcoming clearly following the official

position on security and development planning.

One success encountered during the fieldwork and, indeed the whole data collection

process was the interest of many Ecuadorian authorities in this study, especially those working on

gender equality and security, as shown by their availability to participate in interviews and their

willingness to offer additional useful information. Once trust was built, “snowball sampling”

became crucial, giving me more access to interviews. When a particular Customs officer, an

academic on gender or woman leader of an organisation got to know me over a period of time,

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they asked others to let me interview them. Nevertheless, the interview with two development

planning officials in Ibarra involved an unexpected event, but it ended up being informative. The

interview was planned for 45 minutes, but one of the (male) officials left only 15 minutes after the

interview started. Specifically, he left when I started to ask why Plan Ecuador failed and whether

that failure was the main reason why Plan Ecuador is now merging with SENPLADES (Secretary

for National Planning and Development)? He explained that he had to leave because he had a

meeting with the General Secretary for Development Planning of the northern area. The lady who

stayed for the rest of the interview offered significant information regarding development

planning. She also recognised that there is not currently enough of a gender focus in development

planning on Ecuador’s borders.

Another success was the active involvement of the members of the two women’s

organisations, who participated with me in the organisation of the workshops and the group

interviews. For instance, for the workshop in Huaquillas, the lawyer of the Women’s Movement

El Oro (Movimiento de Mujeres de El Oro) went with her daughter door to door inviting local

women to participate.

While collecting data during my fieldwork, I encountered several problems and limitations.

Principally, I was not able to conduct direct individual interviews with women smugglers. The

Board of Ethics at UBC considered such interviews too risky for myself and the women smugglers.

Some of the women who participated in the workshops and group interviews had been involved

at least once in smuggling activities, but I did not ask direct questions about smuggling at particular

persons. The discussion of smuggling was introduced by the participants themselves as a way of

life for locals on the border. The participants complained about the security practices deployed on

the border to tackle smuggling on the grounds that they tend to use excessive force and constitute

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an abuse of power. An additional limitation of my study was that women who did not live in

Huaquillas or in the Chota Valley were excluded from this research.

Another problem that I encountered during my fieldwork was the impossibility of

conducting a workshop planned in Lago Agrio, Sucumbíos Province, with members of the

Women’s Federation of Sucumbíos. When I arrived at Lago Agrio to conduct interviews with two

leaders of the Federation, I was told that it was not possible to conduct the workshop either in July

or in August 2013, because many members were on holiday. These two leaders shared the results

of a study conducted by the Federation such as the Agenda of Women of Sucumbíos in 2006,

which includes the history of the province and a discussion of previous workshops. The two leaders

of the Federation explained that the living conditions of many women in the area have not changed

since the 2006 Agenda was created.

Another limitation was the lack of feedback on the transcripts of the interviews. I

interviewed not only leaders of women’s organisation but also local women who were not in

leadership positions. The women in leadership positions seek to represent the needs of local

women in their provinces and communities. These women reviewed the transcripts of their

interviews. However, the local women in non-leadership positions, hardly wrote down their

comments. This provided the main limitation to my method, given the fact that the study wanted

to include the silent voices of local women unable to speak about their security experiences on a

daily basis. However, this limitation was, to some extent, overcome by the discussions in the

workshops and by the group interviews.

My study used mainly a qualitative approach to analyzing the content of the literature, the

interviews, the mass media and the workshops, gaining a rich and complex understanding of

women’s experience of insecurity and experts’ perceptions of security and inequality.

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My research studied a marginalized social group, namely women living in three border

provinces. If I were to conduct future work in this area, I would like to use a more participatory

approach to try to give the group studied a voice through the collaborative design of a project for

the benefit of the community to be presented to the provincial government.

My study was conducted as research about women and their security problems, rather than

with these women. In more concrete terms, the local women need to be viewed as sources of

information and ideas rather than merely as objects of research. I acknowledge my duty as a

researcher to learn how to conduct this type of participatory research because it is important to

involve the group being studied in the research, preferably at all stages, so as to avoid further

marginalising its members.

Overall, the goal of my field research was to observe, read, listen and learn more about

security, border dynamics, development and inequality based on the intersections of gender, race,

class and location. By doing so, I was able to acquire data that demonstrate inequality within power

relations in the three border provinces. By using a feminist critical human security lens, my study

recommends the achievement of equality aware of the intersections of race, gender, class and

geographical location as a precondition for the security of women living at the border.

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Chapter 2. Ecuadorian Policy on Security

By analyzing two Ecuadorian policies on security, namely national security and human security,

this chapter seeks to understand how national security dynamics under Rafael Correa’s

government has not successfully tackled smuggling as a new threat in border zones. Thus, a self-

interested national security agenda has failed to protect people.

First, I examine how the national security approach has been implemented by the

Ecuadorian state since the 1920s. I then analyze how biopolitics, governmentality and other

methods of internal control affecting conceptions of state security are implemented under Correa.

I argue that national security discourses and practices at the border criminalize the individuals

involved in smuggling activities, whereas the inhabitants of the border view smuggling as a way

of life. Finally, this chapter suggests that a human security approach cannot be implemented as a

mere complement to national security initiatives; rather, it has to empower individuals and their

communities.

2.1 National Security as viewed by the Ecuadorian state

In this section, I utilize the concept of national security. This concept, as a state-centric approach,

explicates the traditional view of security in Ecuador. I will analyse the historical relationship

between security and development in the Ecuadorian security agenda. I shall also examine how

the Ecuadorian security policy has been influenced by a National Security Doctrine led by the US.

Finally, through the analysis of the national security approach, which is based on states’ national

interests and values, I explain how Ecuador’s national security policy during the late 1990s and

early 2000s has been affected by the Colombian army conflict and how this policy is currently

implemented to control smuggling in Ecuador’s border zones.

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The process of national security decision-making has developed doctrines that assume that

states traditionally accept a permanent state of war where their national interests are seen as the

main issue for international and national affairs. A National Security Doctrine started to be

developed during the Cold War. Its formulation was led by the United States in the framework of

its policy of containment of the Communism of the Soviet Union. That doctrine was imposed on

the majority of Latin American countries, through such instruments as the American Treaty of

Reciprocal Assistance, the Inter-American Defense College, the Central Intelligence Agency

(CIA), and the School of the Americas. From the perspective of classical realism, the United States

considered that the purpose of the National Security Doctrine was to fight the Communist threat,

which was the primary cause of political instability and the main threat to the security of “all”

countries in the hemisphere. Therefore, the U.S. developed several mechanisms and strategies to

counter the subversion and insurgency that were brewing in Latin American countries, such as aid

programs, supporting military leaders and training troops through the United States Agency for

Development (USAID), and the Alliance for Progress.215 With the fall of the Berlin Wall, in

November 1989, the spread of Communism ceased to be a threat to American interests. In what

follows, I discuss the ways in which Ecuador’s security policies were influenced by the national

security discourse of the Cold War.

From a realist perspective, the National Security Doctrine during the Cold War emphasized

the containment of threats to states’ national interests. Ecuador became immersed in this process

by designing its National Security Doctrine embodied in the National Security Law of 1979, and

by the creation of the National Security Council (COSENA), the National Directorate of

215 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Plan de Seguridad Integral (2011), 12-13.

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Intelligence (DNI), and the National Institute of Advanced Studies (IAEN),216 which served as

instruments for the application of the doctrine, especially during the years of military dictatorships

(Junta Militar, 1963-1966, and Gobierno Nacionalista y Revolucionario de las Fuerzas Armadas,

1972-1979) and the anti-subversive struggle that occurred in the country.

Before and during the Cold War, notions of external and internal security were influenced

by the Ecuadorian Armed Forces’ participation in national political life as guarantors of economic

and social development. Since the 1920s, the military has been influential in Ecuadorian politics

due to weak civil leaderships. The relationship between internal security and politics began before

the Cold War; it responded to the social and political components of an agro-export oriented

economy led by an oligarchy with multiple economic and political interests. This oligarchy had

little capacity to integrate politically a heterogeneous and marginalized population.217 Indeed, the

military and the populist regime of Velasco Ibarra were, from the 1920s to early 1970s, perhaps

the only modernizing and politically inclusive force, proposing alternatives to the economic crisis

created by the oligarchic groups.218 The influence of the armed forces in Ecuadorian political

affairs became even greater when the 1945 Constitution, promoted by the military and by socialist

militants, stated that the army forces do not obey orders that go against the law and the

Constitution.219 During the Cold War, therefore, the Ecuadorian armed forces were already

extremely influential in the political realm, being able to adapt the concept of national security

according to their own perspectives on possible threats to the internal order and national

216 IAEN was created in 1972 during the dictatorship of General Guillermo Rodríguez (1972-1976) to prepare civil

and military authorities in decision-making. Today it is a political school that prepare public servants according to

ideological vision of the regime. 217 Bertha García Gallegos, “El Concepto de “Seguridad Interna” en el Marco de las Relaciones Sociedad-Fuerzas

Armadas en el Ecuador,” Revista Paraguaya de Sociología no 98 (enero-abril de 1997): 192. 218 Bertha García Gallegos, Ibid., 190-192. 219 Bertha García Gallegos, Ibid., 193.

78

sovereignty.220 The Junta Militar dictatorship was strongly influenced by the ideology of the

National Security Doctrine led by the US, identifying as an “internal enemy” the pro-Cuba politics

promoted by President Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy and other left-wing groups.221 Throughout

the Cold War era, the Ecuadorian armed forces directly engaged in the management of social and

economic development through coups d'état that they justified by the inability of civilian leaders

to propose alternatives to the crisis of the agro-export oriented economy and to boost industrial

progress in Ecuador.222 Among these alternatives led by the military were the promotion of the

import substitution model, industrial protectionism, land reform and technological development

in rural areas.

The doctrine of the internal enemy was combined with the rhetoric of development. In the

1967 Constitution, the dictatorship of the Military Junta defined development tasks as the new role

of the armed forces;223 this constitutional mandate linked internal security to a national

development doctrine.224 It is conceivable that the military’s interpretation of that constitutional

mandate encouraged the 1973 coup d’état that overthrew the fifth Velasquismo. The military

justified the coup by arguing that the Velasco government lacked a political project to effectively

utilize new oil resources in order to overcome social injustice, to improve a poor health system

and to combat illiteracy.225 This dictatorship was strongly opposed to transnational oil companies,

a position strongly supported by unions and other left-wing groups. The rapid modernization of

the rural-agricultural sector and the industrial momentum fostered an alliance between military,

popular sectors and reformers. This alliance was, however, diluted in the second period of the

220 Bertha García Gallegos, Ibid., 190. 221 Bertha García Gallegos, Ibid., 194. 222 Bertha García Gallegos, Ibid., 194. 223 Bertha García Gallegos, Ibid., 194-195. 224 Bertha García Gallegos, Ibid., 195. 225 Bertha García Gallegos, Ibid., 195.

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military regime (1976-1979), when military factions repressed the social and political forces that

demanded the return of civil power as a safe alternative to military authoritarianism.226 The return

to democracy, in 1979, was essentially promoted by the so-called oligarchy, because it served the

interests of the elites. Jaime Roldós Aguilera was the first democratically-elected president of

Ecuador after the military dictatorship ended in 1979. This transition to democracy was, however,

tightly monitored by the armed forces.

The return to democracy faced several challenges, including the end of the oil boom, the

external debt crisis, the emergence of subversive groups and the resurgence of the territorial

conflict with Peru. In particular, the negative effects of the external debt crisis caused the collapse

of the Ecuadorian economy, severely impoverishing the middle and lower segments of society.

This crisis allowed the emergence of subversive groups with greater military organization and

ostensible links with guerrilla groups in the region, especially the Colombian M-19.227 Thus, in

the 1980s, following the transition to democracy, Ecuador's national security efforts were oriented

internally towards the “subversive” threat of groups such as the left-wing Alfaro Vive Carajo

(translated as Alfaro Lives, Dammit!) founded in 1982 and externally towards the resurgence of

the territorial dispute with Peru. According to Ecuador’s 2011 Comprehensive Security Plan

(translated as Plan de Seguridad Integral) in the war against subversion, intelligence activities

were privileged, legitimizing the persecution, harassment, arbitrary detention, torture and

disappearance of people.228 Thus, the state deployed the monopoly of legitimate violence over the

governed.229 In sum, in the 1980s a national security policy permitted Ecuadorian security forces

226 Bertha García Gallegos, Ibid., 195. 227 Bertha García Gallegos, “El Concepto de “Seguridad Interna” en el Marco de las Relaciones Sociedad-Fuerzas

Armadas en el Ecuador,” 196. 228 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Plan de Seguridad Integral, 13. 229 Pablo Andrade “La seguridad en las relaciones Ecuador-Colombia,” Comentario Internacional: Revista del Centro

Andino de Estudios Internacionales 4 (II semestre, 2002): 81.

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to deploy their power, understood as control and domination, to tackle both internal and external

threats, negatively affecting the human rights of civilians.

The end of the Cold War dismantled ideological structures, redefining the armed forces’

future tasks. From the military point of view, it was necessary to overcome the repressive behavior

that emerged to control subversive groups during the León Febres Cordero administration (1984-

1988).230 It was essential to find other ways of coping with potential conflicts without destroying

the solidarity of civil society, which was considered as a necessary support in the event of an

escalation of the conflict with Peru.231 The new military approach needed to be based on conflict

prevention as a doctrine of internal security. Support for development initiatives as conflict

prevention involved a set of actions in the fields of health, forestry, protection of the environment,

distribution of food and medicines, construction of schools and, especially, in the field of

education.232 The role of the military in development activities linked security with governance.233

Through development initiatives, the Ecuadorian Armed Forces linked security with development

and strengthened their role in other realms of the public sphere.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, shifts in international and national politics redefined

Ecuador’s national security agenda. In the post-Cold War period, it is clear that issues of defense

and security are no longer strictly military. The security needs of society are multiple.234 The

Miami Summit of December 1994 led by Democratic President Bill Clinton (1993-2001) served

to define the new issues that would govern the hemispheric security agenda. These issues are drug

230 Bertha García Gallegos, Ibid., 196-197. 231 Bertha García Gallegos: “Soberanía, Defensa y Seguridad”, en Tiwintza, Quito, CEDEP Fundación José Peralta,

1995. 232 Bertha García Gallegos, Ibid., 197. 233 Bertha García Gallegos, Ibid., 203. 234 Bertha García Gallegos, Ibid.,189.

81

trafficking and the fight against terrorism.235 In this context, at the beginning of 2000, the northern

border with Colombia started to receive more attention from the Ecuadorian government, due to

the resolution of the territorial dispute on the southern border with Peru in 1998 through the peace

accords of Itamaraty-Brasilia. Moreover, Plan Colombia was launched in 2000 by the Colombian

government of Andrés Pastrana with the support of the United States in an effort to combat drug

trafficking and guerrilla movements such as Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia

(FARC) (translated as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and Ejército de Liberación

Nacional (ELN) (translated as the National Liberation Army). The initial two-year phase of Plan

Colombia focused on Colombia’s southern border, provoking the spillover of the internal

Colombian conflict to Ecuador.236 Andrés Pastrana’s government made a serious mistake, not only

with neighboring countries, but also with Colombia, by allowing the Plan Colombia to evolve from

a plan that supported peace and the negotiation process to a plan that had US rather than Colombian

priorities. Moreover, the plan was going to be applied at the borders and Pastrana’s government

did not considered its neighbors’ opinion.237 The fact that Ecuador shares the northern border with

Colombia brought about a series of sequels related to Plan Colombia, and the conflict itself.

The geographical position of Ecuador, especially its proximity to Colombia, was seen as

strategic to the United States’ counternarcotic war. In 1999, the U.S. signed a 10-year agreement

with then Ecuadorian President Jamil Mahuad, that allowed the U.S to deploy its national security

strategy through military surveillance in Ecuador by using Manta’s airport in the coastal Manabí

province. This airport, formally known as Forward Operating Location (FOL), was used by the

235US. Department of State, Declaration of Miami: First Summit of the Americas, December 11, 1994.

http://www.state.gov/p/wha/rls/59673.htm (accessed December 26, 2014). 236 Claudia Donoso, “La interdependencia en el área de seguridad en la frontera colombo-ecuatoriana a raíz de la

implementación del Plan Colombia: propuesta de política pública de seguridad fronteriza” (master’s thesis FLACSO-

Ecuador, 2004), 82. 237 Claudia Donoso, Ibid., 77.

http://www.state.gov/p/wha/rls/59673.htm

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Air Forces of the United States Southern Command for operations against illegal cocaine

trafficking in northwestern South America, including Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. Based on

Article 5 of the 2008 Constitution, which states that no foreign military bases are allowed in

Ecuador, the government of Rafael Correa decided in 2009 not to renew this agreement. The

above-mentioned security strategy, initially shared by the US and Ecuadorian governments,

encouraged Ecuador to follow the tendency to overemphasize national self-interests to tackle drug

trafficking and smuggling.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in New York and Washington, DC,

terrorism came to be perceived as a global threat under Republican President George W. Bush

(2001-2009). Consequently, the US government changed its non-interventionist foreign policy in

the Andean countries; in particular, it merged counternarcotic and counterterrorism strategies. The

debates in the US Congress prior to the approval of this combined strategy lasted about four

months and suggested that drug trafficking and terrorism were two sides of the same coin, because

terrorist groups finance their activities through drug trafficking. As a result, in late July 2002 the

US Congress decided that the financial aid to Plan Colombia, previously restricted to the fight

against drugs, must also be used in the fight against Colombian armed groups outside the law.238

The interest of the White House in strengthening cooperation between intelligence systems

extended to Colombia, because Colombia had many hectares of coca, and little control over

insurgent groups, such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National

Liberation Army (ELN), and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), all of which

were considered to be terrorists groups by the White House .239 In sum, the attacks on the twin

238 Yamile León Vargas, La política exterior de Estados Unidos hacia Colombia luego del 11 de septiembre.

Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar Sede Ecuador Área de Estudios Sociales y Globales, Tesis Programa de Maestría

en Relaciones Internacionales Mención en Comercio e Integración. (2002): 33-38. 239 Yamile León Vargas, Ibid., 36-38.

83

towers in New York in 2001 led the U.S. Congress in 2002 to conclude that terrorism and the illicit

narcotics trade in Colombia were intimately linked. Consequently, U.S. assistance to Colombia

began to support Colombian President Uribe's unified campaign against narcotics and terrorism.240

Uribe administration’s democratic security policy (translated as Seguridad Democrática) was

understood as the military strengthening of the Colombian state and not as the lack of socio-

economic investment and social justice, which was what had created Colombia’s internal conflict,

extending it to border countries.241 Thus, the armed conflict in Colombia and the implementation

of Plan Colombia under the US security agenda represented serious threats to Ecuador’s national

security, with the emergence of an interdependent security relationship between Ecuador and

Colombia.242 Therefore, the new phase of Plan Colombia will definitely cause the northeastern

sector of Ecuador's northern border to experience the consequences of military operations aimed

at eradicating drug trafficking and terrorism in Colombia. As a result, the common border between

Colombia and Ecuador shares security issues related to drug trafficking, fumigations and the

presence of guerrillas, paramilitaries, and displaced Colombians seeking the refugee status in

Ecuador.

The Ecuadorian security forces viewed Plan Colombia’s battle against terrorism and

subversive groups as the main cause of the overflow of violence and insecurity to Ecuador. The

border zone with Colombia began to be seen as a problematic and vulnerable area. As a result, the

Ecuadorian government strengthened the presence and capacity of the operations of the armed

240 During 2000, the United States responded to the Colombian government's request of the Pastrana administration

for international support for Plan Colombia by providing assistance to increase Colombia's counternarcotic

capabilities. See more at the Embassy of the United States in Bogota, Colombia,

http://bogota.usembassy.gov/plancolombia.html (accessed on July, 2014). 241 Interview conducted by the author on September 12, 2003 in Bogota-Colombia for her master’s thesis at FLACSO-

Ecuador. 242 Claudia Donoso, “La interdependencia en el área de seguridad en la frontera colombo-ecuatoriana a raíz de la

implementación del Plan Colombia: propuesta de política pública de seguridad fronteriza” (master’s thesis, FLACSO-

Ecuador, 2004), 83.

http://bogota.usembassy.gov/plancolombia.html

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forces in the area, as well as the number of police to control drug trafficking and mixed criminal

gangs (Ecuadorian-Colombian). It is clear that the Ecuadorian security forces seek to maintain the

Colombia conflict outside Ecuador’s borders.243 Thus, the Colombian conflict turned into a threat

to Ecuador’s national security244 because of the presence of irregular groups that came from the

Colombian conflict and the proliferation of organized crime in Ecuador.

The weak presence of the state in the border zones has merely advanced military

reinforcement. The failed attempt of the (current and previous) governments to generate non-

military answers to the problems in the border through strategies such as UDENOR and Plan

Ecuador has resulted in a slight strengthening of the presence of some state bureaucracy, especially

in the health, education, and development sectors, but with minimal results.245 In particular, at the

beginning of the first term of Correa’s administration, Plan Ecuador was launched in 2007 as a

peace initiative based on human rights, as opposed to Plan Colombia. Once it failed, however, the

government decided to strengthen the military presence at the border, especially after the attack in

Angostura-Ecuador on March 1, 2008. Consequently, the protection of Ecuador’s sovereignty

became public policy.246 This meant security and intelligence reforms.247 The commitment to the

militarization of the border aimed to gain state presence and thereby to avert a potential danger

arising from the violence that came from the “other side” of the border.248 This alleged presence

of the state has resulted mainly in an increased number of troops to combat insecurity in the border

243 Pablo Andrade, “La seguridad en las relaciones Ecuador-Colombia.” Comentario Internacional: Revista del Centro

Andino de Estudios Internacionales (2002): 77-78 244 Pablo Andrade, Ibid., 77. 245 Roque Espinosa, “Ciudadanías de frontera o fronteras de la ciudadanía,” en Fernando Carrión M. Johanna Espín

M. Coordinadores. Relaciones fronterizas: Encuentros y Conflictos (Quito, FLACSO-Ecuador: 2011), 42. 246 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 47. 247 Saudia Levoyer, “Huracán de la Frontera: narcotráfico, guerrilla e inteligencia” (master’s thesis, Universidad

Andina Simón Bolívar, 2014), 13. http://repositorio.uasb.edu.ec/bitstream/10644/4249/1/T1520-MELA-Levoyer-

Huracan.pdf 248 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 37-38, 42.

http://repositorio.uasb.edu.ec/bitstream/10644/4249/1/T1520-MELA-Levoyer-Huracan.pdf


85

provinces.249 The presence of the state through a military reinforcement appears to be an exercise

of sovereignty, but it fosters exclusionary tendencies in public policy. These tendencies

marginalize even more border populations and restrict cross-border relations.250 In this context,

the promotion of the political, economic and social inclusion of the border populations is not

considered a priority. The militarization of the border zone contributes to regional segregation.251

As a result, the militarization of the border region has forced small traders to rely on established

networks controlled by local powers that have turned into articulators of “contacts” on both sides

of the border, such as wholesale suppliers of certain goods or simply property owners of storages

facilities strategically located close to the border crossing. Cross-border trade is no longer merely

considered contraband; rather, it has been labelled by the security authorities as support to drug

traffickers and terrorist networks.252 Despite this militarization of the border, the locals have found

ways to continue with their cross-border activities.

The inhabitants and border communities have fostered the strategy of going unnoticed in the

eyes of the state in order to avoid the panoptic gaze of public institutions. This very invisibility

has been a condition to ensure the survival of local dynamics and relations.253 In this sense, the

border region is characterized by the presence of a web of relationships that the populations living

there have established with the inhabitants of the “other side.”254 For example, it is not feasible to

understand the border realities of the provinces of Carchi, Sucumbíos and El Oro, if the social

relations with the peoples of Putumayo and Nariño in Colombia and of Aguas Verdes in Peru are

not taken into account. Commercial exchanges of food, clothing and products for resale - such as

249 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 37-38, 42. 250 Roque Espinosa, “Ciudadanías de frontera o fronteras de la ciudadanía,” en Fernando Carrión M. Johanna Espín

M. Coordinadores. Relaciones fronterizas: Encuentros y Conflictos (Quito, FLACSO-Ecuador: 2011), 49. 251 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 49. 252 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 38. 253 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 22. 254 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 24.

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propane cylinders, gasoline, milk, fruits, potatoes and cattle- that pass daily one side of the border

to the other are a way of life for the people living in the border zones. In the provinces of the

northern border, this micro-trade, especially since the implementation of Plan Colombia, is part of

a regional social network that has defined the economic and political reality of the border

provinces.255 This means that you can hardly understand the emergence of coca production in

Colombia's Putumayo region if you do not consider the network of cross-border relations at the

Ecuador-Colombia border. These regional relationships have made possible the emergence of

what Roque Espinosa has called “the coca enclave.”256 The government of Ecuador has sought to

deny the obvious inclusion of Ecuadorians in the coca economy, but extensive fieldwork has

shown that the coca enclave exists because forces in both sides of the border have created the

conditions for its emergence and development. For example, if there had been no support from the

Ecuadorian side for the provision of fertilizers for growing and processing base and cocaine paste,

it would not have been possible to develop the plantation and industrialization of coca in

Putumayo.257 In this context, the emergence of “the coca enclave” has worsened cross-border

relations that have been part of the daily life at the border.

Since national interests and national security became its exclusive preoccupation, Ecuador

has ignored the multidimensional features of security issues. Indeed, national interests redefined

the national security agenda. Ecuador increased its military power in order to protect its

sovereignty, its border security, its key natural resources and its population. From a realist point

of view, increasing the military budget and the military presence on the borders or in areas

considered strategic for Ecuador’s national interests are viewed as totally genuine. In 2013,

255 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 26. 256 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 26. 257 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 27.

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Ecuador deployed to the border with Colombia more than 10,000 personnel, including police and

military forces, to guard and control it.258The presence of security forces on Ecuador’s border to

prevent drug trafficking or the smuggling of fuel, propane cylinders and other commodities

demonstrates, from a realist point of view, how a national security policy applied in a concrete

scenario can contribute to the achievement of national order.

International and national order can be achieved by using a balance of power259 and

cooperative security260 as security mechanisms based on the shared interests of neighboring states.

In his book The Anarchical Society, Hedley Bull’s (1977) definition of international society

advances the idea that shared interests, moral rules and common values contribute to the

achievement of international order. When Bull explains the concept of order further, he describes

it as a behavioral pattern including goals and values such as democracy and human rights (or

border security). Bull also argues that every society needs order to achieve security, to be free of

violence, to ensure agreements are implemented and to maintain a certain status quo.261 Thus,

order between states is defined in terms of being obedient to rules of conduct.

According to Bull, achieving common goals and shared interests, requires that rules of

coexistence must be respected. They include reciprocity and respect of sovereignty, but also

258 El Telégrafo, “Ecuador exige otra vez a Colombia que aumente presencia militar en frontera,” Agosto 9, 2013.

http://www.telegrafo.com.ec/noticias/informacion-general/item/ecuador-exige-otra-vez-a-colombia-que-aumente-

presencia-militar-en-frontera.html (accesed November 26, 2013). 259 Hedley Bull argues that one function of the balance of power is to prevent imperial initiatives in a State’s

international system; another function is to be protected from hegemony and to remain sovereign. See more in Hedley

Bull, The Anarchical Society a Study of Order in World Politics, 2nd ed. (New York: Columbia University Press,

1977), 102-105. 260 Cooperative security seeks to achieve an institutionalized security through consent among international actors

involved in the international system, rather than between them using threat or use of coercive force to overcome their

differences. It assumes that security objectives of the partners have been identified as common and compatible,

encouraging cooperative relationships between them to achieve. See more at Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad

del Ecuador, Plan de Seguridad Integral, 15. 261 Bull, Ibid., 102-105.

http://www.telegrafo.com.ec/noticias/informacion-general/item/ecuador-exige-otra-vez-a-colombia-que-aumente-presencia-militar-en-frontera.html


88

consensus and cooperation among states.262 For instance, a stronger border security policy may

include confidence-building measures through simultaneous strategic alliances at the military,

political, economic, and social levels. Demining operations and the joint border demarcation,

under the so-called Comisión Mixta Permanente de Fronteras Perú-Ecuador (COMPEFEP) led

by the Ecuadorian and Peruvian governments, illustrates the extent to which confidence building

measures contribute to maintaining the peace accord of Itamaraty-Brasilia, signed in 1998. The

joint proposal of Ecuador and Colombia within the Union of South American Nations

(UNASUR)263 also illustrates how shared interests increased cooperation between these two states

in order to create the South American Council for Citizen Security, Justice and Coordination of

Actions against Transnational Organized Delinquency approved in the framework of the Summit

of UNASUR, held in Lima on November 30, 2012.264 Evidently, these cooperative security

measures illustrate how national security is the dominant approach to deal with security issues

among and within states.

In Ecuador, a national security approach has constructed national borders as vulnerable areas

affected by insecurity issues that come from “outside” the state. The Ecuadorian security forces

justify their national security policy and their intervention in the border with Peru, but mainly in

the border with Colombia, as previously mentioned, due to the spillover of its internal conflict in

Ecuador’s border zones. The Presidential Declaration between Ecuador and Colombia, Vecindad

para la Prosperidad y El Buen Vivir (translated as Neighborhood for Prosperity and Good Living),

262 Bull, Ibid., 102-105. 263 The process of formation of the South American Community of Nations began in order to bring together two great

associations such as the Andean Community (CAN) and the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR). This

significant initiative was carried out in the Third Meeting of South American Presidents in Cuzco-Peru in November

2004. This community was transformed into the South American Union of Nations in April 2007 in Margarita Island-

Venezuela; it has a Technical Secretariat, a Secretary General, and its own headquarters in the city of Quito-Ecuador. 264 Presidencia de la República de Colombia, Declaración Presidencial Ecuador-Colombia “Vecindad para la

Prosperidad y el Buen Vivir” Tulcán, Carchi Diciembre 11, 2012.

http://wsp.presidencia.gov.co/Prensa/2012/Diciembre/Paginas/20121211_11.aspx

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in Tulcán, Carchi Province, on December 11, 2012, demonstrates the importance of strengthening

bilateral relations through cooperation and reciprocity in order to tackle threats to security. This

declaration encourages the commitment to the common border and the support of the security

forces (police and military) for border control activities265 in order to protect the national interests

of both states. This declaration was followed by the Meeting of Senior Officials (Ministers and

Deputy Ministers) of the security and defense ministries of Ecuador and Colombia on 26-27

September 2013 in Cali, Colombia. The then Ecuadorian Minister of Defense, María Fernanda

Espinosa, declared:

“The Armed Forces of Ecuador maintain a permanent presence at the northern border to ensure

Ecuador's national sovereignty, but it is important that Colombia also invigorates its military

presence in the area.”266

The main goal of the meeting was to strengthen and increase the presence of the security forces at

11 border crossings used for illegal activities such as smuggling fuels and commodities, and for

drug trafficking. The Ministry of Defense’s statement appeals to a cooperative security based on

a shared interest in order to protect both states’ national interests, suggesting the need for the

Colombian and Ecuadorian governments to work together in order to increase their ability to battle

illicit trafficking and to improve citizen security at the common border.

In sum, realism has served to understand the concept of national security and to explain

how states act according to their own national interests, deploying such security strategies as those

used in the war against terrorism, drugs and smuggling. Ecuador’s security policy, which is still

influenced by the Cold War security discourse, demonstrates how the joint presence of a state’s

265 Presidencia de la República de Colombia. Ibid. 266 Ministerio de Defensa del Ecuador, “Ecuador promueve presencia militar activa y permanente en control de

frontera norte” (Septiembre 26, 2013) http://www.defensa.gob.ec/ecuador-promueve-presencia-militar-activa-y-

permanente-en-control-de-frontera-norte/

http://www.defensa.gob.ec/ecuador-promueve-presencia-militar-activa-y-permanente-en-control-de-frontera-norte/

http://www.defensa.gob.ec/ecuador-promueve-presencia-militar-activa-y-permanente-en-control-de-frontera-norte/

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security and national interest has fostered a national security approach that utilizes cooperative

security and links the national and global levels. Such a policy, which is a product of masculinized

security institutions, is currently used to control new threats to national security such as smuggling

in Ecuador’s border zones.

2.1.1 The State under Rafael Correa and Methods of Security Control

In this section, I consider it relevant to analyse the state under Rafael Correa, with particular

reference to how biopolitics, governmentality and other methods of internal control affect

conceptions of the state and of border security. The Correa government has been concerned with

political conspiracy, weakening civil society and creating a war on free speech. Since 2009, the

Government of Ecuador has reformed its military and security institutions, such as the intelligence

agency. It has also “modified” the security agenda and “included” the human security approach.

Rafael Correa gained his legitimacy by winning elections that allow him to consolidate his

political project. He was elected in 2006, and re-elected in 2009 and, again, in 2013. Correa’s

administration has enjoyed great popularity since 2007 in spite of the authoritarian model that

guides it.267 In particular, in 2006, Correa ran as the self-proclaimed leader of a “citizens’

revolution” against the partyarchy, on an anti-neoliberal stand. In 2008, Correa successfully

campaigned for a referendum to approve the new constitution.268 By arguing that there is a danger

of a return of the right, Correa changed the Constitution enacted by his movement in the National

Assembly to allow for his re-election.269 Correa wants to consolidate his permanence in office after

2017 even though his government is characterized by a significant public investment but minimal

267 Santiago Basabe and Julián Martínez, “Ecuador: cada vez menos democracia, cada vez más autoritarismo. . . con

elecciones” Revista de Ciencia Política 34, no 1 (2014): 152. 268 Carlos de La Torre, “The People, Democracy, and Authoritarianism in Rafael Correa’s Ecuador,” Constellations

21, no 4, 2014. file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Torre-2014-Constellations.pdf, 459. 269 Carlos de La Torre, Ibid., 459.

file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Torre-2014-Constellations.pdf

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freedom of speech. Correa’s intention is to extend his rule until at least 2021.270 In general, his

policies have expanded central planning, the bureaucracy and the regulation of economic, cultural,

and social activities. Higher social spending and policies targeted at poverty reduction have been

carried out in the midst of an oil boom: the price of oil increased from $52 per barrel in 2006 to

$98 in 2013.271 In the short term, the oil and mining sectors have funded social assistance for the

poor, increasing the consumption level of the middle class. Nevertheless, Correa’s tendency to

favor aggressive natural-resource extraction could lead to resource exhaustion and a new rise in

poverty.272 The administration has used oil revenues to encourage patronage as a reward for the

constituents’ loyalty. This strategy permits the government to sustain its political power even

under conditions in which the civil society has minimal participation.

Ecuador under Rafael Correa guarantees neither participation nor contestation by social

actors. Correa’s administration is in conflict with social movements, so participation is reduced to

voting in elections, giving the populist leader the responsibility to design policies as if he embodies

the will of the people but without seeking their engagement.273 For a populist regime, “the people”

is viewed as a homogeneous social group sharing the interests and identities that are embodied in

a leader whose mission is to save the nation.274 The extreme concentration of power in the

presidency does not permit the populist government to view citizens as a group with a plurality of

opinions who deliberate in the public sphere. Furthermore, Correa’s administration is made up of

experts who claim to design policies on behalf of the nation as a whole, particularly the

marginalized groups, but who do not involve the citizens in the discussion and planning of the new

270 Santiago Basabe and Julián Martínez, Ibid., 145-146. 271 Carlos de La Torre, “The People, Democracy, and Authoritarianism in Rafael Correa’s Ecuador,” Constellations

21, no 4 (2014): 458. file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Torre-2014-Constellations.pdf 272 Carlos de La Torre, “Technocratic populism in Ecuador,” Journal of Democracy 24, no 3 (2013): 46. 273 Carlos de La Torre, “The People, Democracy, and Authoritarianism in Rafael Correa’s Ecuador,” Constellations

21, no 4 (2014): 457. file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Torre-2014-Constellations.pdf 274 Carlos de La Torre, “Technocratic populism in Ecuador,” Journal of Democracy 24, no 3 (2013): 34.



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nation.275 By assuming that the leader represents all the interests of the people, Correa’s

government denies the differences among social groups and the diversity of public opinion.

Since 2007, the government of Rafael Correa has developed a substantial institutional

apparatus to promote the regulation and bureaucratization of citizen participation. It has used

plebiscitary strategies to discipline the sources of critical opinion and has counteracted the activism

of social movements through disciplinary guidelines designed at the government level,276

facilitating a process of weakening civil society. Basically, civil society is composed of

associations, organizations and movements that have emerged spontaneously. It exists when these

groups can discuss issues of public interest and can operate critically. In Ecuador, an autonomous

civil society has played an important democratizing role, being critical during complex political

and economic scenarios. For instance, in the 1990’s, the Indigenous movement was critical to

neoliberalism from an ethnic perspective, demanding a plurinational state.277 However, under

Correa, all civil society organizations are forbidden to engage in politics, an activity reserved to

political parties.278 To implement a policy of persecution and political intimidation Correa has

relied on the criminal prosecution of those considered his “enemies.” For instance, one of the

emblematic cases of persecution by the courts was that of Assemblyman Cléver Jimenez and his

adviser, Fernando Villavicencio. For the alleged crime of defamation, they were sentenced to 18

months in prison, fined 140,000 US dollars, and required to make a public apology to President

Correa.279 This is just one case that shows the government strategy of persecution and intimidation

275 Carlos de La Torre, “The People, Democracy, and Authoritarianism in Rafael Correa’s Ecuador,” Constellations

21, no 4 (2014): 463. file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Torre-2014-Constellations.pdf 276 Andrés Ortiz Lemos. “Sociedad civil y Revolución Ciudadana en Ecuador,” Revista Mexicana de Sociología 76,

no. 4 (octubre-diciembre, 2014): 583-612. 277 Ortiz Lemos, Ibid. 278 Carlos de La Torre, Ibid., 461. 279 Santiago Basabe and Julián Martínez, “Ecuador: cada vez menos democracia, cada vez más autoritarismo. . . con

elecciones,” 146, 155-156.


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of public opinion. Under Correa, such mechanisms of social control have limited civil society’s

participation and criticism, decreasing political dialogue between the regime and the opposition.

The 2008 Constitution established the transparency and social control functions of the

Ecuadorian state. These new roles permitted the creation of institutions such as the Citizen

Participation and Social Control Council (Consejo de Participación Ciudadana y Control Social

–CPCCS).280 In this context, the Law of Citizen Participation was created. Both regulations were

drafted using public workshops to present them as part of a consensus with citizens; but only

Correa’s supporters were invited to these workshops to the exclusion of any social organization

from the opposition.281 The development of these laws was configured from a particular notion of

citizenship advanced by the official discourse282 that is essentially subject to the bureaucratic

structure of the state.283 Correa’s self-proclaimed leftist government has taken an active stance

against most organized groups of civil society: teachers, students, public employees and

Indigenous organizations. The government does not consider these groups to be “real” social

movements or representative of civil society. Instead, they are portrayed as privileged groups that

obstruct the administration’s project to strengthen the state.284 For instance, the government’s

conflicts with the main Indigenous organization, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of

Ecuador (CONAIE), are rooted in strong disagreements over mineral extraction. Correa considers

mining to be the country’s future and proposes to use natural resources to alleviate poverty.285

Over 200 peasant Indigenous activists face accusations of terrorism for resisting mineral resource

280 Ortiz Lemos, Ibid. 281 Andrés Ortiz, La sociedad civil ecuatoriana en el laberinto de la Revolución Ciudadana. Quito: Facultad

Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, 2013. 282 Ortiz Lemos, Ibid. 283 Ortiz Lemos, Ibid. 284 Carlos de La Torre, “The People, Democracy, and Authoritarianism in Rafael Correa’s Ecuador,” Constellations

21, no 4, (2014): 460. See also Carlos de La Torre, “Technocratic Populism in Ecuador,” Journal of Democracy 24,

no. 3 (2013): 40. 285 Carlos de La Torre, Ibid., 460.

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extraction.286 Certainly, by calling Indigenous activists terrorists, the regime has misunderstood

that critical dialogue is a necessary component to advance an inclusive political agenda.

In contrast, to advance their agendas some social movements led by Afro-Ecuadorians and

smaller Indigenous organizations are supporting Correa. The regime’s regulation of media content

has promoted the elimination of racist representations. To consolidate the power of their smaller

organizations and to get resources from the state, some Indigenous leaders are supporting Correa’s

confrontation with CONAIE. In this vein, Correa still sees Indigenous persons as beneficiaries of

state distribution, but not as autonomous actors. For instance, when Indigenous organizations

articulate their own views of development or democracy, they are stigmatized as “infantile” leftists

or as being manipulated by foreign NGOs.287 Correa has completely denied the agency of civil

society, ridiculing social protest.

The Correa government has even confused protest with conspiracy. Using conspiracy

theories has been a common strategy to consolidate and maintain power. For instance, Correa has

continuously manufactured enemies. The main political rivals include traditional politicians,

bankers, the privately owned media and those who lead corporatist social movements of teachers,

students, Indigenous peoples, journalists and public employees.288 In this context, the government

of the Citizen Revolution has mastered the art of influencing public opinion through the mass

media289 to attack and delegitimize the regime’s opponents. In 2010, for instance, the government

used the public media as a propaganda tool to show that a police strike was the result of a political

conspiracy to overthrow Correa.290 During this strike, the National Police denounced a new law

286 Carlos de La Torre, Ibid., 461. 287 Carlos de La Torre, Ibid., 461. 288 Carlos de La Torre, “Technocratic populism in Ecuador,” 37; Santiago Basabe and Julián Martínez, “Ecuador:

cada vez menos democracia, cada vez más autoritarismo. . . con elecciones,” 146. 289 Catherine Conaghan, “Ecuador: Correa’s plebiscitary presidency,” Journal of Democracy 19, no.2 (2008): 47. 290 Carlos de La Torre, Ibid., 43.

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that would have cut some benefits, such as Christmas bonuses and wage increases.291 The

“conspirators” included former president Lucio Gutiérrez and his Patriotic Society political party,

whose members include many former military and police officers, the Confederation of Indigenous

Nationalities of Ecuador, the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador, the Indigenous party

Pachakutik, petty bourgeois intellectuals and the privately owned media.292 In sum, Correa’s

administration mobilizes the state-owned media to divide and disrupt political opponents and to

control public opinion.

Correa’s control over the media has impoverished the democratic dialogue. He uses the

state-owned media to publicize his administration’s accomplishments, to attack the opposition and

to respond to accusations of corruption and abuse. In this vein, journalists working in the private

media are viewed with suspicion. The government uses its tax-collecting agency (SRI) to monitor

the private media. For instance, Revista Vanguardia, a political magazine critical of Correa’s

administration, was temporarily closed for not complying with labor laws.293 The regime does not

value the freedom of the press or the independence of civil society. Consequently, the media and

civil society are becoming weaker social actors. Correa has sought to consolidate his power in the

foregoing way. Despite the radical opposition of various social and political sectors, by claiming

that “information is a public good,” in June 2013 the National Assembly controlled by Correa

approved a communication law to monitor and regulate the contents of the privately owned

media294 in order to intimidate and silence critical journalists. One of the first consequences of this

law was the sanctioning of the cartoonist Xavier Bonilla and the newspaper El Universo, the latter

291 Carlos de La Torre, “The People, Democracy, and Authoritarianism in Rafael Correa’s Ecuador,” 461. 292 Carlos de La Torre, Ibid., 461. 293 Carlos de La Torre, “Technocratic populism in Ecuador,” 43-44. 294 Carlos de La Torre, Ibid., 42; Santiago Basabe y Julián Martínez, “Ecuador: cada vez menos democracia, cada

vez más autoritarismo. . . con elecciones,” 157-158.

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being fined 2% of its turnover of the last three months.295 This law has become a method of internal

control to delegitimize fundamental critical opinions that stimulate political debate.

The Government of Ecuador under Correa has also reformed its military and security

institutions, such as the Intelligence agency, so as to tackle emergent multidimensional threats to

the security of the state. Since the 1970s, the Ecuadorian Intelligence service has functioned

without being questioned or fully reformed. The few reforms were limited to simple operative

changes rather than to doctrinaire modifications.296 The bombing of the camp of the Revolutionary

Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Angostura, Sucumbíos, on March 1, 2008, by the

Colombian Army was the reason why the Ecuadorian government of Rafael Correa ordered the

reform of the Intelligence service. The commission that investigated this event presented in

November 2008 a report claiming the participation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in

that bombing.297 In this vein, on June 8, 2008, by Executive Decree No. 1768, the National

Intelligence Secretariat was created and on July 10, 2008, by Executive Decree No. 1828, a civil

servant was appointed as Secretary of Intelligence, namely Francisco Jijón, a former adviser to the

Ministry of Coordination of Internal and External Security who had actively participated in

discussions of the contents of the new State and Public Safety Act (translated as Ley de Seguridad

Pública y el Estado).298 The Executive submitted the draft of the State and Public Safety Act in

June 3, 2009. Three months later, on September 2009, the National Assembly passed the law.299

The creation of this Act was justified by the need to renew the security doctrine of the Cold War

295 Santiago Basabe y Julián Martínez, “Ecuador: cada vez menos democracia, cada vez más autoritarismo. . . con

elecciones,” 157-158. 296 Fredy Rivera Vélez, “La Inteligencia ecuatoriana: tradiciones, cambios y perspectivas,” in Inteligencia estratégica

y Prospectiva, edited by Fredy Rivera Vélez (Quito, FLACSO-Ecuador y Secretaria Nacional de Inteligencia-

SENAIN: 2011), 47-48. 297 Saudia Levoyer, “Huracán de la Frontera: narcotráfico, guerrilla e inteligencia” (master’s thesis, Universidad

Andina Simón Bolívar, 2014), 13. http://repositorio.uasb.edu.ec/bitstream/10644/4249/1/T1520-MELA-Levoyer-

Huracan.pdf13. 298 Fredy Rivera Vélez, Ibid., 66. 299 Fredy Rivera Vélez, Ibid., 66.

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to suit the demands of the contemporary international geopolitical environment and the 2008

constitutional framework, which necessitated a new Comprehensive Security System (translated

as Sistema de Seguridad Integral).300 This need was fulfilled two years later, in 2011, when the

Ministry of Security presented the National Comprehensive Security Plan, which includes the

National Intelligence Agenda. In these documents, the government explains what is understood as

a comprehensive security approach and how, in its view, it replaces the National Security

Doctrine.301 By including the human being as a lead actor of the processes of individual and

collective security,302 the government thought that it was changing the security paradigm to deal

with multidimensional security issues.

The State and Public Safety Act was created to protect citizens and the sovereign interests

of the nation. Following this logic, the National Intelligence Plan was developed.303 The fourth

chapter of this Act sets out the duties, expenses, operations, document classification and

prohibitions of the National Secretariat of Intelligence (SENAIN). The Act also specifies that the

head of the Secretariat should be a civilian, not a member of the security forces as it had been

traditionally.304 Having a civilian as the head of the Intelligence agency was viewed by the

government as a significant step to improve civil-military relations and to transform a conventional

security paradigm. Thus, the National Intelligence Secretariat became a political institution that

establishes policies for national intelligence, plans, objectives and activities. The Secretariat

coordinates with the government.305 For this Secretariat, security is perceived as a non-threatening

300 Asamblea Nacional, Ley de Seguridad Pública y del Estado. Quito: Registro Oficial Suplemento 35 de 28 de

Septiembre del 2009. 301 Saudia Levoyer, “Huracán de la Frontera: narcotráfico, guerrilla e inteligencia,” 20. 302 Ministerio de Coordinación de Seguridad, Plan Nacional de Seguridad Integral, Quito (2011), 14. 303 Francisco Jijón Calderón, El Nuevo Ecuador y la Secretaría Nacional de Inteligencia,” in Inteligencia estratégica

y Prospectiva, edited by Fredy Rivera Vélez (Quito, FLACSO-Ecuador y Secretaria Nacional de Inteligencia-

SENAIN: 2011), 17. 304 Fredy Rivera Vélez, Ibid., 66. 305 Francisco Jijón Calderón, Ibid., 19.

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situation or as the possibility of carrying out security policies to efficiently anticipate and control

threats and conflicting factors through safety measures. Therefore, the Intelligence service sets up

guidelines, policies and measures undertaken by the state to protect its internal and external

security.306 Nevertheless, even now, when important transformations have been undertaken at the

legal and institutional levels, there is still uncertainty if the simple fact of having a new Act can

modify behaviors and the institutional culture of the people who are part of the Intelligence

system,307 such as the police and the armed forces, who maintained the state-centric national

security to deal with multidimensional threats at border zones such as fuel smuggling considered

as a crime linked to drug trafficking.

The police revolt that occurred on September 30, 2010, called by the regime an attempted

coup d’état, uncovered weaknesses in the Intelligence system. Such an event brought into question

the viability and relevance of the reforms, locating the Intelligence system in the center of the

political debate as it failed to alert President Rafael Correa.308 This serious internal crisis prompted

a rethinking of the role of the new Intelligence Secretariat and highlighted the lack of

communication between the Intelligence subsystems (police and military) as sources that could

alert the political authority to the discontent of the National Police.309 This crisis was followed by

the resignation of the civilian head appointed in September 2009. As a result, a military retiree

was appointed as head of the SENAIN.310 While the decision appears to be supported by the

criterion of the alleged military efficiency and prestige enjoyed by the Ecuadorian armed forces,

it shows a return to the recent past that contrasts with the reformist intentions discursively

broadcast by President Rafael Correa.

306 Francisco Jijón Calderón, Ibid., 18. 307 Fredy Rivera Vélez, Ibid., 48. 308 Fredy Rivera Vélez, Ibid., 48. 309 Fredy Rivera Vélez, Ibid., 71. 310 Fredy Rivera Vélez, Ibid., 49.

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Security and Intelligence reforms did little to change the state-centric approach to security

in Ecuador. For the former civilian head of the National Intelligence Secretariat, before the

reforms, the Intelligence service was implemented within a National Security Doctrine that

favored the state as the exclusive referent of security. The main threats to state security came from

members of Ecuadorian society such as social organizations, trade unions and political

associations, potentially challenging the status quo through threatening ideologies and

behaviors.311 Nonetheless, as I have previously explained in this section, under Correa’s current

policy of conspiracy, civil society organizations are still viewed as potential threats to the state and

especially to the political agenda of the Correismo. Thus, the state is still the exclusive referent of

security and intelligence under Correa’s administration. A human security perspective is

mentioned in the 2011 National Agenda of Intelligence, but none of its five policies and 13

strategies312 addresses how are they going to improve the security of individuals and their

communities. Moreover, these institutional reforms have not modified how a national security

approach is deployed at the borders to deal with human security issues, turning local smugglers

into new enemies of the state.

2.1.2 New threats to Ecuador’s border security under Rafael Correa

The concept of security in international relations has been redefined since the end of the Cold

War,313 provoking, a radical rethinking of approaches to security.314 During the Cold War period,

the state in Ecuador approached security in military terms that focused on defending the state

against external military threats from Peru and internal threats from subversive groups. In the post-

311 Francisco Jijón Calderón, Ibid., 18. 312 Secretaría Nacional de Inteligencia-SENAIN, Agenda Nacional de Inteligencia (2011), 11, 32.

https://issuu.com/micsecuador/docs/agenda_nacional_de_inteligencia (accessed on August 2016). 313 Matt McDonald, “Human Security and the Construction of Security,” Global Society 16, no. 3 (2002): 277. 314Jill Steans, Gender and International Relations an Introduction (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998), 108.

https://issuu.com/micsecuador/docs/agenda_nacional_de_inteligencia

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Cold War period, international discourses about what threatens states have transformed, creating

an apparently new security scenario. In Ecuador, this scenario recognizes that many conflicts are

provoked by non-traditional threats within nations rather than between nations. The non-traditional

security threats included in a new security agenda cannot be dealt with nuclear and conventional

weapons, alliances, balances of power and military power. Nonetheless, under this scenario,

national security is still limited in military terms, but it has become a multi-sectorial sphere, that

includes activities considered as crimes by the Ecuadorian security forces, such as drug trafficking,

attacks on pipelines and smuggling.

The demilitarization of the concept of security involves a multi-sectorial agenda. As outlined

in Ecuador’s 2011 Comprehensive Security Plan, the Special Conference on Security held in

Mexico in October 2003 encouraged Ecuador to discuss and adopt a new concept of state security

adapted to Ecuador’s own reality and to the new international context. This new approach to

national security included principles of conflict prevention, transparency in military spending,

confidence-building measures between countries, no offensive military doctrines, respect for

human rights, civilian control of the security forces and respect for the Constitution. In sum, the

Conference of Mexico 2003 highlighted the demilitarization of the concept of security on the

grounds that the threats to states are not only military but multidimensional.315 Inspired by the

recommendations discussed in this conference and the new security scenario, Ecuador’s security

policymakers have avoided the tendency to confuse national defense with a multi-sectorial

security. Buzan, Waever, and De Wilde’s terms (1998) argue that threats distinguish multiple

sectors in security analysis. First, military security is concerned with armed defensive and

offensive capabilities of states. Second, political security refers to the achievement of stability

within states through legitimate ideologies and systems of government. Third, economic security

315 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Plan de Seguridad Integral (2011), 43.

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is concerned with access to resources, finance and markets that sustain acceptable levels of welfare

and state power. Fourth, environmental security takes into account the importance of maintaining

the local and the global biosphere. And fifth, societal security refers to traditional patterns of

language, culture, religion, customs and national identity.316 Despite being multi-sectorial, all

these dimensions of security are still state-centric or, in more concrete terms, the state is the

referent object of security. Opposing those who want to widen the security agenda beyond a strictly

military domain, Stephen Walt (1991) argues that doing so would eliminate security studies’

intellectual coherence, making it difficult to come up with solutions to important problems such

as pollution, diseases or economic recessions.317 Walt’s point of view denies that threats can arise

in diverse areas due to security’s multidimensionality. Rather, he encourages an exclusive state-

centric military approach that provides a limited understanding of security issues. There is an

acknowledgment of the existence of multidimensional threats, but they are still dealt with a

military approach. In the Ecuadorian case, security discourses and practices require a broader

framework of analysis that does not view the state as the exclusive referent of security. The

inclusion of additional sectors in security studies also involves other non-state actors with

empowerment abilities in the local and national agenda, such as environmentalists, human rights

advocates and women’s movements.

Currently, from a national security perspective, threats originating from conflicts between

states are less relevant than those provoked by non-state actors. The threats to Ecuador’s national

interests do not come exclusively from an enemy that is another state: Ecuadorian security

authorities believe that threats come also from non-state actors, such as transnational criminals,

316 Barry Buzan, Ole Waever, and Jaap De Wilde, Security a New Framework for Analysis (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne

Rienner Publishers, 1998), 7-8. 317 Stephen Walt, “The Renaissance of Security Studies,” International Studies Quarterly 35, no 2 (1991): 212-213.

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drug traffickers, terrorists and smugglers in border zones. Since the security agenda has become

multidimensional, Ecuador has identified a significant number of new and emerging threats that

include: extreme poverty; inequality; social exclusion; natural disasters; environmental problems;

infectious diseases; ethnic, religious, cultural, and regional identity conflicts; trade and

transportation of hazardous materials; the negative effects of the Colombian conflict; uncontrolled

migration; lack of resources; the possibility of interstate conflict; transnational organized crime;

and the political conspiracy to destabilize and/ or overthrow a legitimate government.318

As outlined in the 2011 Comprehensive Security Plan, particular interest is devoted to

criminal threats from transnational organized crime. These threats are numerous and include: drug

trafficking and related crimes; money laundering; smuggling of arms, ammunition, explosives and

other materials; human trafficking for different purposes; kidnapping and extortion; traffic of

cultural and natural heritage; and smuggling of fuels and propane cylinders.319 Thus, smuggling

gasoline, diesel and propane cylinders for domestic use to Colombia and Peru, as a new threat to

Ecuador’s national security, creates an underground economy at Ecuador’s borders. Margaret

Niger-Thomas (2001) defines smuggling “as the illegal transport of goods and/or persons in or out

of a country to avoid taxation.”320

Despite government efforts, smuggling has not been completely eradicated. Given the

multidimensional characteristics of this new security “threat,” it is being addressed by a national

security approach that is insufficient to solve the roots of a complex security scenario. A military

approach is still considered appropriate: Ecuador’s security forces employ such tactics as border

patrolling, capture of the people involved in these activities and the confiscation of the goods that

318 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Plan de Seguridad Integral, 44-45. 319 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Ibid., 44-45. 320 Margaret Niger-Thomas, “Women and the Arts of Smuggling,” African Studies Review 44, no. 2, Ways of Seeing:

Beyond the New Nativism (Sep., 2001): 44.

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were supposed to be smuggled. Since the Ecuadorian security policy views smuggling fuels and

propane cylinders as a criminal activity and a threat to the state’s national security, the men and

women involved in this activity are also viewed as criminals.

2.1.3 Smuggling of fuels and propane cylinders on Ecuador’s northern and southern borders

Smuggling as an informal cross-border activity has become an underground economy on

Ecuador’s borders. The border economy integrates two or more asymmetric economies based on

the fact that what is expensive in Ecuador is cheaper in the neighboring countries and vice-versa.

Buying a product for a lower price has been part of the Ecuadorian strategy of maximizing the

value of inadequate family budgets. Ecuadorians mainly buy clothing, electronics and alcoholic

beverages in Peru and Colombia,321 while goods that are subsidized in Ecuador, such as fuel and

propane cylinders, are bought across the Colombian and Peruvian borders.

Porous borders have led smuggling to reach higher levels. Macroeconomic policies such

as the dollarization of the Ecuadorian economy since 2000 have aggravated the rise in production

costs, encouraging the smuggling of agricultural products and textiles from the other side of the

border322 with profound effects on the commercial, industrial and agricultural sectors.323

Additionally, smuggling affects macroeconomic factors such as the balance of payments and

national production. The entry of smuggled goods into the Ecuadorian borders has directly

impacted formal trade, industry and tax revenues, provoking, in Pablo Dávila’s terms (2006),

unfair competition for the national productive sector. Local producers who are affected by

321 Pablo Dávila Pinto, Repercusiones del Comercio Ilegal frente a la Economía Nacional. Sector Industrial y

Agropecuario. Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales. Tesis presentada como requisito para optar al Título de

Magíster en Seguridad y Desarrollo con mención en Gestión Pública y Gerencia Empresarial (2006), 14.

http://repositorio.iaen.edu.ec/bitstream/24000/33/1/IAEN-008-2006.pdf (accessed in June 2016). 322 Ministerio de Comercio Exterior, Industrialización, Pesca y Competitividad-MICIP, Competitividad industrial en

el Ecuador (julio 2004), 68. 323 Pablo Dávila Pinto, Ibid., 11-12.

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smuggling have stopped production, laying off workers and increasing unemployment in the

border region. A higher rate of unemployment reduces local’s consumption levels. Moreover,

producers must compete with cheaper smuggled products on which taxes have not been paid.324

Smuggling has a greater impact on the national economy.

There are several reasons why people became involved in smuggling. First, the poor tax

culture of citizens. Second, the lack of formal jobs since local and national governments have

ignored the existing problems. Third, smuggling is a very ancient practice, being a way to trade

between two border towns.325 Fourth, due to the proximity of the towns on the other side of the

border, many Ecuadorians have married Colombians or Peruvians, forming binational families.

The children of such marriages have dual nationality and rights in the two countries. Once they

reach adulthood, they carry out bi-national business. Fifth, due to the exchange rate, Ecuadorians

buy in Colombia when the peso is pushed up, and Colombians buy in Ecuador when the value of

the peso is depressed. Sixth, tax evasion is attractive as a way to obtain higher profits. Seventh,

the fact that petroleum products are subsidized provides a source of sustenance and survival to

many Colombian-Ecuadorian families. Eighth, the lack of cooperation among the customs

authorities in providing quick and timely services to users of foreign trade creates numerous

obstacles and impediments to expediting imports and exports.326 According to a survey

administered to 50 men and women merchants in the city of Tulcán, 60% of the respondents

believed that the goods marketed in the northern border are acquired by smuggling, while 40%

consider that the goods were acquired legally.327 Seventy percent of the interviewees did not

324 Pablo Dávila Pinto, Ibid., 14. 325 Brenda Álvarez, El contrabando aduanero como una de las causas de daño efectivo al patrimonio público (Tesis

de grado previa a la obtención del Título de Abogada. Universidad Central del Ecuador Facultad de Jurisprudencia,

Ciencias Políticas y Sociales, 2014), 94. 326 Brenda Álvarez, Ibid., 94-95. 327 Brenda Álvarez, Ibid., 113-114.

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consider it a crime to buy or sell smuggled goods, while 30% of the participants considered it to

be an offense.328 Eighty percent of the respondents considered that smuggling was practiced for

profit, while 20% believed that it was practiced out of ignorance of the law.329

The Ecuadorian border provinces have become a space in which to smuggle subsidized

goods such as fuel and propane cylinders. According to a report by the Ecuadorian Attorney

General, 685 complaints of smuggling of hydrocarbons at the provincial level were received

between 2010 and 2014.330 El Oro, Sucumbíos and Carchi reported the highest rates of complaints.

In the Northern border area in 2012, Sucumbíos was the province that ranked first in the smuggling

of hydrocarbons. However, in August 2012 Carchi occupied the first position. In the Southern

border area, between July 2013 and May 2014, the province of El Oro also reported smuggling of

hydrocarbons.331

The main incentive for smuggling fuel332 and propane cylinders for domestic use is the price

difference between the countries. Fernando Carrión (2011) states that Ecuador’s border economy

is promoting a regional development and generating trade flow in the border zones based on the

phenomenon that “what is expensive here is cheap there.” This fact encourages smuggling.333 In

Ecuador, the official price of a cylinder of gas weighting 15 kilograms (kg) is $1.60 (US). In

Colombia, the same cylinder costs $20 (US). According to the Ecuadorian National Police in

Carchi the smugglers use 37 routes, and around 500 families in the city of Tulcán in Carchi

328 Brenda Álvarez, Ibid., 115. 329 Brenda Álvarez, Ibid., 118. 330 Fiscalía General del Estado y FLACSO-Ecuador, “Contrabando. Los Rostros del Contrabando, Rutas Fronterizas.”

Perfil Criminológico, nº 15 (Junio 2015), 15.

http://repositorio.flacsoandes.edu.ec/bitstream/10469/7512/2/BFLACSO-PC15.pdf (accessed June 2016). 331 Fiscalía General del Estado. Los Delitos en Ecuador Una Mirada en Cifras. Delitoscopio Informe Estadístico

(Diciembre 2014), 19, 25. https://issuu.com/fiscaliaecuador/docs/libro_fiscalia_horizontal_publicado (accessed in

June 2016). 332 White fuel is a component of cocaine production process. 333 Fernando Carrión M., “Economía de Frontera: una atracción fatal,” Fronteras 7, FLACSO Sede Ecuador Programa

de Estudios de la Ciudad (2011):1.

http://repositorio.flacsoandes.edu.ec/bitstream/10469/7512/2/BFLACSO-PC15.pdf

https://issuu.com/fiscaliaecuador/docs/libro_fiscalia_horizontal_publicado

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Province334 who belong to the smugglers’ association called “Fenix” are involved.335 The

Colombian Customs Police Office argues that smugglers make three to four daily trips between

Tulcán in Ecuador and Ipiales in Colombia through the Rumichaca Bridge.336 They repeatedly

transport a propane cylinder in each direction. The cylinders are carried on bicycles or

motorcycles, automobile trunks and even on the back of donkeys.337 When caught, the smugglers

argue that the cylinders are for family use.

The Ecuadorian government has reacted to smuggling on its borders with Colombia and Peru

by using national security initiatives such as the deployment of the military, customs surveillance

and police patrols in the urban and rural areas located in border zones. An official document

entitled the “Requirements for entry into Ecuador border. People, vehicles, and goods” states that

Border Customs will seize prohibited goods, objects and publications that threaten state security,

health and public morals. It states those goods will be subject to the provisions of the Customs

Law on customs offenses.338 Thus, Ecuadorian national security institutions, such as the military,

police, customs and the Investigation Unit for Energy and Hydrocarbon Crimes, are present at gas

stations in the provinces located on the borders, trying to avoid the smuggling of white fuel, a

component of cocaine, or liquefied petroleum gas intended for home use. By increasing the number

of confiscations, the Energy Sovereignty Plan seeks to decrease the losses generated by fuel

smuggling. In particular, these national security institutions seek to demonstrate the “success” of

334 El Comercio.com, “Gas: entre escasez y contrabando,” Abril 26, 2012. http://www.elcomercio.com/negocios/Gas-

escasez-contrabando_0_688731319.html (accessed March 14, 2013). 335 El Telégrafo.com, “Comercio reemplaza al contrabando en Carchi,” Noviembre 2, 2012.

http://www.telegrafo.com.ec/actualidad/item/el-comercio-reemplaza-al-contrabando-en-carchi.html (accessed March

14, 2013). 336 The border control office between Ecuador and Colombia is located on the Rumichaca Bridge. 337 El Comercio.com, “Gas: entre escasez y contrabando,” Abril 26, 2012. http://www.elcomercio.com/negocios/Gas-

escasez-contrabando_0_688731319.html (accessed March 14, 2013). 338 Aduana del Ecuador, Requisitos para el ingreso al Ecuador por frontera. Personas, vehículos y mercancías.

www.aduana.gov.ec Mayo 2009.

http://www.elcomercio.com/negocios/Gas-escasez-contrabando_0_688731319.html


http://www.telegrafo.com.ec/actualidad/item/el-comercio-reemplaza-al-contrabando-en-carchi.html



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their confiscations. For example, between 2011 and February 2012, the Energy Sovereignty Plan,

launched in 2007, confiscated 4.7 million gallons of fuel and 468 propane cylinders for domestic

use as these were being smuggled across the border illegally in Esmeraldas,339 another province

located at Ecuador’s border with Colombia. According to the Hydrocarbon Control Agency, a

cylinder in Carchi Province has a value of between $1.60 (US) and $2 (US). When resold in

Colombia it fetches up to $ 22 (US) dollars. Smuggling in Carchi costs the government of Ecuador

$ 377,000 (US) per month, and $ 4,524,000 (US) per year.340 Ecuador’s border with Peru is also a

challenge for the state. During the Ecuador-Peru IX Meeting on Anti-Smuggling341 in September

2013, the representative of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Security claimed that Ecuador loses 37

million dollars annually due to fuel smuggling on the border with Peru. He also mentioned that

smuggling is a recurrent crime at the border.342This position confirms the national security

treatment given to this issue in Ecuador’s security policies.

The smuggling of fuel and propane cylinders has been addressed at several meetings by

government officials in order to develop measures to counter it. In April 2012, the Itinerant

Cabinet held in the town of Cascales, Sucumbíos Province proposed the creation of a public

national distributor as one possible solution to the corruption that exists in certain of the private

distributors that sell subsidized propane cylinders across the borders.343 In a national security

339 Hoy, “Millones de Gasolina Incautados,” Febrero 29, 2012, http://www.hoy.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/millones-

de-galones-de-gasolina-incautados-535743.html (accessed March 14, 2013). 340 Asociación Ecologista Rio Mocoreta, “Gas envasado diferente precio incentiva contrabando,” Agosto 18, 2011,

http://evaluacionimpactosambientales.blogspot.ca/2011/08/gas-envasado-diferente-precio-incentiva.html (accessed

March 28, 2013). 341 The binational commission to fight smuggling was originated in 2007 when the Ecuador and Peru agreed to raise

common efforts to combat smuggling across their common border. 342 El Comercio, “Ecuador y Perú realizarán operativos contra contrabando fronterizo,” Septiembre 26, 2013

http://elcomercio.com/seguridad/Ecuador-peru-delito-contrabando-reuniones-frontera_0_1000100192.html

(accessed November 27, 2013). 343 El Telégrafo, “Medidas para combatir contrabando de gas se analizan en Gabinete Itinerante.” April 27, 2012. http://www.telegrafo.com.ec/noticias/informacion-general/item/medidas-para-combatir-contrabando-

de-gas-se-analiza-en-gabinete-itinerante.html (accessed July 8, 2014).

http://evaluacionimpactosambientales.blogspot.ca/2011/08/gas-envasado-diferente-precio-incentiva.html


http://www.telegrafo.com.ec/noticias/informacion-general/item/medidas-para-combatir-contrabando-de-gas-se-analiza-en-gabinete-itinerante.html

http://www.telegrafo.com.ec/noticias/informacion-general/item/medidas-para-combatir-contrabando-de-gas-se-analiza-en-gabinete-itinerante.html

108

speech based on ideas of patriotism and nation delivered at that meeting, the Ecuadorian President,

Rafael Correa, claimed:

“We will make final decisions. We won’t allow the further abuse of communities, the continuous

stealing of the money of all Ecuadorians because that subsidized propane cylinder…we love

Colombia, but we cannot afford to subsidize Colombia when none of us have enough.”344

Clearly, smuggling in Lago Agrio and its surroundings in Sucumbíos Province, viewed from

Ecuador’s government perspective, is a matter of border security in the province that affects the

national economy. Detaining smugglers and confiscating the goods to be smuggled, therefore, are

the main disciplinary practices employed to control this threat to national interests. In 2013, the

Research Unit for Energy and Hydrocarbon Crimes (UIDEH) of the National Police arrested three

people carrying 14 cans of fuel without purchase authorizations in the Guanta area near the city of

Lago Agrio in Sucumbíos Province.345 This event demonstrates that surveillance practices are

imbued with disciplinary power that punishes “disobedient” borderlanders.

“The UIDEH agents worked with its intelligence unit and collaborated with Petro Amazonas staff,

managing to detect three people who were involved in the illegal activity of transporting

hydrocarbon derivatives. These three people were arrested, two women and a man, presumably

belonging to a smuggling gang. The organization was led by an active [male] member of the Unit

of Environmental Police (UPMA) assigned to Lago Agrio. His wife and mother in law were his

accomplices.”346

The above information, posted by the Ministry of Interior of Ecuador on its web page, illustrates

the active role of the Ecuadorian security authorities in tackling smuggling as a threat to national

interests. It also demonstrates how the dominant discourse of national security frames the three

344 El Telégrafo, Ibid. 345 Ministerio de Interior del Ecuador, “Policía de Delitos Energéticos detiene a presuntos contrabandistas de

combustibles,” Lago Agrio, 23 de Octubre de 2013. http://www.ministeriointerior.gob.ec/policia-de-delitos-

energeticos-detiene-a-presuntos-contrabandistas-de-combustibles/ (accessed on July 9, 2014) 346 Ministerio del Interior del Ecuador. Ibid.

http://www.ministeriointerior.gob.ec/policia-de-delitos-energeticos-detiene-a-presuntos-contrabandistas-de-combustibles/


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people in question as criminals and members of a smuggling gang. On the one hand, this discourse

views the women members of the household as collaborators in the smuggling of fuel and as

accomplices the accomplices of the male provider. On the other hand, what is really interesting in

this case is that a police officer was involved in smuggling with the help of his wife and mother in

law. This case suggests that human insecurity in the zone also affects the border security

authorities. The family of this police officer was working together to improve its economic status

and well-being.

The complexity of the security scenario in Sucumbíos Province is affected by smuggling,

which is the result of a security approach that does not view the individual and the community as

referents of security. The minimal economic and personal security experienced in the border zone

certainly increases the presence of issues that, according to the Ecuadorian authorities, affect the

national security of the state in the three provinces studied in this case study. A social and

economic approach in public policies must complement and gradually replace the punitive

approach.

Both, Lago Agrio, in Sucumbíos, and Tulcán, in Carchi have been identified by the security

authorities as critical areas on the Northern border where smuggling takes place. In Lago Agrio,

much of the smuggling of propane cylinders, diesel and gasoline crosses to Colombia via the

river.347 In Carchi, the distance from Tulcán to the international Rumichaca bridge on the border

with Colombia is only 10km. Table 1 shows the value, in US dollars, of the merchandise seized

by Customs officers in the Northern provinces of Carchi and Sucumbíos between 2011 and 2013.

The table also demonstrates that important quantities of electronics, clothing, shoes, medicines

and fruits and vegetables were seized.

347 Interview conducted and translated by the author with Officer of the Training Center of Ecuador’s Customs

Surveillance (Centro de Formación de Vigilancia Aduanera) July 1, 2013.

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Table 1. Value in US dollars of Apprehensions of Merchandise in Zone 1 (including Carchi

and Sucumbíos provinces) 2011-2013

Merchandise 2011 2012 2013

SPIRITS

$4,940.00 $1,025,481.10 $52,948.00

TEXTILES

$590,354.80 $488,737.27 $232,098.10

SHOES

$278,077.00 $158,991.73 $44,542.00

ELECTRONICS

$149,804.60 $139,582.04 $457,758.00

MEDICINE

$37,384.00 $100,084.90 $90,436.70

CIGARETTES

$23,072.50 $87,735.70 $74,571.75

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

$140,067.64 $153,542.25 $237,764.00

VARIOUS MERCHANDISE

$296,540.99 $398,980.53 $353,306.93

TOTAL

$1,520,241.53 $2,553,135.52 $1,543,425.48

Source: Servicio Nacional de Aduana del Ecuador (SENAE).

An interview with a Customs officer revealed that some Afro-Ecuadorians from the Chota

Valley,348 in the Province of Carchi, are active members of what the border security discourse calls

“smuggling networks.”

“In the north [border] there are people [Afro-Ecuadorians] “working” to bring fruit from

Colombia… They described themselves as poor people. They use poverty as emotional blackmail.

They even tell us that they are dedicated to work. But underneath the fruit, more than once, we

[customs officers] have discovered another kind of merchandise. The fruit has become a way of

concealing contraband. Fuel, car parts, drugs, agricultural products, appliances and electronics It

has been found.”349

348 For this reason, the workshop that I conducted with local women in Carchi in August 2013 includes women of

Chota Valley and La Concepción, both rural areas. 349 Interview translated and conducted by the author with a Customs Officer at the Training Center of Ecuador’s

Customs Surveillance. Quito-Ecuador. July 1, 2013.

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The testimony of the Customs officer shows surprise at the audacity of the Afro-Ecuadorians who

smuggle on the northern border, using poverty, in his words, as “emotional blackmail” to justify

their involvement in smuggling. In this context, the border security discourse of the National

Customs Surveillance Office (DNVA) involves a pretty clear racist disciplinary power to punish

Afro-Ecuadorians smugglers. For instance, two of the most popular national newspapers reported

that, on September 19, 2014, residents of 38 communities in the Chota Valley blocked the Pan-

American Highway, with large rocks and burned tires on the bridge at Mascarilla (provincial

boundary between Imbabura and Carchi provinces) to demand justice for the death of Milton Chalá

Quinteros. The 37-year old victim was an Afro-Ecuadorian man who was beaten to death by police

and customs officers conducting a smuggling control operation on the border between Ecuador

and Colombia.350 The border security authorities take advantage of their authority and power to

express their racism through the excessive use of force against Afro-Ecuadorian smugglers.

Finally, in the Southern province of El Oro, my study focuses on Huaquillas, a city on the

border with Aguas Verdes in Peru that has been identified by the Ecuadorian border security

authorities as a critical place with complex security issues and a significant amount of smuggling

of diesel, fuel and such other goods as alcoholic beverages.351 As shown in Table 2, propane

cylinders and fuel are not the only goods smuggled across the southern border: electronics,

clothing, medicine and fruits and vegetables have also been apprehended by Customs officers.

350 Amparo Rosero, “Protesta mantiene cerrada la vía entre provincias de Imbabura y Carchi,” El Universo Septiembre

22, 2014. http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2014/09/22/nota/4019991/protesta-mantiene-cerrada-provincias-

imbabura-carchi (accessed September 20, 2015). See also: El Comercio, “La vía Panamericana, entre Imbabura y

Carchi, está bloqueada.” http://m.elcomercio.com/articulo/actualidad/via-panamericana-imbabura-carchi-bloqueada

(accessed September 20, 2015). 351 Interview conducted and translated by the author, Director of the Training Center of Ecuador’s Customs

Surveillance and Rector of the Higher Technological Institute "Customs Liceo" July 1, 2013. Also interview

conducted by the author with the Economist Cesar Emilio Bravo Ibáñez, Regional Director of the Agency for

Hydrocarbon Control ARCH-Machala-El Oro province. August 2013.

http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2014/09/22/nota/4019991/protesta-mantiene-cerrada-provincias-imbabura-carchi


http://m.elcomercio.com/articulo/actualidad/via-panamericana-imbabura-carchi-bloqueada

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Table 2. Value in US dollars of Apprehensions of Merchandise in Zone 7 (including El Oro

province) 2011-2013

Merchandise 2011 2012 2013

SPIRITS $36,704.00 $169,829.00 $578,219.05

TEXTILES

$957,975.29 $1,451,783.77 $1,948,529.10

SHOES

$233,037.90 $422,123.47 $1,454,293.41

ELECTRONICS

$82,513.29 $189,598.50 $316,720.20

MEDICINE

$348,487.08 $223,782.68 $251,389.20

CIGARRETTES

$18,690.00 $14,726.70 $87,423.75

FRUITS AND EDIBLES

$187,297.45 $480,791.58 $563,170.70

VARIOUS MERCHANDISE

$623,966.50 $791,009.69 $1,866,783.80

TOTAL

$2,488,671.48 $3,743,644.69 $7,066,529.21

Source: Servicio Nacional de Aduana del Ecuador (SENAE).

The confiscation of numerous items in the border zones, as shown in the above tables, does not

stop smuggling in a complex human security scenario in which intersectional inequalities, based

on race, gender, class and geographical location play a significant role.

Alternative initiatives to patrolling and confiscation have been deployed in Ecuador’s

border zones. The Ecuadorian government has started a program of electronic cards to determine

how many propane cylinders each family in the northern border zone consume.352 Implementing

disciplinary power in Foucauldian terms, the Hydrocarbon Agency for Regulation and Control

(translated as Agencia de Regulación y Control Hidrocarburífero del Ecuador (ARCH))

coordinates both punitive and preventive actions. It has launched a preventive project that involves

352 Hoy, “Gobierno controlara venta de gas en las fronteras,” Abril 29, 2012. http://www.hoy.com.ec/noticias-

ecuador/gobierno-controlara-venta-de-gas-en-las-fronteras-544739.html (accessed July, 2013).

http://www.hoy.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/gobierno-controlara-venta-de-gas-en-las-fronteras-544739.html


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the use of electronic cards to record the supply of propane cylinders to households located in border

areas. This project ensures that all families receive an adequate amount of gas for domestic use

and also identifies when the propane cylinders are being sent to another destination. Indeed, this

preventive project, which is also implemented at gas stations along the border, helps to identify

which vehicles are used for multiple purchasing of propane cylinders. The vehicles are re- routed

to other gas stations where they are recorded by a video camera. This border security practice

shows how the Foucauldian metaphor of “the panopticon” exercises power at the border. In this

sense, power coerces by means of observation and produces self-monitoring subjects that police

themselves. According to an interview conducted with a representative of ARCH, the Ecuadorian

state has already saved more than $ 8 million with this preventive project.353 In addition, the

government has been buying gas stations located in the borders in order to prevent smuggling.354

In El Oro-province, eight gas stations have been bought, and eight have been closed, while others

are in the process of being closed. In Huaquillas, a border city in El Oro Province, there are only

3 stations left.355 In my view, the closure of these gas stations does little to prevent the smuggling

of fuel, since the smugglers merely buy their fuel supply in neighboring provinces.

Less repressive solutions to confronting smuggling in the borders, informed by a human

security approach, have been suggested by experts. For instance, Fernando Carrión considers that

Ecuador should regulate this informal economy rather than relying on the easiest (and most

repressive) tactic of police and military patrolling. In his view, the economy must be tackled from

a policy of border integration and trade.356 For his part, Diego Velasco (2011) suggests mass media

campaigns that promote a tax culture and a campaign to raise awareness of the damage caused by

353 Interview conducted by the author at ARCH-El Oro. Machala-Ecuador on August 2013. 354 Hoy.com, “Gobierno controlara venta de gas en las fronteras.” 29 de abril, 2012. http://www.hoy.com.ec/noticias-

ecuador/gobierno-controlara-venta-de-gas-en-las-fronteras-544739.html (accessed July, 2013). 355 Interview conducted by the author at ARCH-El Oro. Machala-Ecuador August 2013. 356 Carrión, Ibid., 1.



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tax-avoiding practices that prevent the implementation of social projects357 in the country. In a

2010 study, Carlos Avilés presented another solution involving the elimination of subsidies on

propane cylinders and fuel. The reduction or elimination of the subsidies is a sensitive issue for

the population. A government that implements the removal of the subsidy might create

destabilization. Furthermore, the subsidies for gas, propane cylinders, diesel and fuel do not

necessarily benefit the poor. The rich benefit more from these subsidies because they are the ones

who own the cars and the machines that consume these products. For this reason, it is important

to implement measures that target fuel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) subsidies that benefit

disadvantaged groups, including a subsidy for electricity.358 The average consumption of most of

the population is 1.4 propane cylinders per month. Thus, 17 cylinders per household per year could

be subsidized, and only low-income users could be allowed to benefit from the subsidy.359 Avilés’

study shows that, if the proposal to target the subsidy on LPG on disadvantaged groups, had been

implemented in 2009, the government would have saved $ 300 million and would have avoided

subsidizing 38 million propane cylinders utilized by higher income users or smuggling

networks.360 However, none of these alternatives will be sufficiently effective if smuggling

continues to be controlled mainly by security institutions that employ the discourse of national

security to justify practices of surveillance, confiscation and repression.

In sum, border security practices will not significantly decrease the involvement of local

persons in the smuggling of fuel and propane cylinders across the border. Security policies

centered on the individual rather than the state might be a better solution.

357 Diego Velasco, “El delito aduanero en las fronteras de Ecuador,” Fronteras 7 FLACSO Sede Ecuador Programa

de Estudios de la Ciudad (2011):2. 358Carlos David Avilés Pazmiño, “Análisis de los Subsidios de combustible en el Ecuador con sus posibles alternativas

de focalización y control, en el periodo 2004-2009” (thesis, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Octubre

2010), 11. 359 Carlos David Avilés Pazmiño, Ibid., 30. 360 Carlos David Avilés Pazmiño, Ibid., 31.

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2.2 Human Security: a new paradigm in Ecuadorian security policy?

A human security approach challenges the notion of national security by encouraging states to

protect the security of the individual. Ecuador’s attempt to develop a human security approach on

its borders has, however, been considered a failure by several experts and public functionaries.

First, human security has been used mainly to complement national security initiatives. Second, a

lack of continuity within public policy and permanent shifts in security priorities have affected

how human security is implemented in the border zones in Ecuador. Third, human security

initiatives need to be sensitive to intersectional inequalities based on gender, race, class and

geographical location. Thus, changes in the institutional human security framework weaken and

disrupt ongoing processes, arising concerns about the need for an intersectional human security

approach within the security planning agenda on the borders.

2.2.1 Human Security as a complement to National Security Initiatives on Ecuador’s Borders

The human security approach has not been successful in Ecuador’s border zones. The main reason

because the Ecuadorian human security approach has been manipulated by the state in order to

maximize its national interests. Biopolitics, governmentality and other methods of internal control

affect conceptions of state security on the border. The Ecuadorian government has to develop

human security as an emancipation of local communities rather than as a mere alternative to

complement its national security.

The analysis of biopolitics provides us with a meaningful understanding of power relations

at the heart of human security as “good” governance. Michel Foucault (2003) states that biopolitics

deals with the population as a political problem, but also with the random events that occur within

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a population.361 Foucault’s interest in security and war arises out of his concern with liberalism as

a regime of power and governmentality that views species life as the core of power relations.362 In

Foucault’s terms, the economy of power disciplines subjects, making them produce wealth.363 A

Foucauldian incursion into security studies shows that life itself has become the principal referent

for security practices.364 Therefore, security is immersed in an order of calculation of probability

and statistical regularity.365 Biopolitics, thus, is a security apparatus366 in which a state of

emergency is permanent in the politics of security. For Michael Dillon (2007) the emergence of

emergency, subsequently, is the norm for a biopoliticized life.367 In order to deploy biopolitics,

new disciplines, such as economic observation and demography, appeared368 to regulate a

population’s life and displacement inside and outside its territory. Thus, the population is not

people; rather, it is statistics, such as birth rate, migration, longevity, public health, mortality,

employment rate, or housing, that are used by governments to manage life, and to prevent

insecurity. The biopolitics of security is interested in the nexus of power/knowledge within

governmental technologies, elevating contingency.369 Society must be defended from threats to a

population’s life, because a vulnerable population might turn into a threat to the security of the

state.

361 Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collège de France 1975–1976 (New York: Picador,

2003), 245-246. 362 Didier Bigo, “Security: A Field Left Fallow,” In Foucault on Politics, Security and War, eds. Michael Dillon and

Andrew W. Neal (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 194-196. 363 Michel Foucault, Security, Territory and Population (New York: Picador, 2007), 30. 364 Brad Evans, “Foucault’s Legacy: Security, War and Violence in the 21st Century,” Security Dialogue 41, no. 4

(2010): 413. 365 Didier Bigo, “Security: A Field Left Fallow,” 96, quoted in Michel Foucault, “Sècurité, Territoire, Population;

Cours au Collège de France (1977-1978),” (Paris: Seuil/Gallimard, 2004), 8. 366 Michael Dillon and Luis Lobo-Guerrero, “Biopolitics of security in the 21st century,” Review of International

Studies 34, no 2 (2008): 266. 367 Michael Dillon, “Governing Terror: The State of Emergency of Bio-Political Emergence,” International Political

Sociology 1, no 1 (2007): 15. 368 Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality: Vol.1 an Introduction (London: Penguin, 1990), 140. 369 Dillon, Ibid., 10-11.

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The analysis of human security as a complement to national security practices is better

understood through the discourse of a risk society. Michael Dillon (2007) in my opinion, correctly

points out that security issues are contained in discourses of danger (such as the discourse of

insecurity produced on Ecuador’s borders) around different referent objects of security (such as

the state or the individual), fostering governmental technologies and political rationalities through

state policies370 or, in more concrete term, through security and development plans. This way of

comprehending security issues fosters a discourse of a risk society.371 As a result of this discourse,

governments develop a variety of strategies372 through mechanisms, techniques and technologies

of power centered on the individual body by means of surveillance, inspection and reports373 in

order to prevent insecurity. Public policy design in Ecuador’s border provinces includes forecasts,

statistical estimates and overall measures in order to establish equilibrium, keep an average or

compensate variations. The regularization of development through a human security lens in the

Ecuadorian case seeks to diminish a risk society, demonstrating that human security and national

security complement each other. The strategy of the discourse of risk society ensures the national

interest in the name of the state’s own security: the border must be defended not only from threats

to national interests and the population, but also from threats provoked by inhabitants of the border.

As a result of human insecurity, a vulnerable population, such as men and women smugglers in

Ecuador’s border zones, might turn into a threat to the security of the state while smuggling fuel

and propane cylinders for domestic use.

370 Michael Dillon, “Governing Terror: The State of Emergency of Bio-Political Emergence,” International Political

Sociology 1, no 1 (2007): 10. 371 Dillon, Ibid., 9. 372 Michael Dillon and Luis Lobo-Guerrero, “Biopolitics of security in the 21st century,” Review of International

Studies 34, no 2 (2008): 268. 373 Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collège de France 1975–1976 (New York: Picador,

2003), 242.

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The redefinition of Ecuador’s security agenda links national security with human security.

For instance, during the interim government of Gustavo Noboa374 in 2000, the then National

Security Council of Ecuador identified the need to create the Northern Development Unit

(UDENOR),375 as a security mechanism aimed at preventing illicit crops. The creation of this unit

was supported by the US and its development program USAID376 and through projects that

benefited several Ecuadorian provinces, such as Esmeraldas, Carchi, Imbabura, Sucumbíos, Napo

and Orellana. The priorities of these projects were social and productive development,

infrastructure, environmental management and democracy and governance. All those projects

received funding from international agencies and from a national government counterpart, totaling

$ 38 million by 2003.377

Policing a risk society378 has become a necessary strategy. In this sense, the Ecuadorian

National Secretary of International Cooperation (SETECI) included several projects and programs

financed through international cooperation in order to determine whether they are generating

development that neutralizes vulnerabilities and strengthens capacities in the border zone, thereby

eradicating belligerence and criminal activities. This strategy of attacking underdevelopment can

be seen in Ecuador’s northern border provinces, where funding from international sources in 2011,

374 On January 21st, 2000, a military coup deposed the government of Jamil Mahuad, forcing him to resign after

popular discontent with the dollarization of the economy and with radical measures such as closing banks that were

considered insolvent by the government. The following day Gustavo Noboa assumed power and became President of

Ecuador. 375 Elizabeth Moreano, “Evaluación de la Política de Seguridad en la Frontera Norte del Ecuador,” en La Seguridad

del Ecuador desde el 11 de Septiembre hasta el Plan Patriota, ed. Javier Ponce Leiva (Quito: Centro de Estudios

Internacionales de Barcelona, FLACSO-Ecuador y Abya Yala, 2005), 171-172. 376Inter-American Development Bank, International donor community to assist Ecuador in promoting alternative

development to drug trafficking (October, 2001) http://www.iadb.org/en/news/news-releases/2001-10-

23/international-donor-community-to-assist-ecuador-in-promoting-alternative-development-to-drug-

trafficking,742.html (accessed October, 2013). 377 Explored, UDENOR ejecuta 120 proyectos fronterizos en el norte (Junio, 2003)

http://www.explored.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/udenor-ejecuta-120-proyectos-fronterizos-en-el-norte-150049.html

(accessed October, 2013). 378 Policing a society is conceived not only as what the public police can do but what other public institutions do to

prevent and manage risks. See more at Richard Ericsson and Kevin Haggerty, Policing the risk society (Oxford:

Clarendon Press, 1997).

http://www.iadb.org/en/news/news-releases/2001-10-23/international-donor-community-to-assist-ecuador-in-promoting-alternative-development-to-drug-trafficking,742.html




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according to the Ecuadorian National Secretary of International Cooperation (SETECI), was

distributed in the following way: Esmeraldas received the most funding in 2007-2010, namely

46%; and Sucumbíos received 27%. The major donors were: The United States, through

USAID;379 the UN system through its various agencies; Spain through the exchange of debt and

bilateral cooperation; and the European Community. The contributions from the Spanish, Italian

and American aid agencies amounted to approximately $15,000,000.380 In this context, Ecuador

linked border security policy with development issues, suggesting that national security alone is

not sufficient to battle threats and vulnerabilities with multidimensional characteristics, and

demonstrating that such an initiative reflects the close relationship between national security and

human security. Thus, the national security approach cannot ever be forgotten; its presence

continues within Ecuadorian security policies. It has softened and mutated its appearance through

a human security discourse in several security plans such as the Plan Ecuador in 2007 and the

Plan de Seguridad Integral in 2011. I shall discuss these plans further in the next section.

A statist definition of human security currently prevails within policymaking circles,

generating a misunderstanding of the original human-centered definition. If human security

remains connected to a state-centered view in security policymaking, the presence of police,

military and customs officers in Ecuador’s border zones will do little to dissuade smugglers, who

view their survival options in those areas as reduced and minimal. Therefore, human security

cannot be viewed as a mere complement to national security. The potential of an intersectorial and

multidimensional security approach, such as human security, increases women’s opportunities to

379 Currently USAID is leaving Ecuador and several projects that were being implemented. The fact has a precedent

in 2012 when the country's president, Rafael Correa threatened to expel the funding agency for alleged opposition to

his government. See more at La Razón, USAID sale de Ecuador tras los desacuerdos con el Gobierno, Diciembre 20,

2013 http://www.la-razon.com/mundo/Usaid-sale-Ecuador-desacuerdos-Gobierno_0_1964803534.html (accessed

October, 2013). 380 SETECI interview with Gabriela Rosero, “Hacia la articulación de una política de cooperación para la frontera

norte,” Cooperamos, no 3 Diciembre (2011): 10-12.

http://www.la-razon.com/mundo/Usaid-sale-Ecuador-desacuerdos-Gobierno_0_1964803534.html

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improve their quality of life, their education, their health and their employment options. In this

way, human security can contribute to the emancipation of local communities.

2.2.2 Lack of continuity within public policy and permanent shifts in security priorities

The implementation of human security policies in the border zones in Ecuador has been affected

by political agendas, lack of continuity of public policy and permanent shifts in security priorities.

For instance, changes in the institutional framework have weakened and disrupted ongoing

processes. Between 2001-2013, three institutions were in charge of fostering development in the

northern border area: UDENOR (2001-2007); Plan Ecuador (2007-2013); and SENPLADES-

region 1 (2013-…). In its six years of operation between 2001 and 2007, UDENOR received $80

million in foreign aid, which was invested mainly in infrastructure in the provinces of Esmeraldas,

Carchi, Imbabura, Sucumbíos, Napo and Orellana. In 2007 alone, the U.S. Agency for

International Development (USAID) contributed $10 million. Nevertheless, UDENOR did not last

long. The government of Rafael Correa eliminated it the Executive Decree 694.381 It was replaced

by Plan Ecuador. The first technical secretary of Plan Ecuador, Juan Navarro, argued that the

abolition of UDENOR assisted in improving the allocation of resources to the border areas. Plan

Ecuador was a coordination unit and not an implementation one, so it did not compete with

ministries and local governments for resources, as did UDENOR. Navarro explained that Plan

Ecuador wished to avoid conflicts, because “all” the programs implemented by UDENOR had

problems of accountability.382 From my perspective, those projects did not include a clear human

381 Rafael Correa, Decreto 694, Eliminación de la Unidad de Desarrollo del Norte-UDENOR, Octubre 25, 2007. 382 El Universo, Problemas de UDENOR pasan a Plan Ecuador, Noviembre 2007

http://www.eluniverso.com/2007/11/18/0001/9/32C0E4A628784EFBA1F7CF89D37FCE7D.html (accessed

October, 2013).

http://www.eluniverso.com/2007/11/18/0001/9/32C0E4A628784EFBA1F7CF89D37FCE7D.html

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security focus. Many of them were funded by USAID, so UDENOR indirectly supported the US

national security agenda in the Andes region and in Ecuador’s northern border zones.

On April 24, 2007, the Ecuadorian government presented Plan Ecuador to its citizens and

the international community as a human security public policy to strengthen interagency

coordination and to support development based on security and a culture of peace. This policy was

designed to deal with challenges arising from extreme poverty, social exclusion and corruption

and to enhance public safety.383 Thus, Plan Ecuador’s mission referred to the achievement of state

decentralization by region, to the promotion of sustainable development and human security and

to ensuring the resolution of conflicts in the northern Border zone.384 It proposed seven

interdependent areas of intervention: 1) Capacity building for peace and development; 2)

Economic recovery and employment; 3) Improving basic social infrastructure; 4) Sustainable

management of natural resources; 5) Administration of justice and control of illicit activities; 6)

Human rights and humanitarian assistance; and 7) Protection of sovereignty and territorial

integrity.385 The fifth area of intervention of then Plan Ecuador “Administration of justice and

control of illicit activities” included the strengthening of systems to prevent unlawful acts, such as

the System of National Intelligence, in order to improve control of illicit acts and to achieve a

reduction in crime rates through long-term and comprehensive measures regarding the traffic of

narcotics, weapons and chemical precursors, money laundering, human trafficking, organized

383Rafael Correa Delgado, President of Ecuador, Decreto 07, 2013 Absorcion del Plan Ecuador por SENPLADES

(translated as Merge by absorption of Plan Ecuador by SENPLADES). See more at: SENPLADES, La política de

Plan Ecuador continúa con la Senplades (translated as Plan Ecuador’s policy continues with SENPLADESFebrero

19, 2014 http://www.planificacion.gob.ec/la-politica-de-plan-ecuador-continua-con-la-senplades/ (accessed

September, 2015).

384 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad Interna y Externa, Gobierno de la República de Ecuador, Plan Ecuador

Frontera de Paz http://www.planecuador.gob.ec/pages/interna.php?txtCodiInfo=16 (accessed August 27, 2012). 385Plan Ecuador, Ejes de Intervención.

http://www.planecuador.gob.ec/LaInstituci%C3%B3n/EjesdeIntervenci%C3%B3n.aspx

(accessed December 1st, 2013).

http://www.planificacion.gob.ec/la-politica-de-plan-ecuador-continua-con-la-senplades/

http://www.planecuador.gob.ec/pages/interna.php?txtCodiInfo=16


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crime and corruption.386 Thus, Plan Ecuador’s areas of intervention in the northern border zone

linked human security and national security. The main purpose of Plan Ecuador, therefore, was to

strengthen human security in the northern border area in order to decrease threats to national

security. Plan Ecuador was conceived as a plan for peace that demonstrates the Ecuadorian

government’s political will to transform the security discourse, through a progressive security

paradigm based on the needs of the population at the northern border area. A functionary involved

in implementing Plan Ecuador explained clearly its purpose in the border:

“The mission of Plan Ecuador…was to be a response to Plan Colombia which uses a security

perspective based on weapons and military force. [On the contrary] Plan Ecuador was based on

security and development of the northern border area; meeting the basic needs of people,

generating jobs and tools to resolve conflicts, and upholding the human rights of the population.

When all the institutions of the state are working in the border area, the population has an option

to improve day by day and it [the population] has capacity to choose whether to maintain its ties

with guerrilla groups or become involved in development issues.”387

Nevertheless, Ecuadorian bureaucrats have constantly questioned the effectiveness of Plan

Ecuador. Even a former undersecretary of Region 1 of the National Secretariat for Planning and

Development (SENPLADES)388 was hesitant when I asked him during an interview which security

and development plans both at the national and border level refer to a human security approach in

Ecuador. The response of this former functionary, in my view, confirms a misunderstanding of the

concept of human security among public policy designers and decision-makers.

“I think we don’t have one. When we [SENPLADES] put together the regional development

agenda, if we review the content of human security issues, they are very weak. Even more, people

hardly notice it. When we conducted focus groups, when we worked with local participants, they

hardly perceived it... It [a human security approach] was not expressed, for example, in the

386 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad Interna y Externa, Plan Ecuador Frontera de Paz

http://www.planecuador.gob.ec/pages/interna.php?txtCodiInfo=16 (accessed August 27, 2012). 387 Interview conducted by the author with a former Plan Ecuador functionary, Quito, July 1st 2013. 388 According to Ecuador’s new development planning, the country is divided into planning regions. The northern

border is considered Region 1. It includes the provinces of Esmeraldas, Carchi, Sucumbíos and Imbabura. Ibarra, the

capital of Imbabura province, is the headquarters of Region 1.


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development plans. What was expressed were productive issues. What was expressed were more

financial aid issues, road infrastructure and social infrastructure. The strong demand was for more

education, public hospitals, health centers, schools and colleges. But there were not human security

issues. Human security issues have begun to be relevant in recent years, particularly the last two

years, because there is already a local demand, not only by the authorities but also by people on

the issues of human security. If we review the development agenda, namely development plans in

parishes, cantons, provinces and the region, the issue of human security is not yet expressed in

depth; neither is the issue of gender. The gender issue is taken into account theoretically. The issue

is little addressed. And, of course, some things that should be taken into account in a development

process are omitted… Then they [the local authorities] approached [to the national authorities] and

requested [financial] resources, and [Plan Ecuador] financed this type of requests. And the projects

were not articulated…, or intended to be coordinated with the pairs in Colombia.”389

The previous testimony confirms the lack of inclusion of a human security perspective in

development planning. Furthermore, the last section of the testimony shows the concern of the

interviewee about the lack of coordination of Plan Ecuador’s initiatives in the border area with the

initiatives of the Colombian authorities. Certainly, a binational agenda at the border would increase

human security for the borderlanders. However, the effectiveness and even the possibility of

coordinating bilateral relations between Colombia and Ecuador declined significantly as a result

of the March 2008 bombing, in Angostura in the Ecuadorian province of Sucumbíos by Colombian

forces,390 which created a diplomatic crisis. It was not obvious, at that time, how such coordination

could be encouraged in the wake of that rupture in diplomatic relations? Moreover, any attempt to

foster a positive bi-national agenda at the border with Colombia was dramatically stopped.

Ecuador’s government national security discourse was based on a disrespected sovereignty,

affecting the possibility to increase human security policies at the common border zone. Bilateral

relations were renewed two years later, in 2010.

389 Interview translated and conducted by the author to a former undersecretary from SENPLADES’ Region 1. August

22, 2013. Quito-Ecuador. 390 On March 1, 2008, the Colombian security forces bombed a camp of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

(FARC) located in Angostura, Sucumbíos Province, killing Raúl Reyes, second-in-command of this the guerrilla

group. Ecuadorian authorities were not informed by the Colombian authorities about the intentions to attack that camp

located in the Ecuadorian territory. Colombia disrespected Ecuador’s sovereignty, provoking a diplomatic crisis that

lasted approximately two years.

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Additional institutional changes continued during 2013. According to the President Rafael

Correa Delgado’s Decree 07 -2013 “Merge by absorption of Plan Ecuador by SENPLADES”,

Article 1 decrees the absorption and fusion of Plan Ecuador by the National Secretariat of Planning

and Development (SENPLADES) in Region 1.391 Article 2 states that the skills, functions,

representations and delegations of the Technical Secretariat of Plan Ecuador, the current decrees,

regulations, ministerial decisions, resolutions and other regulations, as well as the planning,

coordination, implementation, monitoring and execution of plans, programs and projects that are

part of Plan Ecuador, will be assumed by SENPLADES.392 The above decree does not clarify

which were the main causes of the transition. The testimony of a functionary of SENPLADES in

Region 1 illustrates this fact:

“The internal conflict in Colombia has had an impact on the country [Ecuador], which has had to

take measures and adopt policies in order to solve the conflict [referring to the effects of conflict]

in the north now. In this case, I say, as northern zone [functionaries], we [SENPLADES] have

recently assumed that process, because earlier, in the previous state structure, an organization,

UDENOR, was created. Later, it [UDENOR] disappeared. It had its limitations and its successes.

Later, Plan Ecuador was created as a state policy. Now it [Plan Ecuador] is merging with

SENPLADES. You could talk about some form of state intervention.”393

In contrast, in the south, the border between Ecuador and Peru has demonstrated flourishing

bilateral relations. The Peace Agreement of Itamaraty on October 26, 1998, put an end to a history

of conflict and war between Peru and Ecuador. As a result, a binational plan began to be

implemented successfully, and Ecuador’s southern border became, according to government

officials, a more stable region. The Binational Development Plan for the Ecuador-Peru common

border was established by the signing of the Comprehensive Border Integration and Neighborhood

391 Rafael Correa Delgado, President of Ecuador, Decreto 7, 2013, Absorción del Plan Ecuador por SENPLADES

(Merge by absorption of Plan Ecuador by SENPLADES) May, 2013. 392Decreto 07. 2013, Ibid. 393 Interview translated and conducted by the author at SENPLADES Region 1, Ibarra-Ecuador, August, 14, 2013.

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Development Accord. The Binational Plan is an unprecedented and successful experience that,

through the implementation of the Strategy of Economic and Social Cohesion and Peace Culture

in the border region, co-finances projects in areas such as of roads, clean water, environmental

health, watershed management, basic infrastructure for health and education services and

intercultural bilingual education. It gives special attention to those areas within a range of 40 km

from the border where no or little action was previously taken, prompting a vision of the border as

a space for development at the economic and social levels.394

Currently, the northern border is seen by the Ecuadorian national security discourse and

policies as a more conflicted area than the southern border. The southern border is viewed as space

for integration. Nevertheless, the lack of a strong human security approach on both borders has

encouraged the smuggling of fuel and propane cylinders as an option to unemployment, lack of

education opportunities and under-development in both border zones.

Ecuador’s tendency to focus more on the border with Colombia after the war with Peru

concluded is not healthy at all.

“On the southern border, things changed radically after the signing of the peace treaty with Peru.

Trade is energized, but the shared feature with the other boundary [Colombia] is just fuel. Gasoline

and diesel come from Ecuador’s borders, both north and south. The reason is simple: the price

difference between fuel in Ecuador and the fuel price in Peru and in Colombia; this circumstance

will seem attractive to any trader. So that has led to forming groups if not bands [criminal

organizations] of people who see that their usefulness is huge. But percentage-wise this is more

common in the north.”395

Despite the efforts made by the government, the treatment of security issues on both borders has

been ineffective due to the lack of a strong human security approach. By patrolling in the northern

394 Plan Binacional de Desarrollo en la Región Fronteriza Capítulo Ecuador, ¿Quiénes somos?

http://www.planbinacional.gob.ec/informacion-general/pb-desarrollo-region-fronteriza-ec-pe/quienes-somos.html

(accesed October 2014). 395 Interview translated and conducted by the author with a former undersecretary from SENPLADES’ Region 1,

August 22, 2013, Quito, Ecuador.



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(Carchi and Sucumbíos) and southern provinces (El Oro), the military has maximized their budgets

and maintained their status as professional fighters against drug trafficking, and contraband,396

showing a militarized security agenda that does little to increase human security in the border zone.

Finally, the Plan de Seguridad Integral (translated as the Comprehensive Security Plan)

launched in 2011 by Ecuador’s Coordinating Ministry of Security is another security plan that

includes the concept of human security among its objectives. In the Coordinating Ministry of

Security’s view, this new plan includes the analysis and implementation of a multidisciplinary

approach within a new security paradigm. This holistic and participatory model goes beyond using

only policing and military criteria.397 It focuses its vision and mission on the individual, at whom

all state efforts are directed. The aim is to spread peace, equality, security and social coexistence,

or good living, of the citizens. Under the plan the Coordinating Ministry of Security outlines

comprehensive policies that articulate security sub-systems and implement the international

concept of human security and its seven dimensions mentioned in the 1994 United Nations

report.398 This plan is quite similar to the abandoned Plan Ecuador.

The Comprehensive Security Plan refers to an integrated security system. Such a system

covers all the areas of security for people and the state. These security areas are integrated into a

single system, Sistema de Seguridad Pública y del Estado (translated as System of Public Security

and of the State). This system, as outlined within this plan, includes international security, internal

security, national defense, economic security, food sovereignty and environmental security,399

being all the types of security considered strategic by the state. Unfortunately, human security,

396 Maiah Jaskoski, “The Ecuadorian Army: Neglecting a Porous Border While Policing the Interior,” Latin America

Politics and Society 54, no. 1 (2012): 127-129. 397 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Plan de Seguridad Integral (2011): 9.

http://www.seguridad.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/07/01_Plan_Seguridad_Integral_baja.pdf 398 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Plan de Seguridad Integral, 9, 14. 399 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador. Ibid., 4.

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despite being mentioned in several paragraphs of the Comprehensive Security Plan, does not

appear as a key component of this system; nor do the intersectional inequalities based on race,

class, gender and location faced daily by Ecuadorians, especially borderlanders. In sum, a human

security approach that ignores multiple inequalities is problematic. For this reason, the next

chapters will analyze the need for an intersectional framework to enrich the human security

approach in public policy implementation.

2.3 Summary of the Chapter

In this chapter, I have utilized the concept of national security in order to explain a traditional view

of security based on states' national interests and values. By developing this concept, I was able to

explain Ecuador's national security approach in its border zones. I also argued, that under

Ecuador's current security policies, smuggling has been recognized as a threat to national security

in Ecuador's border zones. Conflicts between states are given less attention than those provoked

by non-state actors such as smugglers in Ecuadorian border zones. Despite, the multidimensional

characteristics of these new threats, they are still addressed through a national security approach

that is insufficient to solve the roots of the new security scenario. Initially, human security as a

new security paradigm challenges the national security approach; specifically, it encourages states

to protect the security of the individual. In Ecuador’s border zone, however, human security has

been used to complement national security. Ecuador's attempt to develop a human security

approach in its borders may sound promising, but one main concern arises from the need for a

strengthened human security approach that empowers women and their communities within an

intersectional framework in the security planning agenda.

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Chapter 3. Women’s Insecurity and National Security

This chapter examines the web of power relations that lead to women’s insecurity in the border

areas and how smuggling is related to these conditions of insecurity. The chapter also argues that

smuggling can involve both domination and empowerment of women, depending on the context

in which it takes place. Supported by a feminist critical human security approach, I argue that

women’s smuggling activities, as a way of life, are the result of intersectional inequalities in

Ecuador’s border zones. Since regulating women through border security practices does not

improve their conditions of security, I suggest viewing women as referents of security. Finally, I

view a feminist critical human security approach as a tool to tackle interlocked inequalities within

public policies. Therefore, I recommend that the effective design and implementation of feminist

critical human security that is sensitive to the intersections of race, gender, class and geographical

location can enrich the Ecuadorian human security agenda in the border zones.

3.1 National Security and Women Smugglers in Ecuador’s Borders Areas

While smuggling is under the jurisdition of institutions that utilize a discourse of national security

and practices of surveillance, confiscation and repression to punish disobedient borderlanders,

women participate with some level of significance in smuggling activities. In the case of Ecuador’s

borders with Colombia and Peru, Ecuadorian women’s lived experiences of oppression may not

really matter to mainstream approaches to security but, if those experiences come from women

who smuggle natural resources that are strategic for the Ecuadorian economy, such as subsidized

oil and gas derivatives, they become absolutely a security target. Women smugglers are

constructed as a threat to Ecuador’s national interests and economy by the masculinized

Ecuadorian discourse of border security. This construction, which shows asymmetrical power

relations, denies the root of the involvement of women in smuggling activities.

129

Smuggling networks are constituted by men and women. However, a great percentage of the

groups that are engaged in hormiga smuggling (smuggling in small amounts) are made up of

women. Some women are recruited by informal traders, who seek to evade controls through this

micro-smuggling. According to a Customs officer in Chacras, El Oro Province, “these traders pay

women approximately six dollars per trip; with three trips a day, these women get $18 (US). Bus

tickets and food cost $3 (US), allowing these women to make a profit of around $14 and $15 US

dollars per day.”400 Although the hormiga smuggling has become a short-term survival strategy

for women who live in border provinces located, it does not resolve the structural inequalities that

they face in their daily lives. According to the Hydrocarbon Control Agency (ARCH), the bigger

smuggling networks made a profit of $ 3000 (US) per month, becoming a profitable business401 in

a country where the minimum monthly wage is $354 US.

Arrests of women demonstrate how border security practices permeated with disciplinary

power exercise control and surveillance over them. According to data from Ecuador’s National

Customs Surveillance Office (DNVA), 193 women were arrested for allegedly smuggling in 2012

while, between January and May 2013, 70 women were arrested.402 Additional data from the

Unidad de Investigaciones de Delitos Energéticos e Hidrocarburiferos de la Policía Nacional de

Ecuador-UIDEH (translated as Unit for the Investigation of Energy and Hydrocarbon Crimes of

the National Police of Ecuador) demonstrate that in 2013 there were 188 control operations in

eight of which a total of 11 women were arrested. During 2014, there were 122 operations, in

which a total of 14 women were arrested. In two consecutive years (2013-2014) the operations

400 Interview translated and conducted by the author at Customs Surveillance Office in Chacras-El Oro, July 15,

2013. 401 Explored, “Los contrabandistas buscan abastecerse en otras provincias,” 27 de octubre, 2011.

http://www.explored.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/los-contrabandistas-buscan-abastecerse-en-otras-provincias-

510164.html 402 Data provided by the National Customs Surveillance Office (Dirección Nacional de Vigilancia Aduanera -

DNVA) July 1st, 2013.

file:///C:/Users/cldonoso/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Word/Los%20contrabandistas%20buscan%20abastecerse%20en%20otras%20provincias

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conducted by the UIDEH detained 25 women.403 These data show that few women were arrested

through disciplinary practices such as border control, but they do not show if these women arrested

were the only ones in their communities involved in the activity. Furthermore, customs officers on

Ecuador’s borders deal with women differently than men, because they believe that dealing with

women is very delicate due to their gender.404 For example, as a result of using a national security

approach to control women smugglers, there are more female police, military and customs officers

carrying out the border control operations.405 From a feminist critical human security perspective,

these masculinized security institutions use women officers to exercise a hegemonic masculinity

to control and criminalize women smugglers.

Generally, local communities do not see borders in the same way as do governments. The

interests and identities of the inhabitants of Carchi, Sucumbíos and El Oro differ from those of the

state. Only border dwellers who involved in the everyday life of the border fully understand such

a complex scenario. The leaders of women’s organizations in El Oro and Sucumbíos provinces

view the border in a more comprehensive manner. For instance, Rosa from the Women’s

Movement of El Oro and Delia from the Federation of Women of Sucumbíos claim the following:

“For us, the border is a limit placed on the map, but not in the territory. I cross from Huaquillas

[Ecuador] to Aguas Verdes [Peru], I come and go.”406 “For us, the border is one thing ... let’s

called it a political thing… here families come and go. There is not a wall, there is a river. It is an

invented thing by the authorities to define a country. But the reality is that families have not put

that wall there.”407

403 Official document provided by the Undersecretary of Police of the Ministry of Interior of Ecuador, September

11, 2014. 404 Interview translated and conducted by the author. Customs Officer. Quito-Ecuador. July 1, 2013. 405 Interview translated and conducted by the author. Customs Officer. Quito-Ecuador. July 1, 2013. 406 Interview translated and conducted by the author with Rosa Lopez, Movimiento de Mujeres El Oro (translated as

El Oro Women’s Movement) Machala, El Oro Province, July 4, 2013. 407Interview translated and conducted by the author with Delia Malbay, Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos

(translated as Federation of Women of Sucumbíos) Lago Agrio, Sucumbíos Province, July 22, 2013.

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The border is a place to unite and integrate states and the borderland population. Ecuador’s borders

with Peru and Colombia are seen by the population that lives on them not as a dividing line, but

as a way of life, as a space of integration through economic and social interactions and as a place

where the populations’ identities are constantly transformed by the dynamic of contact. In this

study, the Ecuadorian borders with Colombia and Peru are understood as places of diversity and

as spaces that are neither Colombian, Peruvian or Ecuadorian, but as space of intermingling. The

populations that live on the border are hybrids, because they have flexible identities408 or, in Gloria

Anzaldúa’s view, multiple identities.409 Anzaldúa understands the border as an intersection of

identities and hierarchies based on nationality, race, class and gender. These identities influence

the household survival strategies exhibited by local women in Ecuador’s border zones through

smuggling.

The gender, race and class of individuals affect the way in which practices of border

security control are carried out. On July 15, 2013, after an interview at the City Hall in Huaquillas,

I went to the Chacras Customs office in El Oro Province, which is located just 8 kilometers from

Huaquillas. I had an appointment for an interview with the Head of the Customs office. While I

was waiting for almost an hour for my appointment, I was able to observe the interaction between

customs officers and locals. A middle-class Mestizo male was stopped by two customs officers.

He was coming back from Peru with a few cell phones, and he did not have receipts to prove that

he had bought them. Unaware of my observation, after few minutes the officers let him go. It

seems that the gender, socio-economic status and race of the individual, as well as the amount and

408 Chainarong Sretthachau, “Living Across Border: The Tactics of Everyday Life Practice of Cambodian-Lao Migrant

Worker in Thailand in the Context of Mekong Regionalization of Development,” 4th Asian Rural Sociology

Association (ARSA) International Conference (2010): 72. 409 Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera the New Mestiza, 3rd edition (San Francisco, CA, Aunt Lute Books:

2007).

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type of merchandise expected to be smuggled, play a significant role in the disciplinary

interactions of border security control.

In addition to gender, race and ethnicity are other factors involved when the border

authorities define who the smugglers are in the northern border area. For example, during an

interview, an Ecuadorian customs officer affirmed that Afro-Ecuadorian women from the Chota

Valley use pregnancy as a strategy to smuggle across the border.

“First, even if a woman is aggressive, it is very difficult to imprison her. This scenario is even

more complex when women are pregnant. Many women use pregnancy as a legal protection,

believing that they cannot get arrested. If you know that a woman is pregnant, the judge stops the

process immediately. If you did not know that a woman was pregnant, but she proves to be two or

three months pregnant… she is released…They also bring children in their arms. They [women]

are friendly, this is terrible.”410

Since the law is gendered, it protects women because they are considered vulnerable. Thus, in the

patriarchal understanding for this Customs officer, pregnancy involves gendered ideas of

femininity and vulnerability, that preventing the border security authorities from treating women

smugglers in the same way as men. For this reason, they believe that women use pregnancy as a

strategy to successfully smuggle and get away with a “deserved” punishment for being disobedient

to border security control. However, from this testimony, it can be inferred that only Afro-

Ecuadorian women have enough audacity to use pregnancy as a strategy. If this is the case, the

Customs officer’s comments are not only sexist but also racist. These comments reflect the

existence of processes of differentiation and a system of oppression in discourses and practices at

the border.

In addition, the gendered dynamics of smuggling networks in the Afro-Ecuadorian

community demonstrate a deep collaboration of women cross-border traders with men. On one

410 Interview translated and conducted by the author with a customs officer, Quito, Ecuador, July 1st, 2013.

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hand, the testimony of the Customs officer, claiming that male smugglers use pregnant women to

be successful in their “illegal” activities, involves a complete denial of women’s agency and of

their own decision to become involved in smuggling. On the other hand, at the community and

family level, it seems that there is a negotiation of gender identities where men are “giving women

permission” to smuggle in order to increase the income of the household; illegality never appeared

as part of a moral gendered discourse. From this case, it can be inferred that women who take

advantage of opportunities for smuggling push the boundaries of femininity, but this crossing of

boundaries still contributes to their caring role for the wellbeing of their families and communities.

For instance, in Carchi Province, women smugglers work together with their male partners in order

to provide for the family.

“On the Ecuadorian side [of the border], men and women are engaged [in smuggling], because

sometimes they are family. So husband and wife do their job of carrying not only gas [propane

cylinders for domestic use], but also fuel. Or, for example, the family has two or three old cars…

in Tulcán. Then, one [vehicle] is driven by the wife and the other by the husband. So both [husband

and wife] cross the border to sell the gasoline.”411

According to the same Customs officer, the “manipulation” of the human rights discourse is

another strategy used by Afro-Ecuadorian smugglers412 that his colleagues deal with when

carrying out border security duties.

“When you stop a pick-up truck with people, another pick-up truck comes behind with more

people. There are women with children. So, how you can make an enforcement action with a

woman with her child in her arms? I remember that in one operation... I did follow them from the

border to a toll entrance in Quito. The women got out of the car and decided to lie down underneath

it. Then the press came. Can you imagine that? They [smugglers] said that we are inhuman. So

women and children are used…But the individuals carrying out these activities are poor people,

who are paid to smuggle the goods.”413

411 Interview translated and conducted by the author with the former under-secretary of SENPLADES, August 22,

2013. 412 Interview translated and conducted by the author with Customs Officer, Quito-Ecuador, July 1, 2013. 413 Interview translated and conducted by the author with Customs Officer, Quito-Ecuador, July 1, 2013.

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This event shows how smugglers resist border security practices. Certainly, by lying down under

the cars that were transporting the goods being smuggled and by calling the border security

authorities “inhuman,” the smugglers collaborated with each other in order to prevent the

confiscation the of goods by the security forces, thereby exercising power as a collective force.

The border security authorities are in a position of dominance over men and women smugglers,

but the smugglers can decide to resist this form of control. Resistance to border control discourses

takes place in everyday practices on Ecuador’s borders. I borrow the idea of the art of political

disguise of resistance developed by James C. Scott’s (1990) in his book Domination and the Arts

of Resistance. By viewing oppressed groups’ political activity as neither a collective defiance to

powerful groups nor a hegemonic compliance, Scott affirms that this activity is located between

these two extremes.414 Subordinate groups disguise their resistance, because their vulnerable

circumstances do not permit them to indulge direct confrontation.415 Scott's argument is relevant

to understanding the case of women smugglers in the border area as a subordinated group that

produces a hidden discourse that represents a critique of power; resistance occurs in areas away

from the surveillance of power. By mocking the border security authority, women and men

smugglers disguise their resistance to the practices of surveillance at the border.

Women smugglers’ defiance of the power deployed by the national security discourse of

border control uses smuggling as a veiled-disguised resistance. In this context, smuggling as

resistance in Scott’s terms, is located in the realm of infrapolitics, which is real politics used as a

tool by the powerless.416 Opposition to border security, as discourse and practice, can be risky.

However, to smuggle and not to be detected is a source of prestige among smugglers. Smuggling

414 James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990),

136. 415 Scott, Ibid., 136. 416 Scott, Ibid., 200.

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as a practice of resistance is an infrapolitical reaction within a clandestine culture against the

dominant discourse of border security that criminalizes women and men who see smuggling as a

way of life.

Moreover, Afro-Ecuadorian smugglers choose to understand power as the ability to

empower themselves. In this vein, Hannah Arendt’s ideas are helpful to understand that power as

empowerment can also be perceived as a collective force. Power is not the property of an

individual, but as an attribute of a group that exists as long as the group remains together.417 In

this sense, power emerges from the relationship between individuals with a common goal418 such

as smuggling, which is a survival activity for some members of the Afro-Ecuadorian community.

Power appears when people act and live together as an organized unit.419 The only limitation on

power as action is the existence of the border security authorities, who try to divide it.

On the southern border, one of the circumstances, when women become involved in

smuggling activities, is when they assume the role of the main breadwinner after terminating an

abusive relationship with their husbands. Through the women’s organization of El Oro, I was able

to meet and interview an artisanal fisherwoman in Machala, the capital city of El Oro Province.

Martha was a montubio woman who was a victim of domestic violence. But once her abusive

partner left her, she needed to find an economic activity that enable her to provide for her three

children.

“I was afraid to leave him... I had to put up with 15 years of suffering. Then, when he left, I had

to learn to work and decide to do it. I knew that I would suffer to face life […] my children had to

be hungry [...] because I did not have anything to feed them [watery eyes] […] because the larva

[shrimp farming] was already over. Once per day, I asked the neighbor for a plate of food.”420

417 Hannah Arendt, On Violence (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970), 44. 418 Allen, The Power of Feminist Theory, 100. 419 Arendt, Ibid., 200-201. 420 Interview conducted and translated by the author with a local woman in Machala, July 4th, 2013.

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As the sole provider of the household, Martha decided to cross to the other side of the border to

sell fish. She told me of her experience while crossing the border from Ecuador to Peru.

“Once they [Peruvian border security authorities] arrested me, because I like the trade. I was going

to Huaquillas to sell fish in a restaurant, and a Peruvian man sat beside me [on the bus]. And he

asked, 'where are you going?' and I told him that I was going to sell fish in Huaquillas. He said

that it was good to sell fish in Peru and it is also good to bring fish from Peru […] He took me by

the back of the market and I went to Zarumilla [Peruvian city in the Tumbes region] in a small

bus. And to return […] I did not know how to come back, I took a CIFA [a bus with cross-border

routes] to return. And then they [Peruvian border authorities] asked [me] for documents, permits,

I had nothing. Oh, I cried, now I was suffering and I did not have any documents. They incarcerated

me in Aguas Verdes [Peruvian migration control office]. I was crying while I was trying to explain

to them what I was doing there. I went to work [the lawyer that accompanied her during the

interview laughed] I went for a job, but unfortunately, you have to get a safe-conduct. But it was

a lack of information. He [referring to the Peruvian man] did not tell me that I have to do these

things. Then I was afraid to go there [across the border]. I did not want to know anything about

there [the border].”421

Martha’s testimony seems to indicate that the border as a physical division is not as clear for her

as it is for the border security authorities. For her, the border is a space for trade, where she can

generate an income to provide for her family. In this sense, Martha’s story can be viewed as an

extension of the good motherhood of the Ecuadorian woman at the border, seeking to provide for

her family: she often takes care of her children on a daily basis; her role as a mother is central to

her identity as a woman and as a worker.422 As a poor montubio woman who crossed the border

421 Interview conducted and translated by the author with a local woman in Machala, July 4th, 2013. 422 In Ecuador, motherhood is influenced by Marianism. This term was initially developed by Evelyn Stevens (1977)

to analyze the role of women in Latin American cultures. The term Marianism was used to designate the moral and

spiritual superiority of women in relation to men, based on the model of the Virgin Mary. Women, according to the

Marianist ideal, are contemplative, self-denying and self-sufficient. In this sense, it is believed that women adapt well

to their submissive feminine role. Therefore, this model emphasizes the passivity and the resignation of the idealized

woman. Marianism has influenced feminism in Catholic countries. In particular, the highly tolerated symbolic

violence against women in Ecuador has deep religious roots. As a result, girls have grown up to be mothers and wives,

with the Virgin Mary as their role model. According to Michael Handeslman, Marianist feminists in Ecuador did not

encourage women to abandon their traditional roles, but rather to fulfill them with better results. See more at: Evelyn

Stevens, “Marianismo: la otra cara del machismo en Latino-América,” en: Ann Pescatelo, Hembra y macho en Latino-

América: Ensaios., Edición Diana, México (1977), 123; Michael Handeslman, Amazonas y artistas: un estudio de la

prosa de la mujer ecuatoriana, Volumen 1. Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, Núcleo del Guayas (1978), 86, 88, 91,

94; M.B. Rondon, “From Marianism to terrorism: the many faces of violence against women in Latin America,” Arch

Womens Ment Health 6, no. 3 (2003):157–158. DOI 10.1007/s00737-003-0169-3.

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on a bus by herself, she became the target of border surveillance practices. In contrast, according

to an interview conducted with the leader of the Women’s Movement of El Oro, middle-class

Mestizo women (such as herself), who drive their own cars to cross the border, are less likely to

be stopped by the border security authorities. Border security practices are more often exercised

over minority ethnic groups, such as low-income Afro-Ecuadorian and montubio women.423

Systems of oppression based on the class, ethnicity and gender of the smuggler intersect at the

border.

Without a doubt, women smugglers on the Ecuadorian borders challenge a masculinized

view of border security and the idea of women’s moral virtue. For instance, in the southern border

area, the local media in Huaquillas referred to the “Fearless escape of a women smuggler in

Huaquillas, Ecuador.”424 On July 14, 2013, a woman who was smuggling whiskey and clothing

was caught by the police. The police officers shot the pick-up truck driven by the woman, but she

was able to escape.425 In the social media, a man congratulated this woman426 who mocked the

police officers’ operation. On the one hand, the border security authorities’ perception of this

event involves discomfort with the audacity of this woman who dared to challenge male authority,

escaping and hitting car a police officer with her. On the other hand, the local community in

Huaquillas was upset at the “useless” operation of the police officers, but at the same time, one

woman in a blog recognized that smuggling is part of everyday life in Huaquillas since there are

423 Interview conducted and translated by the author with leader of the Women’s of Movement El Oro, July 4th, 2014,

Machala, Ecuador. 424 “Audaz escape de mujer contrabandista en Huaquillas Ecuador” (translated as Fearless escape of a woman

smuggler in Huaquillas, Ecuador) Youtube video, 5:44, Julio 19 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wisZiRk-

FrE (accessed on September 9, 2014). 425 TV Oro Huaquillas, “15 de julio pre aclaran situación sobre persecusión” (translated as July 15 clarification about

persecution) Youtube video, 4:15, Julio 15 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWCvAJ2rRDI (accessed on

January 2, 2015). 426 “Intensa persecusión a contrabandista en Huaquillas y Arenillas” (translated as Intense persecution of woman

smuggler in Huaquillas and Arenillas) Youtube video, 1:33, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVZU_95fhls

(accessed on September 9, 2014).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wisZiRk-FrE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wisZiRk-FrE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWCvAJ2rRDI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVZU_95fhls

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not too many formal employment options. It is noteworthy to say that women smugglers transform

the understanding not only of femininity but also of an activity considered as a crime by national

security discourse and practices.

The analysis of women’s motives for smuggling shows that it depends on the context. For

example, a critical economic situation can be a justifiable motivation for women’s execution of

acts considered criminal by the border control authorities. However, I also want to rescue the idea

that women become involved in smuggling acts as a result of diverse circumstances, such as being

the accomplices of men, out of love for their family, as resistance to their economic dependence

on men, as a result of an emphasized femininity or, simply, as a survival strategy. Women can

show a counter-conduct through oppositional femininities. Generating a rupture within the

patriarchal system through smuggling is a strategic method of subverting established gendered

identities. Women smugglers in Ecuador’s border area illustrate ways in which these women can

challenge traditional patterns of behavior that are considered feminine.

The border is a space where women from different social classes, ethnicities and cultural

backgrounds, through their everyday struggles, demonstrate their power, sometimes in ways

outside the dominant images of femininity. In the Ecuadorian border area, women construct local

understandings of gender relations and adopt strategies of struggling for equality. I do not deny

that the feminization of poverty is associated with women’s involvement in smuggling activities,

but it is not the only cause. Nevertheless, I suggest an alternative view to explain the connection

between power as domination, resistance and empowerment in Ecuador’s border areas. Through

their counter-conduct roles as smugglers, women in the Ecuadorian border areas resist interlocking

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systems of domination by an economic dependence on men, and they reject an emphasized

femininity427 that has made them accomplices of a patriarchal order.

The analysis of female smugglers demonstrates that the involvement of women in crime

cannot be battled only by using a national security approach; it is necessary to apply a feminist

critical human security framework that takes into account women’s diversity and their triple role

in the private and public spheres, such as reproductive, productive and community participation.

This framework also acknowledges women’s resistance to the traditional constructions of gender

identities imposed on their bodies through discursive practices. In this vein, the construction of

gender identities as “gender performativity” discussed in Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble Feminism

and the Subversion of Identity. Butler (2006) emphasizes that individuals’ bodies are not free to

perform gender as they wish; rather, a matrix of intelligibility constitutes the limits of sex or, in

more concrete words, in order to be comprehensible to others and to ourselves and to avoid

punitive consequences,428 gender must be performed repeatedly within cultural and historical

boundaries.429 However, women involved in smuggling in Ecuador’s border areas challenge these

boundaries, transgressing “appropriated” feminine social constructions. In Butler’s terms, by

failing to do their gender right,430 women smugglers are punished by society through border

control practices.

Smuggling can empower women. Smuggling, viewed as a tactic of everyday life deployed

by women smugglers in Ecuador’s border areas, is an act to improve their lives. In this respect, I

want to refer to Margaret Niger-Thomas’s analysis of women smugglers in Cameroon (2001),

427 An emphasized femininity is a complementary and accommodating subordinate relationship to the hegemonic

masculinity. This type of femininity lacks social power. See more Justin Charlebois, The Construction of Masculinities

and Femininities in Beverly Hills 90210, (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2012), 12. 428 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 2006), 24. 429 Butler, Ibid., 190. 430 Butler, Ibid., 190.

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which can be also useful to understand the Ecuadorian case. In this study, she demonstrates that

smuggling has certain positive effects on the lives of individual female entrepreneurs.431 Due to

the state’s inability to address the marginalized position of women and to control this form of

trade, some women and their families have benefited socially and economically from smuggling,

such as by decreasing the deficit in their household budgets, while at the same time maintaining a

respected status in society.432 The situation in Ecuador is quite similar, but smuggling as a source

of income for women is not considered among the traditional definitions of employment.

Moreover, the lack of profitable employment options in Ecuador’s border provinces has fostered

“informality” as a way of life for individuals responsible for wellbeing of their families. The cross-

border zone, as the place where smuggling is an everyday practice, has become a place where

women empower themselves and resist border security discourse and practices. The case of women

smugglers on the northern and southern Ecuadorian borders demonstrates that they suffer from a

lack of employment. However, these women are also active agents; they smuggle fuel and propane

cylinders as a counter-conduct to show their resistance to a gender stereotype of victims in need

of protection. Smuggling has become an activity that local communities have started to practice in

order to improve their living conditions at the cost of being harassed by the border authorities and

characterized as criminals. Resistance to border control takes place in the context of a traditional

national security discourses and practices.

National security in Ecuador’s border areas affects women’s security. Military capability as

an assurance against outside threats to the state is frequently hostile to individuals, particularly to

women's security.433 For instance, in Machala, El Oro Province, one woman explained how the

431 Margaret Niger-Thomas, “Women and the Arts of Smuggling,” African Studies Review 44, no. 2, Ways of Seeing:

Beyond the New Nativism (Sep., 2001): 44. 432 Niger-Thomas, Ibid., 45. 433 J. Ann Tickner, “You Just Don't Understand: Troubled Engagements between Feminists and IR Theorists,”

International Studies Quarterly 41, no. 4 (Dec., 1997), 625.

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border security authorities’ masculinized practices abuse their power to control smuggling, or what

this local woman calls “informal trade”, thereby provoking women’s insecurity.

“Women who work in the informal trade have developed survival strategies for themselves and

their families in any way. Either they become sex workers or they work in the informal trade

[smuggling]. And what do they find in the informal trade? Your best option is to buy clothing at

the border [in Peru] or other things. [Women] come with their packets and these packets are stolen,

they are broken, they are removed [by Ecuador’s security forces] if you do not give them money

[to bribe border authorities].434”

Based on the above testimony, a traditional understanding of security based on a militarized and

masculinized national security approach is limited by its exclusive military focus on the defense

of territorial boundaries and new threats, omitting multiple causes that can provoke women’s

insecurity. It is relevant to adopt a broader definition of security, since narrow definitions [such as

those encouraged by the Realist school of thought] largely exclude the private sphere, ignoring

women’s security.435 One interview conducted during my fieldwork in Ecuador in 2013 with a

customs officer in Chacras, El Oro Province, illustrates this point. When asked if he thought that

patrolling and operations at the border by police, military, and customs officers were sufficient to

ensure border security and to reduce the involvement of the population in smuggling, he responded

with the following:

“I estimate that the efforts made by the border control authorities and especially the customs

authorities are inadequate for this topic due to the extent of the trade [smuggling]. Ideally, the state

should generate social inclusion policies [human security] through programs that provide jobs for

these informal traders [smugglers] so that they can perhaps benefit from a program implemented

by the state or an NGO.”436

434 Interview conducted by the author with a local woman in Machala, El Oro, July 4, 2013. 435 Mary Caprioli, “Democracy and Human Rights versus Women’s Security: A Contradiction?” Security Dialogue

35, no. 4 (December 2004): 425. 436 Interview conducted and translated by the author at the Customs Control Center in Chacras, El Oro Province,

Ecuador on July 15, 2013.

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Despite recognizing the efforts made by the border security authorities to reduce smuggling in this

southern Ecuadorian province, the customs officer also admitted that, “ideally”, it would be

essential to tackle social issues that cannot be solved by a national security approach. In my view,

he is suggesting a more comprehensive security approach in the border zone. For the population

at the border, a feeling of insecurity arises from worries about daily life. National security has

demonstrated that it does not necessarily ensure the security of citizens.437 Indeed, the Ecuadorian

border security authorities can provoke more insecurities for the populations living in border

zones, and working there as informal traders.

Smuggling as part of an informal economy is considered by locals as a survival strategy

and a way of life. However, this activity, which is viewed as a threat to the state’s interests, is dealt

through a national security approach. Certainly, women’s insecurity can be prevented by

implementing an alternative, multidimensional, comprehensive, equitable and inclusive approach

to security that views security and development as complementary initiatives within critical

scenarios.

It is important to dedicate the next section to analyzing the extent to which women’s

insecurity is the result of intersectional inequalities in Ecuador, since women’s involvement in

smuggling activities might be related to the conditions of insecurity created when systems of

oppression based on intersected gendered, class, race and geographical inequalities interact at the

border.

437 Gary King and Christopher Murray, “Rethinking Human Security,” Political Science Quarterly 116, no. 4 (2001-

2002): 588.

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3.2 Women’s Insecurity in Ecuador: Intersectional Inequalities

The efforts made by the Ecuadorian government to improve equality have not been fully

successful. During the annual assessment of the National Plan for Good Living (PNBV) 2009-

2013, in 2011, the Ecuadorian authorities determined that it remains a challenge for the state to

eliminate gaps in the access of women to basic social services. Therefore, in 2012, the National

Planning Council resolved to integrate seven new strategies within the PNVB in order to address

the fundamental obstacles that had been identified. These strategies included the creation of the

National Strategy for Equality by the Transition Commission to the Council of Women and Gender

Equality (CDT). According to the National Secretariat of Planning and Development

(SENPLADES), a National Agenda for Gender Equality will provide the CDT with mechanisms

and tools for the enforcement and monitoring of the rights of women. This agenda will follow the

guidelines of the National Strategy for Equality and Social Mobility, the Atlas of Socioeconomic

Inequalities, and the National Plan for Good Living. However, many progressive initiatives

regarding the rights of women and gender equality that have been taken on by the government are

not made part of public policy.

There may be several causes of this inertia. Despite the apparent technical and political

will, limited financial resources paralyze ongoing initiatives, especially when it comes to

transformations of gender discourses and socio-cultural patterns that are not considered by policy

makers as significant in solving short-term material needs such as access to employment, education

and health services. For instance, in 2010 the mass media campaign “Reacciona Ecuador,

Machismo es Violencia” (translated as React Ecuador, Machismo is Violence) was designed to

create awareness of the different types of violence faced by women and to illustrate how men can

contribute to the transformation/elimination of that pattern of violence. However, this campaign

had a budget for only one year. Three years later, in May 2014, the Ministry of Interior in

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coordination with the Ministry of Justice and the Judicial Council launched the national campaign

“Ecuador Actúa Ya, Violencia de Género, Ni Más” (translated as Ecuador Acts Now, Gender

Violence, Never More), as a complement to the project “React Ecuador, Machismo is Violence”

that had been implemented between 2010 and 2011. This campaign promoted the adoption of

positive behaviors that would eradicate gender-based violence and of shared responsibility for its

eradication. Certainly, material needs, such as access to basic social services, need to be met, but

the social constructions that create systems of domination and violence in our society, also need

to be transformed in order to overcome discrimination based not only on gender, but also on race,

class and geographical location. Buen Vivir as a new development paradigm cannot be achieved if

inequality based on gender, race, socioeconomic status or residential location prevails. For this

reason, a feminist critical human security framework that comprehensively tackles systems of

discrimination is absolutely relevant in development and security policies.

Another important challenge to be recognized in order to include the voices of women

facing multiples inequalities is that not all subjects involved in the planning process have the same

resources, or the same opportunities to access the spaces where agendas are discussed. The

Ecuadorian government has tried to include traditionally marginalized sectors in planning

initiatives through several workshops conducted by such institutions as SENPLADES.

Nevertheless, the women of Carchi, El Oro and Sucumbíos provinces do not believe that their

voices, demands and interests were included in national and provincial development plans. The

testimony of an indigenous leader of a Women’s organization in Lago Agrio, Sucumbíos Province,

illustrates this concern.

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“We have a progressive government [Rafael Correa’s government] that is fine. But in these sectors

[border zones], we still do not feel that [progress]. It has not changed, the reality that we had five

years ago…Things continue as they were, that is, [limited] access to education, health... However,

in these sectors, you cannot have at least that. Even worse, you cannot talk about other

achievements on women issues. There is not even the basic and elemental [social services]. I do

not say that the state is not worried, not at all. But [these services] have not reached these areas yet

for various reasons. Development plans in these places are fictitious plans. [These plans] have not

included the participation and the current views of the realities of each local government.”

The disappointment shown by this local leader is obvious. Development plans have not been

effectively implemented in the province of Sucumbíos. Unfortunately, many sources of

information generated at the local level, such as focus groups, participative diagnosis or collective

memories, are rarely employed in decision-making at the local level and even less at the regional

or national scales.438 The lack of channels of communication with policymakers can incubate

social tensions where there are no spaces for the negotiation of significant claims. In the same

vein, by referring to workshops conducted by the current Ecuadorian government at the local level,

a woman, member of the National Coordinator of Black Women (CONAMUNE) in Imbabura

Province, confirmed the concern expressed in the previous testimony, but she also pointed out the

lack of implementation of what had been planned within the equality framework.

“We could say that the state has conducted its workshops… our needs, goals, and concepts within

the topic of inequalities have been already reflected in the agenda of women, but they really

haven’t been implemented. There are no new public policies created to diminish the theme of

racism, gender inequality and unemployment.”439

Certainly, this lack of implementation of policies does not diminish local women’s intersected

conditions of inequality. Nor does the creation of gender sensitive indicators and statistics. During

the current administration of Rafael Correa, the Transition Commission to the Council of Women

and Gender Equality (CDT) received support from UN Women to build an indicator system that

438 Saskya Lugo, “Análisis de la incorporación del enfoque de género en los proyectos públicos de desarrollo,” 17. 439 Interview conducted by the author with Sindi Tapia, CONAMUNE-Imbabura on July 31, 2013.

146

could evaluate the progress towards achieving gender equality. Gender indicators are a useful tool

for the promotion of gender-specific policies to monitor achievements in women’s security. A

system of gender indicators makes possible the inclusion of the gender dimension in the design of

policies. Such a system of indicators on the equality of opportunities for women would

quantitatively express the situation of equal opportunities between genders and assess changes in

the live of women. This type of indicator system can also identify significant contributors to the

production and perpetuation of gender inequalities. Indeed, the National Institute of Statistics and

Census (INEC), through the Inter-Agency Committee on Gender Statistics, has taken various

measures to respond to the constant and increasing demands for official information inclusive of

a gender perspective. Thus, the Statistical Development Strategy with a focus on gender has been

undertaken within the National Strategic Plan for Statistical Development (PENDES - September

2008) and the Plan for Good Living (PNBV) (translated as Plan Nacional para El Buen Vivir

2009-2013). Moreover, based on the results of the Population and Housing Census 2010, the

Transition Commission to the Council of Women and Gender Equality (CDT), UN Women, and

the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) developed the book “Women and men of

Ecuador in figures III.” The 180-page document was presented to the public as a contribution to

the development of the national statistical system, because it includes comparative data for men

and women on access to education, health, economic and political participation and violence.440

Having a gender perspective in statistics is vital to inform policy and decision-makers about the

differences that exist between women and men in society. These types of statistics are a useful

quantitative tool for designing public policy, because they monitor inequality and encourage

advances towards achieving greater gender equality.

440 Consejo Nacional para la Igualdad de Género, Mujeres y hombres del Ecuador en cifras III,

http://www.igualdadgenero.gob.ec/images/publicaciones/MUJER_HOMBRE_III.pdf (accessed June 2014).

http://www.igualdadgenero.gob.ec/images/publicaciones/MUJER_HOMBRE_III.pdf

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Statistical information about class, race, ethnicity and location also informs policy-makers

about the diversity of women and men and assist them in tackling the multiple experiences of

inequality and violence imbued in interlocking systems of oppression such as patriarchy, classism

and racism. According to the 2010 Census, 14.483.499 people live in Ecuador, of whom 50.4 %

are women and 49.6% are men.441 In particular, 51% of the female population live in urban areas,

and 49.4% in rural areas. 7.1 % of the female population identified themselves as Indigenous, 7.0%

as Afro-Ecuadorian, 6.8% as Montubia (peasants of the coastal area), 72.6% as Mestizo, and 6.1%

as White. Also, 7.0 % of the total male population identified themselves as Indigenous, 7.4% as

Afro-Ecuadorian, 7.9% as Montubio, 71.3 % as Mestizo and 6% as White.442 These data show the

diversity of the Ecuadorian population. Mestizos are the biggest ethnic group. Generally, Mestizo

men and women are the most privileged social groups, having greater access to education. For

instance, data on illiteracy rates by ethnicity and gender show that 26.7% of Indigenous women

and 13.7% of Indigenous men are illiterates, while only 5.9% of Mestizo women and 4.2% of

Mestizo men are illiterate.443 This statistical information shows that inequality is based not only

on gender but also on race, worsening the conditions of inequality and insecurity for Indigenous

women and men.

Although Ecuador has made significant progress in its social and economic development in

recent years, significant deficiencies that inherited a structure of large social inequalities imposed

since the Spanish conquest still prevail. Throughout the history of Ecuador, they have prevailed

pronounced regional, ethnic, and gender inequalities, which have mainly affected the Indigenous

and Afro-Ecuadorian population. According to the 2010 Census, Afro-Ecuadorians, and

441 INEC, Censo de Población y Vivienda 2010, en Cynthia Ferreira Salazar, Karina García García, Leandra Macías

Leiva, Alba Pérez Avellaneda y Carlos Tomsich, Mujeres y Hombres del Ecuador en Cifras III, Comisión de

Transición hacia la Definición de la Institucionalidad Pública que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres y Mujeres,

Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos, ONU Mujeres. 442 INEC, Censo de Población y Vivienda 2010. 443 INEC, Censo de Población y Vivienda 2010.

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indigenous people are those with the highest poverty indicators. In particular, 64.26% Afro-

Ecuadorians who live in urban areas and 85.98% who live in the rural sector are affected by

poverty. In addition, poverty and marginalization of the Afro-Ecuadorian population are related to

racial discrimination present since the days of slavery.444 Racial discrimination is exacerbated in

the case of women’s discrimination and gender violence, which brings serious and visible

consequences in multiple ways: poor access in communities to quality of education, to health care,

decent housing, decent work and a good wage.445 Violence against women is one of the most

widespread and persistent crimes in the history of mankind. The discrimination by gender has

many facets and is intertwined with other forms of discrimination and violence, such as those

linked to racial issues and socioeconomic status, among others. These factors act complicate the

achievement of equality of Afro-Ecuadorian women.446 It is necessary to eradicate the quadruple

discrimination faced by Afro-Ecuadorian women: women, black, poor, and rural. The breakdown

by region reveals that the most critical social conditions are found in rural areas of the Amazon

and the coast while the rural Sierra has achieved a slight advantage over these regions in 2010.447

Women’s conditions of inequality and insecurity are not exclusively a product of their gender, so

it is also important to analyse the role of such factors as low economic status, ethnic heterogeneity

and residential location (urban-rural).

Without doubt statistical analyses are required to quantify the levels of inequality based on

gender, race, class and location (rural-urban) in Ecuadorian society. These statistics must be

relevant to designing and implementing socio-economic policies (employment, education and

health) through an intersectional lens. By doing so, it is possible to comprehensively increase the

444 Fundación Afroecuatoriana Azúcar y CONAMUNE, Haciendo Visible y Enfrentando la Violencia contra las

Mujeres Afro-Ecuatorianas. Del Territorio Ancestral de Chota, La Concepción, Salinas y Guadalupe (2012), 7. 445 Fundación Afroecuatoriana Azúcar y CONAMUNE, Ibid., 7. 446 Fundación Afroecuatoriana Azúcar y CONAMUNE, Ibid., 7. 447 SENPLADES, Atlas de las Desigualdades Socio-Económicas del Ecuador, 26, 28.

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security of women regardless their social location. Critical areas such as the border zones may

benefit greatly from this type of knowledge. A framework sensitive to the intersections of race,

gender, class and geographical location must be included among the initiatives that seek to enhance

women’s access to education, to encourage their political participation, to formulate employment

policies inclusive of an equity component, and to devise actions aimed at women’s empowerment

regardless of their social location.

In what follows, I explain that violence against women and their limited access to education,

and to the labor market are the main sectors in which inequalities based on intersected gendered,

class, race and geographical systems of oppression have been perpetuated, thereby diminishing

their security conditions.

3.2.1 Violence against Women

Violence against women is the result of a system of unequal power relations that favors the

superiority of men in patriarchal societies such as Ecuador. Six out of 10 women have experienced

some form of gender violence.448 The rights of women enshrined in the Constitution of 2008 and

in various international instruments are not fully respected. Despite the creation in 2007 of the

National Plan for the Eradication of Gender Violence towards Children, Adolescents and Women

(PNEVG),449 violence against women has not stopped completely. Violence against women is

significantly high in the racist, classist and patriarchal society in Ecuador. This type of violence

affects women’s personal security severely.

448 Comisión de Transición para la definición de la Institucionalidad Pública que garantice la Igualdad entre

Hombres y Mujeres, Agenda Nacional de las Mujeres y la Igualdad de Género 2014-2017, Gobierno Nacional de la

República de Ecuador- Secretaria Nacional de Planificación y Desarrollo (Abril 2014), 66. 449 Comisión de Transición para la definición de la Institucionalidad Publica que garantice la Igualdad entre

Hombres y Mujeres. Ibid., 71.

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Gender violence is higher in minority ethnic groups characterized by lower levels of

education. Statistical data regarding gender violence by ethnicity demonstrate that the greatest

percentage of gender violence occurs among Indigenous women (67.8%) and Afro-Ecuadorian

women (66.7%), followed by Montubia women (62.9%), White women (59.7%) and Mestizo

women (59.1%). Same, 76% of women victims of violence are abused by their partners or former

partners; 87.3% experience physical violence, 76.3% psychological violence, 61.0% economic

violence and 53.5% sexual violence.450 Gender violence also varies by level of education. It

exceeds 50% at all level of education, but it reaches 70% in women who have lower levels of

education.451

The production of statistics has to inform us about inequalities based on intersected

gendered, class, race and geographical systems of oppression in order to be an effective tool for

public policy. Moreover, this information should reveal the conditions of inequality in each

province. By doing so, it becomes possible to prevent a disproportionate benefit of one social group

over the other in different geographical locations. Within the Buen Vivir development framework,

the achievement of equality through public policy cannot rely exclusively on statistics related to

gender and ethnicity; rather, it is necessary to understand the structural causes that produce

inequality452 and the systems of discrimination based on racism, sexism and classism in order to

be able to intervene appropriately with long-term solutions.

It is worth mentioning that one of the most relevant actions carried out by the PNEVG was

the transformation of violent social constructions and behaviours through the implementation of

the campaign entitled “React Ecuador, Machismo is Violence” led by the Ministry of Interior and

450 INEC-CDT, Encuesta Nacional sobre Violencia contra las Mujeres 2011. 451 INEC-CDT, Encuesta Nacional sobre Violencia contra las Mujeres 2011. 452 Comisión de Transición para la definición de la Institucionalidad Pública que garantice la Igualdad entre

Hombres y Mujeres, Agenda Nacional de las Mujeres y la Igualdad de Género 2014-2017 (Abril 2014): 31.

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the Transition Commission to the Council of Gender Equality in 2010. This campaign included

the dissemination of mass media messages in national and local communication organs and in

alternative media such as festivals, competitions, theater and debate, graffiti and billboards, among

others.453 In my view, this campaign was extremely educational and aimed to transform traditional

gender roles in Ecuador but it was not completely successful due to the lack of continuity

attributable to its limited budget. Certainly, the continuity of these types of campaigns is key to

transforming discourses of discrimination against women based on a patriarchal system of

oppression in Ecuadorian society.

Overall, violence against women in Ecuador reproduces a matrix of domination based on

ethnicity, race, gender and socio-economic status, thereby perpetuating the inequalities

experienced by the women belonging to those social groups.

3.2.2 Education and Women’s Security

Education is another sector that maintains inequalities based on intersected gendered, class, race

and geographical systems of oppression. Over the last few 30 years, significant advances have

been evident in the eradication of structural illiteracy in Ecuador; however, inequality based on

gender, geographical location and ethnicity persists. One of the most important programs in terms

of the eradication of illiteracy was the Monsignor Leonidas Proaño National Campaign in 1990,

which contributed to reducing the illiteracy rate from 16.5% (1980) to 11.7% (1990).454 A

breakdown of the illiteracy rate by geographical location shows that rural women have the highest

illiteracy rate (15.2%) as compared to urban women (4.6%).455These data offer enough

453 Comisión de Transición para la definición de la Institucionalidad Publica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres

y Mujeres. Ibid., 71. 454 Comisión de Transición para la definición de la Institucionalidad Publica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres

y Mujeres. Ibid., 77. 455 INEC. Encuesta de Empleo, Desempleo y Subempleo-ENEMDU-Diciembre 2013.

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information to understand the importance of implementing public policies in literacy for rural

women. According to the data regarding illiteracy by ethnicity, Indigenous women have the

highest rate of illiteracy (28.3%), followed by Montubio women (14.7%), Afro-Ecuadorian

women (7.8%), Mestizo women (6.2%), and White women (3.1%).456 The literacy and education

indicators show that both Indigenous and women remain in a strongly disadvantaged situation.

Indigenous women had on average less than four years of schooling in 2010, compared to the

national average that exceeds 7-8 years.457 The current government of Rafael Correa understands

that public policies aimed at the education sector are the right mechanism to eradicate economic,

political, social and cultural inequalities.458 For this reason, in 2008, the eradication of illiteracy

became a priority of the state education policies through national campaigns such as “Manuela

Saenz” aimed at people living in the border regions and “Dolores Cacuango” aimed at the

Indigenous population;459 these initiatives incorporate a gender perspective.460 The Ministry of

Education runs these programs based on the principle of equality to achieve the eradication of

illiteracy that affects mainly Indigenous and Black women in rural areas.461 From a feminist critical

human security perspective informed by intersections based on gender, class, race and

geographical location, these statistics are useful for formulating public policy that does not

homogenize the oppression of women. Public policies aimed at improving literacy cannot be

targeted at all women; from the data presented above, it is necessary to continue encouraging

456 INEC, Encuesta Nacional de Empleo, Subempleo y Desempleo. Diciembre 2013. In Comisión de Transición para

la definición de la Institucionalidad Publica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres y Mujeres. Ibid., 78. 457 SENPLADES, Atlas de las Desigualdades Socio-Económicas del Ecuador (2013): 36. 458 Comisión de Transición para la definición de la Institucionalidad Pública que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres

y Mujeres. Ibid., 76. 459 Ministerio de Educación, Proyecto EBJA: Alfabetización, http://educacion.gob.ec/proyecto-ebja-alfabetizacion/

(accessed July 20, 2015). 460 Comisión de Transición para la definición de la Institucionalidad Pública que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres

y Mujeres Ibid., 77. 461 Comisión de Transición para la definición de la Institucionalidad Pública que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres

y Mujeres. Ibid., 85.

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policies aimed at Black and Indigenous women in rural areas. Therefore, development planners

and policy makers aware of the importance of context need to continue approaching rural

communities.

Another topic related to education and women’s security is the fact that the feminization

of higher education in Ecuador reinforces traditional gender roles. It means that women study

careers related to care, such as medicine, administration, philosophy and education. In men, on the

other hand, the trend is towards careers related to engineering, physics, mathematics, geology and

mining, agricultural sciences and the arts.462 That dichotomy show that even the selection of

careers functions under a matrix informed by gender roles. Moreover, in relation to higher

education, data provided by the National Secretariat for Higher Education, Science and

Technology (SENESCYT) reveal that men access 65% of scholarships and student loans at the

higher level of education, while only 28% are accessed by women. The poor access of women to

scholarships is caused by several factors, such as the difficulty of being admitted to programs

related to science and technology and the impossibility of balancing post-secondary studies with

reproductive and care activities.463

Some interesting initiatives have been carried out to improve access to higher education

among women. In 2010, an agreement between the Development Corporation for Afro-Ecuadorian

(CODAE)464 and the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) was signed with the

aim of training Afro-Ecuadorian professionals. This agreement constituted a mechanism to reduce

462 Comisión de Transición para la definición de la Institucionalidad Pública que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres

y Mujeres. Ibid., 81. 463 Comisión de Transición para la definición de la Institucionalidad Pública que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres

y Mujeres. Ibid., 84. 464 The Afro-Ecuadorian Development Corporation "CODAE" is a public sector entity created by Executive Decree

No. 244 of 16 June 2005. Its mission is to promote the comprehensive and sustainable development, strengthening

the organization Afro-Ecuadorians. It fosters the eradication of racism and discrimination. See more at

http://www.codae.gob.ec/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=144&Itemid=54 (accessed on June 1st,

2015).

http://www.codae.gob.ec/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=144&Itemid=54

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ethnic inequality in higher education. Women constituted 75% of its beneficiaries.465 This

initiative demonstrates a cooperative relationship between the state and academia in Ecuador in

order to improve the access to higher education of the Afro-Ecuadorian population. However,

according to an interview conducted with the leader of CONAMUNE in Carchi,466 poor rural Afro-

Ecuadorian women find it difficult to travel to urban areas in order to receive education. Therefore,

education and training must come to rural communities in order to narrow the gap in educational

achievement there.

Certainly, the lack of education has been a source of the perpetuation of inequalities.

Without education opportunities for poor rural Indigenous women or poor rural Afro-Ecuadorian

women, it becomes a challenge to improve their economic security. The following section

demonstrates that economic security is fundamental to improving the security of women at home

and in the workplace market.

3.2.3 Labor Market and Women’s Security

A feminist critical human security approach encourages the achievement of equality in the labor

market in order to promote economic security. The 1994 UNDP Report explains the features of

each dimension of human security. In particular, the economic security dimension requires a

guarantee basic income, usually from a paid work, or as a last resort from some publicly financed

safety net.467 In addition, access to land and credit, income security, social security and housing

are basic requirements for achieving economic security.468 To address women’s economic security

465 Comisión de Transición para la definición de la Institucionalidad Pública que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres

y Mujeres. Ibid., 85. 466 Interview conducted and translated by the author with Barbarita Lara, CONAMUNE, August 23, 2013. 467 UNDP, Human Development Report 1994: New Dimensions of Human Security (New York: Oxford University

Press, 1994), 25. 468 UNDP, 1994: 25-26.

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and equality, it is necessary to be aware of the barriers that increase against the discrimination in

the labor market.

In a traditional and patriarchal society such as Ecuador, women have limited access to

education and employment. Ana Lucía Herrera, while being President of the Transition Committee

for the Women's Council (CDT) of the Ecuadorian Government, talked about the overall workload

of women in Ecuador. She referred to a survey (Time Use) that demonstrates how people work in

terms of hours. According to this survey, women have a greater workload because they have not

neglected to be the caretakers of the family. In urban areas, women work 13 hours more than men,

while in rural areas they work 22 hours more than men.469 Women living in poverty in urban areas

or peasant women in rural areas face even more complex conditions of inequality that risk their

human security conditions. They face minimal education and job training, a higher fertility rate,

absence of affordable child care, the growth of female household headship and the urgent need to

generate income for basic subsistence. In general, Ecuadorian women seem to be solely

responsible for reproductive life. There is not a shared responsibility for the care of minors and the

household; men are kept away from the domestic field. This fact affects the quality of life for

women, with the exception of those in the middle and upper classes, because they are exposed to

overwork, pressure and stress. There is not enough time for systematic exercise, leisure or

recreation.470 Although the equality approach has been present in Ecuador since the 1990s,

traditional social constructions of gender roles in the Ecuadorian society regarding “the ideal

womanhood” still show that working women must be responsible for all domestic tasks in family

life despite their entrance into paid labor. Furthermore, the reproductive role of women has been

469 El Comercio, Interview to Ana Lucía Herrera, President of the Transition Committee Women's Council of the

Government of Ecuador. Retrieved from http://especiales.elcomercio.com/2012/03/mujer/ (accessed April 1st,

2012). 470 El Comercio, Ibid.

http://especiales.elcomercio.com/2012/03/mujer/

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seen by employers as an additional cost due to the fact that they have to pay maternity leave.

Therefore, women’s access to paid work is negatively affected. In this sense, the undervaluation

of women's labor assigns them roles strictly assumed to be feminine. Public policy aimed at

improving women’s quality of life cannot reproduce traditional gender roles that keep women in

a discriminated condition due to their social location.

The most obvious source of discrimination is based on gender difference in the world of the

working place, which is related to the reproductive role of women. Employers generally consider

motherhood as a cost.471 Thus, the undervaluation of women's work is internalized in the collective

unconscious of patriarchy. In addition, for women from the poorest strata of society, the situation

is, even more, complex due to less education and job training, higher fertility rate, the absence of

affordable child care, the growth of female household headship and the urgent need to generate

income for basic subsistence. Consequently, a massive influx of women into the informal sector

or in the most precarious activities of the formal sector472 has become a critical reality in Ecuador.

Employment and unemployment are directly related to the economic security of women.

The 2012 National Survey of Employment, Unemployment, and Underemployment (ENEMDU)

of the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) in Ecuador showed that the female

participation in the labor market in Ecuador was 42.5%, which meant that out of 100 women only

42 were active in the labor force. Male participation in the labor market in 2012 was 67.4%.473

Wages earned by women In December 2011 were 14% lower than those of men; and the those

earned by Indigenous persons under identical working conditions were 11% lower than those of

471 Janina Fernández Pacheco, “La Cohesión Social, las Mujeres Trabajadoras, el empleo y los ingresos,” en Género

y Empleo. Documento de Trabajo No 32. Judith Astelarra coordinadora. Fundación Carolina-CeALCI, España (2009):

31. 472 Fernández Pacheco, Ibid., 31. 473 Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos de Ecuador (INEC), Encuesta Nacional de Empleo, Desempleo y

Subempleo - ENEMDU - Diciembre 2012.

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non-Indigenous persons.474 Thus, the labor market maintains a discriminatory structure against

women and Indigenous workers.475 Moreover, according to the 2013 ENEMDU,

underemployment among rural women (85.3%) was much higher than among urban women

(49.8%).476 These statistics show that men were more employable than women in Ecuador and that

rural women were disadvantaged compared to urban ones. More recent data, contained in the

September 2015 quarterly report of the labor market of the Central Bank of Ecuador, showed that

the provinces with the highest unemployment rates were Carchi and Sucumbíos, with 6.6% and

6.2% respectively;477 these are two provinces chosen in this study. Therefore, the design of public

policy needs to increase the employability of rural women, Indigenous workers and the

populations of the border provinces such as Carchi and Sucumbíos. These are mechanisms to

improve the economic security of these social groups through a continuous income.

One of the most important areas of inequality between men and women is income. Growth

based on the low cost of women’s labor is definitely a barrier to increasing their economic security.

A feminist critical human security perspective believes that this type of growth exacerbates

inequity. The gender order established in the labor market gives a lower remuneration for equal

work to women. Capitalism requires low labor costs,478 resulting in economic insecurity for

women. Data, from the 2012 National Survey of Employment, Unemployment and

Underemployment (ENEMDU), regarding the average household income showed that female-

headed households earned $591 (US) while male headed households earned $758 (US).479

474 SENPLADES, Atlas de las Desigualdades Socio-económicas del Ecuador, 37. 475 SENPLADES, Ibid., 37. 476 INEC, ENEMDU - Diciembre 2013. 477 Banco Central del Ecuador, Reporte Trimestral del Mercado Laboral Septiembre 2015, Dirección de Estadística

económica.http://contenido.bce.fin.ec/documentos/Estadisticas/SectorReal/Previsiones/IndCoyuntura/Empleo/imle2

01509.pdf (accessed on January 2016). 478 Vásconez, Ibid., 55. 479 Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos de Ecuador (INEC), Encuesta Nacional de Empleo, Desempleo y

Subempleo - ENEMDU - Diciembre 2012.

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Furthermore, rural women were the most disadvantaged; they generally received 72.2% of the

income paid to men.480 Public policy sensitive to labor rights acknowledges that women need equal

pay for equal work. Unequal remuneration constitutes gender discrimination; increasing the

gender pay gap encourages women to look for jobs in the informal sector.

From a feminist critical human security perspective, jobs in the informal market do not

improve the economic security of women. According to a study by the Gender Commission of the

Andean Trade Unions Coordinator (CCSA), women work mostly in customer service, marketing,

sales and public relations. More than 52% of women work in the informal market.481 For the

activist, Amparo Macas, a representative of the Assembly of Popular and Diverse Women

(AMPDE) in Ecuador, it is mainly in the informal sector that women who are heads of household

perform sales of merchandise, and thus fulfill their roles as mothers and as providers to address

the economic needs of the household.482 Certainly, job insecurity in the formal sector contributes

to an increase in employment in the informal sector. But in many cases, informal sector jobs are

low-paid, and the job security is poor. In addition, the probability of that a woman will work in an

informal job is highly correlated with her skill and educational level.483 The higher the level of

education, the better the possibility of having a higher paid job. Nevertheless, depending on

Ecuadorian women’s social location based on their race, class, gender and geographical location,

access to a permanent job or to financial stability can be limited, thereby affecting their economic

480 Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos de Ecuador (INEC), Encuesta Nacional de Empleo, Desempleo y

Subempleo - ENEMDU - Diciembre 2013. 481 El Telégrafo, “Inclusión laboral de género, por buen camino en Ecuador,” March 8, 2013,

http://www.telegrafo.com.ec/economia/item/inclusion-laboral-de-genero-por-buen-camino-en-ecuador.html

(accessed January 10, 2014) 482 El Telégrafo, Ibid. 483 Marc Bachetta, “Globalization and Informal Jobs in Developing Countries,” Economic Research and Statistics

Division-World Trade Organization and International Institute for Labour Studies-International Labour Office

(2009), 31.

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security which is one of the seven dimensions of human security.484 This situation motivates

women in Ecuador to find alternative ways of generating income in order to overcome their

economic difficulties.

Any formalization strategy in the labour market needs to establish educational systems for

women working in the informal sector. Education/training is an example of an issue that is

important for the empowerment and increased security for women.485 Fostering formalization in

the labour market also requires providing proper protection and support for workers in the informal

economy, helping them to access the necessary funds and resources for a successful transition.486

The ministry of labor is responsible for coordinating the formulation of employment policy, but it

is not the sole institution responsible for its substantive content. The fundamental role of the

ministry of labor is to contribute to the formulation of and subsequently to ensure the

implementation of policies through several instruments such as a Labor Market Policy.487 Data

from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has shown that

women reinvest 90 percent of their income in their families and communities, compared to men

who reinvest only 30 to 40 percent of their income.488

484 According to the 1994 Human Development Report, there are seven dimensions of the human security approach,

economic security, food security, political security, community security, personal security, environmental security,

and health security. See more at United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 1994 (New

York: Oxford University Press, 1994). 485 Nanna Rún Ásgeirsdóttir, “Human Security, Gender and Development. A Test-Case for Iceland’s Assistance

Policy” (master’s thesis, University of Iceland, June 2010), 37. 486 Marc Bachetta, “Globalization and Informal Jobs in Developing Countries,” Economic Research and Statistics

Division-World Trade Organization and International Institute for Labour Studies-International Labour Office (2009),

138. 487 Janina Fernández Pacheco, “La Cohesión Social, las Mujeres Trabajadoras, el empleo y los ingresos,” en Género

y Empleo. Documento de Trabajo No 32. Judith Astelarra coordinadora. Fundación Carolina-CeALCI, España (2009):

30. 488 OECD, DAC Guiding Principles for Aid Effectiveness, Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (2008), 3.

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/14/27/42310124.pdf (accessed February 25, 2014).

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/14/27/42310124.pdf

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Employment insecurity cannot be related only to gender. Race and class discrimination also

play a significant role in increasing women’s economic insecurity. The analysis of women’s

security through a feminist critical human security approach acknowledges intersectionality in

contexts where power relations take place, such as the labor market. By understanding inequality

as an interlocking system of oppression, it becomes possible to challenge the racist idea that Black

and Indigenous women in Ecuador are poor because they do not work enough or because they are

just lazy. Afro-Ecuadorian and Indigenous women have always worked, but they have been

actively restricted to jobs that kept them in poverty. For example, race limits Afro-Ecuadorian and

Indigenous women’s occupational opportunities. It is necessary to analyze the racism and sexism

imbricated in the occupations available to them, such as agricultural and domestic workers. These

interlocking inequalities affect directly Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian women’s experiences of

oppression; they experience racism in ways not always the same as those experienced by

Indigenous and Black men. They also experience sexism in ways not always parallel to those of

Mestizo women.

Table 3. Paid and Unpaid average work hours per week by gender and ethnicity

Indigenous Mestizo Afro-Ecuadorian

Female Male Female Male Female Male

Paid work 44.2 68.7 53.3 79.6 54.7 79.6

Unpaid work 55.8 31.3 46.7 20.4 45.3 20.4

Source: 2007 Time Use National Survey.

The above table shows clearly that Indigenous women’s unpaid work is significantly greater than

the unpaid work of Indigenous men, of Mestizo men and women and Afro-Ecuadorian men and

women. It also demonstrates that, within the Indigenous women group, the hours per week of

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unpaid work are higher than those of paid work. Thus, the economic security of Indigenous women

in comparison with Mestizo and Afro-Ecuadorian women. This type of discrimination in paid and

unpaid work is not only sexist and racist, but it also increases inequality. The social location of

women promotes circumstances of inequality, limiting their opportunities to increase their

empowerment and economic security. In ethnically diverse societies such as the Ecuadorian, it is

important to tackle inequality through an intersectional lens. Employment policies cannot be

targeted exclusively at a limited number of Ecuadorian women, generally Mestizo upper- and

middle-class women. Inclusive employment policies with a focus on intersected gendered, class,

racial and geographical inequalities must be inserted into the National Development Policy and

must be directed at increasing the economic security and dignity of all women and their

communities, especially in such critical areas as border zones.

Table 4. Average hours per week spent on unpaid work by gender and ethnicity


Male Female Male Female Male Female

Cook 6.08 11.43 5.13 11.28 6.35 12.05

Cleaning 4.38 7.34 3.38 6.31 3.11 6.21

Child care 4.52 9.33 4.53 9.07 6.01 9.52

Community

work

5.01 3.37 3.12 2.49 3.54 2.43

Agriculture 10.26 9.31 5.58 4.28 4.08 2.55


Afro-Ecuadorian, Mestizo and Indigenous women spend more time on unpaid work than men. The

activities on which women, from the above mentioned ethnic groups, spend most of their unpaid

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work are cooking, cleaning, and child care. These data demonstrate an unequal distribution of

unpaid work in the household, showing power relations in the private sphere. Child care is assumed

mainly by women due to their number of children, their lack of income, shortage of infrastructure

and the lack of support services. Out of every10 persons who are care providers, seven are women

and three are men in the range of 18-65 years old.489 Public policy aimed at decreasing this type

of inequality makes unpaid care work visible. The goal is to push governments to rethink how they

understand the economy and how they prioritize the allocation of public resources in order to

mitigate ethnic, gender and geographical inequalities.

Table 5. Work Load by level of education, gender, and ethnicity/ Average hours per week


Female Male Difference Female Male Difference Female Male Difference

None 96.45 71.46 24.99 76.17 57.04 19.13 77.24 58.01 19.23

Elementary 87.07 65.57 21.50 79.55 61.18 18.37 82.28 60.35 21.93

High

School

78.06 60.03 18.03 75.28 61.37 13.91 78.01 60.23 17.78

Post-

Secondary

77.43 72.12 5.31 72.37 63.43 8.94 77.02 66.12 10.90


Table 5 shows that the higher the level of education, the less difference in workload per week by

gender. In particular, non-educated Indigenous women have a higher workload per week than

Mestizo and Afro-Ecuadorians women. The data presented in tables 3 and 4 showed that social

identities such as race, class, gender and geography interact in a unique form, provoking complex

489 Comisión de Transición para la Definición de la Institucionalidad Publica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres

y Mujeres, Agenda Nacional de las Mujeres y la Igualdad de Género 2014-2017 (Abril 2014), 60.

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experiences of inequality within and between groups in society. Public policy cannot be neutral,

as it is not experienced in the same way by all populations.490 In my view, the data presented above

are a useful source of information as long as they are aimed at the creation of public policies that

are aware of the intersections of gender, class, race, ethnicity and geographical location and that

address the inequalities experienced by various social groups.

Feminist critical human security is concerned with the equality, dignity, welfare and

security of individuals and communities. Since security and equality are closely interconnected,

women’s security cannot be achieved under conditions of inequality. From a feminist critical

human security perspective, women's economic insecurities are also related to how patriarchal

structures supported by other systems of domination based on race, class or geographical location

assign women to low-paying or non-waged work in subsistence economies or in the household.

For example, Black and Indigenous females in Ecuador have continually presented income

inequalities compared to their male counterparts and non-Indigenous and Black population. Some

of the wage differences for men and the non-indigenous population is a result of discrimination

based on gender and ethnicity. Generally, a Black or Indigenous woman in Ecuador gets the lowest

paying jobs.

The structural roots of inequality in Ecuador involve several systems of domination.

According to Barbarita Lara Calderón’s (2013) lived experiences of domination, as a Black woman

in Carchi, gender inequality is interconnected to discrimination based on race, ethnicity, class and

the urban-rural divide; for her, differences result in marked inequalities that began with the slavery

of Black people during the Spanish colony.491 Gender inequality in developing countries such as

490 Olena Hankivsky and Renee Cormier, “Intersectionality and Public Policy: Some Lessons from Existing Models,”

Political Research Quarterly 64, no. 1 (2011): 218. 491 Interview conducted by the author with Barbarita Lara Calderón, August 22, 2013. La Concepción, Carchi-

Ecuador.

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Ecuador cannot be fully understood without understanding the other inequalities that articulate and

reinforce it. First, socioeconomic inequalities, based on income, education and occupation, have

encouraged class cleavages, segregating and discriminating low-income women. Moreover,

inequalities based on ethnic distinction have historically been a factor that reinforces gender

inequalities. Then, an Indigenous woman [or a black woman such as Barbarita] has more

interlocked experiences of inequality than an urban mestizo man within the Ecuadorian society.492

Thus, the nature of inequality and of a gendered order is interconnected to class domination and

ethnicity discrimination. For instance, the role of Indigenous women remains as the role of women

responsible for the reproduction of life, or to be in the private sector where there is no equal sexual

division of labor.493 The issue is part of the gendered order present in the Andean indigenous world.

Intersections within systems of oppression recognize that gender cannot be dealt with in

isolation. A gendered order is always articulated to other orders of domination that create

interlocked inequalities. Therefore, intersectional public policies that address structural

inequalities must be aware of women’s multiple social locations. These interlocked inequalities

are part of the web of power relations that led to women’s insecurity in Ecuador’s border

provinces, El Oro, Carchi and Sucumbíos.

In sum, security approaches such as feminist critical human security discourage the belief

that the state is the main referent of security; the security of women and of communities matters.

In order to satisfy the requirement for security, multiple inequalities have to be tackled within

public policies. Thus, this approach requires that public policies incorporate a gender equity

dimension to implement specific projects aimed at the construction of new relations of equality

that can benefit women and men within their diversity. Public policies should be designed to

492 Interview conducted by the author with Gioconda Herrera, July 2nd, 2013. Quito-Ecuador. 493 Interview conducted by the author with Silvia Vega, July 18, 2013. Quito-Ecuador.

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decrease the inequality that exist within different spheres of social relations -based on racism, class

exploitation, gender discrimination and the rural and urban divide- and to promote intersectionality

in policy analysis, design, implementation and assessment. It is important to dedicate the next

section to analyzing the main challenges to including equality policies within a feminist critical

human security approach.

3.3 Planning Feminist Critical Human Security in Ecuador’s Border Zones

When planning security policies within a feminist critical human security framework, it is

important to take into account the voices of those women who face multiple inequalities; this

inclusion has to be accompanied by effective implementation. It is important to rethink how

women are affected by Ecuadorian security and development planning. At Ecuador’s border zones,

decision makers and security and development planning technicians have not sufficiently

recognized the importance of equality as a planning issue within a feminist critical human security

approach. In this sense, the feminist critical human security approach that I apply recognizes that

equality cannot be dealt solely through the lens of gender. Identity markers, such as race, social

status, location (rural-urban) and gender must be employed to assess the inequalities faced by local

women in their everyday lives. The material needs of women should be tackled in conjunction

with a transformation of the discursive practices that have constructed intersections of inequality

within systems of oppression.

One impediment to achieving human security has been the tendency to homogenize the

sources of women’s inequality under a single category, gender. Nina Pacari’s reflection (2002)

about the political participation of Indigenous women in the Ecuadorian Congress at the beginning

of the 1980s showed that the women’s movement in Ecuador focused its efforts on proposing

legislation favorable to women without using the ethnic and cultural reality of women to inform

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public policies.494 In this regard, Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s idea of the construction of

monolithic subject is helpful to understand this discursive exclusion and the lack of recognition of

the diverse experiences of oppression of women in Ecuador within policies and legislation. She

questioned the Western feminist discourse that has constructed Third-World woman as a

monolithic subject, thereby fostering a discursive homogenization of the oppression of all women.

The category “woman” cannot be assumed to be a single homogeneous category with identical

interests regardless of class, age, race, ethnicity or geographical location. This colonialist First-

World construction has suppressed the heterogeneity of women’s experiences, which crosses

different boundaries.495 In the same vein, Patricia Hill Collins (2000) argued that women’s

experiences need to be viewed as a heterogeneous collectivity.496 Furthermore, she claimed that

an analysis of women’s oppression based exclusively on gender omits the fact that women’s

subordination occurs according to a matrix of domination that intersects gender, class, race and

nationality.497 Of relevance to this significant idea, based on her local experience and knowledge,

a woman from the Black Women’s Council of Ecuador (CONAMUNE) interviewed for this study

mentioned that “cultural and social differences, the worldview, and phenotypic traits of people are

part of a great diversity which needs to be taken advantage of in order to design policies that benefit

everyone [women and men], but always without neglecting the differences, because there are many

494 Nina Pacari, The Political Participation of Indigenous Women in the Ecuadorian Congress: Unfinished Business.

International IDEA, 2002, Women in Parliament, Stockholm (http://www.idea.int). This is an English translation of

Nina Pacari, “La participación política de la mujer en el Congreso ecuatoriano. Una tarea pendiente”, in International

IDEA Mujeres en el Parlamento. Más allá de los números, Stockholm, Sweden, (2002), 1. 495 Chandra Talpade Mohanty, “Under Western Eyes Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,” in Third World

and Politics of Feminism (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1991), 51-55. 496 Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment

(London: Routledge, 2000), 26-27. 497 For further discussion, see Patricia Hill Collins’ concept of matrix of domination, which refers to the organization

of power within society through intersecting systems of oppression of class, gender, race and sexuality in Black

Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (London: Routledge, 2000), 227-

228.

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times that [these differences] have been homogenized.”498 When using a focus on gender in

framing policy and legislation, therefore, it is necessary to acknowledge the diversity of women’s

experiences. From an intersectionality viewpoint, public policy needs to address multiple identities

and within-group diversity.499 To not do so decreases human security opportunities for women and

increases the existing power relations within a patriarchal, classist and racist state. Certainly,

gender inequalities cannot be attributed exclusively to poverty or patriarchy, because they involve

the joint presence of poverty, patriarchy and the state’s public policy.500 In particular, a public

policy cannot improve women's economic security if it does not create a rupture with patriarchy,

classism and racism. Legislation and public policy favorable to women must consider the ethnic

and class diversity of women if they are to promote non-discriminatory practices.

The Ecuadorian government’s public policies related to the security of women must take

into account the intersections of race, class, gender and geographical location. They must also

include a clear plan of action. Such a plan must include deadlines and information about who are

or will be the actors within public institutions and local organizations responsible for carrying out

initiatives. Such a plan is highly recommended as a way of improving the implementation of public

policies seeking equality. For example, the third strategic objective of the Comprehensive Security

Plan (translated as Plan de Seguridad Integral) seeks to increase the state’s presence in the

national territory, especially on the borders and in areas of high risk, in order to improve the quality

of life of the citizens.501 This objective combines the national security and the human security

498 Interview conducted by the author with Barbarita Lara, CONAMUNE, Carchi, August 2013. 499 Olena Hankivsky and Renee Cormier, “Intersectionality and Public Policy: Some Lessons from Existing Models,”

Political Research Quarterly 64, no. 1 (2011): 218. 500 Ghada Mousa, “Gender aspects of human security,” International Social Science Journal 59, no. 1 (2008): 86. 501 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Plan de Seguridad Integral, 95.

http://www.seguridad.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/07/01_Plan_Seguridad_Integral_baja.pdf

(accessed on February 2015).

http://www.seguridad.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/07/01_Plan_Seguridad_Integral_baja.pdf

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approaches within its eight strategies.502 However, this objective lacks a clear action plan, and it

does not explain how it is going to include women’s triple roles as mothers, workers and leaders

in their communities from an intersectional perspective in order to improve the security conditions

of Indigenous, Black, or Mestizo women in their communities in the border zones.

Generally, this absence of a feminist critical human security approach within public policy

in Ecuador’s border zones has contributed to the involvement of women in smuggling. For this

reason, women’s voices should not be marginalized in planning policies. A feminist approach to

issues under male control (such as border security) includes women’s explanations of how their

governments control their labor, hopes and fears.503 Asking how citizens (in this case women) are,

or are not, made secure impels us to tell the story of international relations (or border security) in

a different way.504 The Ecuadorian government’s border policies related to “human security” need

to acknowledge that they do not pay enough attention to the intersectional inequalities faced daily

by women in the border provinces included in this study. Thus, women’s involvement in “illegal”

activities has continued due to the lack of social justice, human security and equality, which are

problems with socio-economic roots. The incorporation of an intersectional framework, such as a

feminist critical human security perspective, suggests the implementation of projects aimed at the

construction of new gender relations that benefit women and men equally, thereby addressing

multiple sources of inequality. Technical expertise and financial resources must be invested in

guidelines and programs of equality and non-discrimination. Such programs can increase women’s

security through access to education, empowerment, political participation and employment

policies sensitive to intersectionality.

502 The strategies focus on development projects, international cooperation, social services, surveillance and control

at airports, ports and border, increase of military, and police and judicial presence at the borders. 503 Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics, 201. 504Marysia Zalewski, “Feminist International Relations: Making Sense…” in Gender Matters in Global Politics. A

Feminist Introduction to International Relations, ed. Laura J. Shepherd (New York: Routledge, 2010), 34.

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Overall, this section has demonstrated that Ecuadorian policymakers have not always been

successful in tackling interlocking systems of oppression. It is noteworthy that the insecurities

faced by women involve interconnecting conditions of oppression and inequality, such as gender,

race, class and geographical location. Definitely, there is a need to tackle multiple inequalities

through the effective implementation of public policy. Planning equality cannot exclude valuable

information from women facing intersectional inequalities as a result of their multiple social

locations; for instance, a woman can be indigenous, poor and rural. Doing so weakens the equality

and gender perspective within public policies in Ecuador. The intersectionality perspective has

transformed how gender is discussed. In particular, intersectionality reveals that the individual’s

social identities profoundly influence their experience of gender. Intersecting identities must be at

the forefront in any investigation of gender. In particular, gender must be understood in the context

of the power relations embedded in intertwined social identities.505 The security of local women

in Ecuador’s border zones needs a planning tool that moves beyond the one-dimensional category

of women’s oppression, such as gender. By addressing interlocking inequalities through effective

public policy, security for all women can be achieved in the dimensions of the human security

approach. Policy goals require assessing whether “diversity” or “gender” is the better vehicle for

mainstreaming equity policy. The next section analyzes the virtues of intersectionality

mainstreaming in comparison to gender mainstreaming as a way to incorporate an intersectional

approach in public policy.

505 For further discussion about interlocked systems of oppression see Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought:

Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. London: Routledge, 2000.

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3.3.1 Gender mainstreaming vs. Intersectionality mainstreaming

Mainstreaming gender equality has resulted in an effort to create the structural conditions in the

state organization for ensuring that policies impact evenly on women and men. Broadly, gender

analysis is the most common method for achieving gender mainstreaming (GM), which is a

process for examining policies to detect gender bias and to ensure that they pay attention to the

differing experiences of women and men.506 GM highlights “gender” as a primary category that

will have similar effects in differing cultures.507 This perspective assumes that if the category

gender is not mentioned, the place of women would not be addressed508 within public policy. As

a result, it has become necessary to sensitize leaders and decision makers at the political, technical

and administrative levels so as to strengthen their understanding of the importance of gender

equity.509 A clear mandate, resources, expertise and political will are needed in order to ensure

gender equality. Nevertheless, the lack of expertise within the state to mainstream the gender

perspective can be a limitation. An additional problem is that sometimes only two or three

individuals working in a gender unit within a ministry are in charge of the whole mainstreaming

process.510 The political will of leaders should be secured in order to address the issue and to

promote internal changes. Therefore, technical experts on intersectional mainstreaming, have to

work together and should have adequate financial resources to guarantee the continuity and

success of public policies sensitive to the diversity among women and to achieve a greater impact

in the beneficiaries.

506 Joan Eveline, Carol Bacchi and Jennifer Binns, “Gender mainstreaming versus diversity mainstreaming:

Methodology as emancipatory politics,” in Mainstreaming Politics: Gendering practices and feminist theory eds.

Carol Bacchi and Joan Eveline (South Australia: The University of Adelaide Press, 2010), 241. 507 Joan Eveline, Carol Bacchi and Jennifer Binns, Ibid., 237. 508 Joan Eveline, Carol Bacchi and Jennifer Binns, Ibid., 238. 509 Saskya Lugo, “Análisis de la incorporación del enfoque de género en los proyectos públicos de desarrollo,” ILDIS

(Octubre 2010), 15. http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/quito/07691.pdf. 510 Interview conducted by the author with Francisco Cos-Montiel, IDRC-Ottawa, November 5, 2013.

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Currently, most of the technical staff in Ecuadorian public institutions are not familiar with

the needs of individuals and the differences between women and men. Furthermore, the

implementation of GM in the public agenda (and development planning) encourages civil

servants’ understanding on gender equity,511 because civil servants believe that gender involves

issues related to women exclusively. These technical staff members do not have the necessary

tools to analyze the differential impacts that their decisions and projects might have in improving

or worsening conditions of inequality.512 In order to avoid the worsening of inequalities, the

process of developing better policy needs to map the complex institutional processes through

which inequalities are produced and reproduced.513In turn, this mapping exercise reveals to

policymakers how their own work contribute to the production of inequalities.514 In particular, the

National Secretary for Planning and Development (SENPLADES) has incorporated GM in

instruments such as the rules for the inclusion of programs and projects in public investment plans,

the guide for formulating sectorial public policies from a human rights-based approach, the guide

for public participation in the planning of Autonomous Decentralized Governments, the

methodological guide for institutional planning, and the guide of content and process for the

formulation of Development Plans in provinces, cantons and parishes.515 Despite these significant

efforts for planning at the local level, equality among Ecuadorian women has not been fully

achieved. Thus, making better equity policy involves the need to understand and challenge the

ways in which inequality is regularly reproduced; inequality is not produced exclusively in

511 Lugo, Ibid., 8. 512 Lugo, Ibid., 15. 513 Joan Eveline, Carol Bacchi and Jennifer Binns, “Gender mainstreaming versus diversity mainstreaming:

Methodology as emancipatory politics,” 246. 514 Judith Squires, “Is mainstreaming transformative? Theorising mainstreaming in the context of diversity and

deliberation,” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society 12, no. 3 (2005): 379. 515 Comisión de Transición hacia el Consejo de las Mujeres y la Igualdad de Género, Octavo y Noveno Informes

Periódicos Consolidados del Ecuador sobre la Aplicación de la CEDAW (Diciembre 2012), 8.

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gendered power relations. GM has focused on the differential effects of policy on the lives of men

and women, but it has not properly acknowledged the diversity among men and women.

Fixed oppositional categories such as men and women obscure the complex ways in which

power and privilege react in specific social contexts. In this sense, intersectionality has much to

offer to GM. The experts on gender whom I interviewed in 2013, such as Gioconda Herrera and

Francisco Cos-Montiel, are skeptical about the effectiveness of GM in public policies. The main

argument suggests that mainstreaming alone does not do enough to overcome gender inequality.516

As a strategy, GM cannot influence policy only by adding a “feminized component” to plans,

programs and projects and by establishing a set of specific activities to achieve gender equality

and affirmative action. The technical teams that formulate development projects need to have

access to differentiated information about the sources that sustain inequities based on race,

ethnicity, class and geographical location. This information needs to be incorporated into the

planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development strategies. A national

planning system seeking a just society must implement an equality perspective that take into

account the intersections of gender, race, class and location within public policies.

GM has not been completely successful in increasing equality among women. Although it

was formally adopted at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, GM’s impact

has been uneven.517 GM remains focused on the male-female dichotomy so prevalent in second-

wave liberal feminist theorizing.518 This approach is limited, because it always prioritizes gender

as the axis of discrimination. Moreover, it invokes a liberal concept of an abstract woman that

516 Interview conducted by the author with Gioconda Herrera, FLACSO-Ecuador, July 2013. And Interview conducted

by the author with Francisco Cos-Montiel, IDRC-Ottawa, November 5, 2013. 517

Olena Hankivsky, “Gender vs. Diversity Mainstreaming: A Preliminary Examination of the Role and

Transformative Potential of Feminist Theory,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 38, no. 4 (December 2005):

977. 518 Hankivsky, Ibid., 978.

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disregards the variety of conditions of women’s experiences and needs.519 Methods of creating

policy, such as GM, are limited because they fail to take intersectionality into account.

Differences among women must be taken into account in formulating, implementing and

evaluating policies within an intersectional framework. Policymakers must seriously consider

whether a focus on gender is adequate for understanding inequality and social justice in public

policy. Policy interventions that are based on solely gender reflect an incomplete knowledge of

women’s lives; as a result, they cannot be effective. In many instances, gender is not the primary

cause of discrimination, oppression and inequality.520 Policy is not experienced in the same way

by all populations; important differences and needs have to be taken into account.521

Intersectionality is a primary analytical tool for theorizing identity and oppression,522 and it needs

to be integrated into policy discourse, implementation and evaluation.523 In particular, the

implementation of intersectionality must address the inequalities experienced by various social

groups.524 Moreover, intersectionality clearly differs from approaches designed to accommodate

difference by targeting a single identity such as gender.525 Public policy needs to ensure that all

members of any marginalized group are enabled to empower themselves.526 GM must be replaced

by different forms of diversity mainstreaming informed by an intersectionality lens.527 Diversity

mainstreaming retains the category of gender, but it also focuses on various forms of oppression,

such as race, class, ethnicity, ability and sexuality. Thus, diversity mainstreaming explores how

519 Hankivsky, Ibid., 986. 520 Hankivsky, Ibid., 988-989. 521Olena Hankivsky and Renee Cormier, “Intersectionality and Public Policy: Some Lessons from Existing Models,”

Political Research Quarterly 64, no. 1 (2011): 218. 522 Jennifer Nash, “Re-thinking intersectionality,” Feminist Review 89 (2008): 1-15. 523 Hankivsky and Cormier, Ibid., 217. 524 Bishwakarma, R., V. Hunt, and A. Zajicek, Intersectionality and informed policy. Manuscript (2007), 9. 525 Hankivsky and Cormier, Ibid., 218. 526 A. M. Hancock, “When multiplication doesn’t equal quick addition: Examining intersectionality as a research

paradigm,” Perspectives on Politics 5 (2007): 66. 527 Hankivsky and Cormier, Ibid., 218.

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these forms of oppression interconnect and mutually reinforce one another.528 It addresses the

manner in which racism, patriarchy, class oppression and other discriminatory systems create

inequalities among women.529 In order to be fully effective, diversity mainstreaming cannot lose

its critical insights about power and exclusion.530 Thus, it is necessary to acknowledge the potential

of mainstreaming intersectionality as a way for going beyond one-dimensional policy formulation.

Mainstreaming intersectionality is an appealing idea. This approach does not reduce people

to one category at a time; it rather, treats social positions as relational spaces constituted by

multiple vehicles of power relations in everyday life.531 Several efforts to move beyond one-

dimensional, or additive, policy analyses have included equality mainstreaming, diversity

mainstreaming, intersectional feminist frameworks, intersectional public policy analysis and

multi-strand mainstreaming. These approaches reject binary thinking in formulating policy;

attention to diversity changes the policy questions that are asked, the kinds of data that are

collected, how data are collected and how they are disaggregated.532 Policy designers in Ecuador

have attempted to include “diversity” from a non-intersectional perspective in the principle of

equality and non-discrimination within the Constitution, the National Plan for Good Living 2013-

2017 and the National Agenda of Women and Gender Equality 2014-2017. The Agenda addresses

the need to pay attention to those facing multiple forms of discrimination, but the main category

of difference to be focused on is still gender.

528 Hankivsky, “Gender vs. Diversity Mainstreaming: A Preliminary Examination of the Role and Transformative

Potential of Feminist Theory,” 979. 529 Hankivsky, Ibid., 993. 530Joan Eveline, Carol Bacchi and Jennifer Binns, “Gender mainstreaming versus diversity mainstreaming:

Methodology as emancipatory politics,” Gender, Work and Organization 16, no. 2 (2009): 244. 531 Rita Kaur Dhamoon, “Considerations on Mainstreaming Intersectionality,” Political Research Quarterly 64, no 1

(2011): 230; Ann Phoenix and Pamela Pattynama, “Editorial: Intersectionality,” European Journal of Women’s

Studies 13, no. 3 (2006): 187. 532 Olena Hankivsky and Renee Cormier, “Intersectionality and Public Policy: Some Lessons from Existing Models,”

Political Research Quaterly 25 (2010): 220.

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Processes of differentiation and systems of domination must be tackled in any initiative

aimed at mainstreaming intersectionality. In intersectional-type work, at least four aspects of

sociopolitical life have been studied: the identities of an individual or social group that are

perceived as different (an Indigenous woman or Black women); categories of difference (race or

gender); processes of differentiation (racialization or gendering); and systems of domination

(racism, colonialism, sexism and patriarchy).

Rita Kaur Dhamoon (2011) concluded that, in combination, the study of processes of

differentiation and systems of domination is most effective at analyzing how power operates on

the different levels of life and at revealing the conditions in which representations of difference

are socially organized.533 By processes, she means the ways in which social differences are

produced, such as through discourses and practices of gendering, racialization, ethnicization,

culturalization or sexualization.534 Racing–gendering processes produce “difference, political

asymmetries, and social hierarchies that create the dominant and the subordinate”535 at the

epistemological, individual, social and institutional levels. By systems, she refers to historically

constituted structures of domination such as racism, colonialism, patriarchy, sexism and

capitalism. In both cases, she is not interested in the intersection itself, but on what the interaction

reveals about power. She stresses the techniques of power imbued in these processes and

systems.536 Thus, identities do not naturally pre-exist; the “doing of difference” demonstrates that

subjects are socially produced as identities through institutionalized discursive processes.537 For

this reason, Dhamoon expands Patricia Hill Collin's matrix of domination idea to give prominence

533 Rita Kaur Dhamoon, “Considerations on Mainstreaming Intersectionality,” Political Research Quarterly 64, no 1

(2011): 232-233, 235. 534 Dhamoon, Ibid., 234. 535 Mary Hawkesworth, “Congressional enactments of race gender: Toward a theory of raced-gendered institutions,”

American Political Science Review 97 (2003): 531. 536 Dhamoon, Ibid., 234. 537 Dhamoon, Ibid., 235.

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to the productive forces of power or, in concrete terms, the processes of differentiation as well as

the systems of domination. She refers to this as a “matrix of meaning-making.” The idea of a

matrix of meaning-making promotes an expanded Foucauldian understanding of power that

captures the ways in which processes of differentiation and systems of domination interrelate.538

For this reason, when designing public policy within an intersectional framework, it is desirable

to be aware not only of the identities and categories of difference of the potential beneficiaries, but

also of the processes of differentiation and the systems of domination that have perpetuated

inequalities in order to provoke social change and benefit social groups equally.

3.4 Intersectionality in Public Policy

I have suggested that gender as a category of analysis is not enough to tackle discrimination based

on women’s multiple identities and social locations. At this point, I would like to explain two

approaches that have been developed for applying intersectionality to public policy. These

approaches will be useful when recommending better practices of policy designing and

implementation in the empirical case presented about women’s security in the provinces of Carchi,

Sucumbíos and El Oro.

The first approach, which draws on the work of Bishwakarma, Hunt, and Zajicek (2007),

integrates intersectionality into the policy-making cycle in order to capture the interaction between

two or more forms of inequality.539 For these authors, all national, international and non-

governmental organizations interested in developing policies leading to the inclusion of the most

marginalized groups, must incorporate intersectionality at all stages of the policy-making

538 Dhamoon, Ibid., 238. 539 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, “Educating Dalit Women: Beyond a One-Dimensional

Policy Formulation,” Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies 27, no. 1 (2007):

27-29. Article 5. Available at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol27/iss1/5

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process.540 Representatives of intersectional-defined target populations must be included

proportionately in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation phases541 in order to include

the voices of all the potential beneficiaries.

The second approach for applying intersectionality to public policy is the multistrand

approach, which identifies complex sources of inequality, taking into account the whole person

and not just a single aspect of identity or experience; it maintains the distinctions between the

origins of inequality between “strands.”542

Intersectionality in the policy-making cycle seeks to systematically integrate

intersectionality using a typical policy cycle. The first phase of the policy cycle involves

intersectional problem definition and policy formulation. Problem definition can be understood as

a way in which a social condition is represented in a public discourse.543 For example, if the issue

of the low employment rate among Ecuadorian women is defined as a problem of gender

inequality, policymakers will formulate policies to increase women’s access to employment

opportunities. Nonetheless, if the problem is defined as the high unemployment rate among Black

women in Carchi Province, policies must be formulated to increase employment opportunities for

Black women in that province. In this example, public policy cannot be designed to benefit an

abstract woman; it needs to be specific, contextualized and targeted at Black women in a specific

province.

The problem definition and policy formulation phase determines the extent to which the

intersectional approach is needed. This means first establishing whether the problem is

experienced differently by different social groups. If the answer is positive, the next step is to

540 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, Ibid., 28. 541 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, Ibid. 542 Olena Hankivsky, and Renee Cormier, “Intersectionality and Public Policy: Some Lessons from Existing Models,”

Political Research Quarterly 64, no. 1 (2011): 226. 543 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, Ibid. 29.

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determine if official policy formulation proposals address the problem through an intersectional

perspective.544 For instance, using the same example of Black women in Carchi Province, a

problem has to be defined across various intersected categories of difference, such as gender, class,

race and geography. But if the policies are formulated focused only on gender, it is necessary to

revise or reformulate the policy to include the categories that were missed, in this case, the

interaction of geography, race, and class with gender.

The second phase of a policy cycle is policy formulation. In this phase, official

recommendations or alternatives are developed for dealing with policy issues through an

intersectionality perspective.545

The third phase refers to the policy implementation. At this phase, an adopted policy is

carried out by a governmental institution through the mobilization of financial resources in

compliance with the intersectional nature of the problem and policy.546

Finally, through policy assessment, or evaluation, governmental units determine whether

all relevant policy actions are in compliance with the statutory requirements of the policy and

whether the policy objectives have been achieved547 within an intersectional framework.

All these phases require contributions from many disciplines to produce an informed

policy.548 At each phase of a policy cycle, a decision needs to be made whether policy objectives

have been achieved given the intersectional nature of the problem. However, policies cannot tackle

only categories of differentiation, such as race, class or gender, but also those systems of

oppression, such as racism and patriarchy, that have perpetuated the inequalities. These systems

are reproduced by discourses and by practices of differentiation such as gendering, racialization,

544 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, Ibid. 30 545 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, Ibid. 30. 546 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, Ibid. 30. 547 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, Ibid. 30. 548 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, Ibid. 29.

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ethnicization or sexualisation, thereby creating social hierarchies. Therefore, policies must seek to

transform the matrix of meaning-making undelaying these processes of differentiation.

The second approach for applying intersectionality is known as a multistrand approach. It

has the capacity to identify complex sources of inequality. It can be citizen-focused, taking into

account the whole person and not just a single aspect of identity or experience. It can also maintain

the distinctions between the origins of inequality, namely between “strands”549 The multistrand

approach draws upon expertise in policy, equality and human rights and is intended to engage with

all relevant stakeholders.550 To operationalize intersectionality, the multistrand approach gathers

evidence of inequality with the aim of creating new policies that are able to address the inequalities

identified.551 It avoids beginning with one strand and then adding others. It begins by investigating

a policy area (for instance, women's security in Ecuador’s border zones) and then focuses on asking

who are the women who smuggle in the border zones by quantitatively and qualitatively using the

“strands” to identify the inequities to which they may be subject.

The multistrand model has four distinct stages: mapping, visioning, road testing, and

monitoring and evaluation. Mapping involves the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data from

secondary sources such as census data and surveys552 and scrutiny of local authorities to determine

who is providing women's security as well as to examine current policies.553

The next step in the process is “visioning,” which entails asking ourselves how we can

achieve social change by creating a policy that promote equality. The process of visioning entails

549 Olena Hankivsky, and Renee Cormier, “Intersectionality and Public Policy: Some Lessons from Existing Models,”

Political Research Quarterly 64, no. 1 (2011): 226. 550 Hankivsky and Cormier, Ibid., 223. 551 Hankivsky and Cormier, Ibid., 226. 552 Alison Parken, “A multi-strand approach to promoting equalities and human rights in policy making,” Policy &

Politics 38, no. 1 79-99 (2010): 87. 553 Hankivsky, andCormier, Ibid., 223- 224.

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identifying commonalities among the different strands and striving to identify common solutions

that will benefit all the strands.554

“Road testing,” considers how policy solutions would affect, for example, a low-income

widowed Mestizo woman with four children in Huaquillas, El Oro Province. From the perspective

of each strand, issues of accessibility and inclusion must be examined, and the above example

reflects the multifaceted complex aspects of women's lives.

The final step, “monitoring and evaluation,” involves identifying and measuring indicators

of improvement in achieving equality once a new policy is implemented. It is important to

understand that each strand may have individual indicators and varying degrees of success.555 By

using this model, an intersectional framework in public policy can be achieved in the design and

implementation of policies.

A feminist critical human security perspective informed by intersectionality understands

that, depending on our social location, features of our identity and categories of differences such

as race, gender or class may lead to discrimination or privilege. When using intersectionality

within public policy formulation, therefore, it is important to go beyond the mere recognition of

categories of difference among women in order to transform structures of domination. If processes

of differentiation (racialization or gendering) are transformed through concrete practices and

discourses, systems of domination (racism, colonialism, classism and patriarchy) can also be

transformed in the long term. Therefore, the feminist critical human security approach tackles

intersectional inequalities faced by women at the discursive and practical levels, because the two

levels complement one another. In order to be achievable, the design, implementation and

monitoring of a feminist critical human security approach sensitive to the intersections of race,

554 Olena Hankivsky, and Renee Cormier, Ibid., 225. 555 Olena Hankivsky, and Renee Cormier, Ibid., 225.

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gender, class and geographical location, must achieve the collaboration and participation of local

and national governmental agencies, international cooperation agencies and the local organization

that represents women.

From a feminist critical human security perspective, the human security agenda in the

border regions cannot be implemented homogeneously. Recognizing the particular inequalities to

be tackled and the needs of the potential beneficiaries in each province is essential. Since feminist

critical human security cannot be implemented as a universal formula, it has to take into account

diverse local realities, including public policy beneficiaries’ participation and opinions about how

and in which areas those policies might improve their quality of life. A feminist critical human

security agenda must consider all the interconnected factors that create insecurity in the zone of

intervention within a framework aware of the intersections of gender, class, race and geographical

location. For instance, gender equality in Ecuador’s border provinces cannot be achieved if it does

not intersect with the lack of employment and education for Indigenous, Mestizo, Montubio, and

Black women in the zone. When comprehensively implemented within a framework sensitive to

the intersections of class, gender, race and geographical location, feminist critical human security

transforms a traditional security paradigm and decreases existing inequalities. Thus, feminist

critical human security as a broader conception of security can increase women’s security in

critical areas such as Ecuador’s border provinces, Carchi, Sucumbíos and El Oro. Feminist critical

human security is the most desirable approach to deal with insecurity scenarios based on different

and intersectional types of inequalities. A contextualized feminist critical human security approach

that includes local women's knowledge of development and security can be really useful in

Ecuador’s border zones. Definitely, I would like to revive the idea that a feminist human security

perspective emphasizes the power of the community and that it is oriented toward practical policy

issues.

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The chapter highlights that national security is not a sufficient approach to tackling new and

multidimensional threats to security. Traditional security approaches, such as national security, to

smuggling and smugglers view them as a threat to the state, demanding and emphasizing border

security. In contrast, feminist critical human security analyses of smuggling give priority to the

security of the individuals, establishing women (smugglers or not) as a referent of security. Border

security treats women smugglers as criminals, omitting the circumstances that have motivated

smuggling in a specific context. Furthermore, the state and its border security practices neglect the

voices and agency of women smugglers, whose access to another type of survival activity is limited

in the three provinces where this study was conducted. A national security approach through

repressive border control increases the problem by abusing the use of force to combat an issue

categorized as “crime.”

A feminist critical human security analysis permits a transformative approach to the national

security discourse of criminalization of certain cross-border activities such as smuggling. The

experiences of women smugglers in Ecuador’s border zones demonstrates that, while women are

victims of classist, racist and patriarchal structures; they are also active agents who use this activity

as a counter-conduct to resist traditional patterns of femininity and as a response to the lack of an

intersectional lens on human security policies in the border zones.

Smuggling at Ecuador’s border zones has been described as a new threat to Ecuadorian

national security and to the country’s economy, but smuggling is a way of life in the border zones

and at the same time a response to the lack of a human security strategy sensitive to the

intersections of race, class, gender and geographical location. Undoubtedly, a military approach

cannot solve a security problem that reflects structural inequalities in the border zones. Despite

smuggling’s “negative connotations,” it does not represent a conventional military threat to the

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state. Therefore, a feminist critical human security approach understands that an increase in

military presence and patrolling are not the exclusive options for solving smuggling in critical and

multidimensional insecurity scenarios. Repression and confiscation cannot be seen as natural ways

to deal with human security affairs.

The chapter also explains smuggling as a borderland economic dynamic and describes

women smugglers’ role within this dynamic. The experiences of women who smuggle fuel,

propane cylinders and other goods in Ecuador’s border zones demonstrate how these women can

be dominated by the hormiga type smuggling or empowered by helping family and community

members to smuggle, thereby challenging social expectations and acceptable social constructions

of femininity in order to increase their human security. The chapter seeks to contribute to the

understanding of how women’s responses to human insecurity challenge a construction of

femininity as they employ counter-conduct strategies in order to resist traditional gendered power

relations within a national security discourse. Their oppositional femininities556 invite us to rethink

the widespread idea that women are weak and are less likely to commit activities considered as a

crime by the national security discourse. These women remake the understanding not only of

femininity but also of national security issues. By using a feminist critical human security

approach, I argue that the state’s response to informal economic strategies by the borderlanders

must recognize their agency557 and must offer constructive and comprehensive solutions rather

than mere repression.

556 Oppositional femininities refer to a condition frequently mentioned when women “fail” to represent hegemonic

femininity, capturing the notion of resistance. See Justin Charlebois, Gender and the construction of dominant,

hegemonic, and oppositional femininities (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2011), 33. 557 When I introduce the notion of agency, I mean that individuals have agency, meaning the ability to take independent

action by negotiating their own desires vs. those impose by a context. As Judith Butler (2006) mentions that there

cannot be agency without an agent that can transform relations of domination. Agency is associated with the idea that

the subject has a [independent] reflexive meditation that remains unharmed in spite of cultural embeddedness. See

Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), 34, 195.

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State policies must not only promote equality between men and women in the private and

public spheres; but they must also promote equality among women, tackling additional

intersectional inequalities such as those based on race, class and location. In that way, planning

policies within a feminist critical human security approach could decrease women’s smuggling

activities by providing other alternatives of income. Smuggling is a profitable option for the

biggest networks, but it is not the best economic option for women who are dedicated to

the hormiga type smuggling in small quantities. The state can increase the security forces’

presence and control at the borders, but what really matters is the encouragement of local

development planning and bi-national initiatives such as social and economic projects sensitive to

the intersectional experiences of women in the border zones between Ecuador and Colombia and

between Ecuador and Peru aimed at the well-being of women and their communities.

By incorporating an intersectional and multidimensional approach to new threats to

security, feminist critical human security views insecurity as structural violence and adds more

recognition of women’s contributions to society. A feminist critical human security perspective on

border security allows the development of a theoretical framework untethered from historical male

domination and recognizes diverse forms of domination of women smugglers in Ecuador’s border

zones based on their race (Black, Indigenous, or Mestizo), and class (upper, middle or lower).

Such a perspective encourages the elimination of relations of domination and subordination

through feminist policy initiatives within a development planning framework concerned with the

intersectional inequalities faced daily by women in the border provinces included in this study.

By appealing to a discussion of the particularities of women’s daily experiences of

domination, a feminist critical human security approach to border security enable this study to

analyze the diversity of women smugglers’ experiences on the Ecuadorian borders, with a focus

on the construction of gender identities and the politics of masculinities. At the same time, this

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chapter acknowledges that women's insecurity is reinforced not only by border security practices,

but by numerous inequalities based on a matrix of domination that includes discrimination due to

race, class, gender, nationality and the dichotomy between urban and rural in the border zones.

Finally, the chapter demonstrates that power relations based on intersected gendered, class,

racialized and geographical systems of oppression led women to become smugglers in Ecuador’s

border provinces of El Oro, Carchi and Sucumbíos.

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Chapter 4. Women’s Insecurity in Carchi, Sucumbíos and El Oro

This chapter analyzes the conditions of inequality that provoke women’s insecurity in the three

Ecuadorian provinces chosen for this study. Based on this analysis, it suggests areas where public

policy aimed at improving women’s security must include an intersectional lens. The information

for the chapter was gathered mainly through conducting workshops and group interviews between

July and August 2013 with the support of the Women’s Movement El Oro (MMO) in El Oro

Province and the National Coordinator of Black Women (CONAMUNE) in Carchi Province. The

main topics discussed during the workshops in Huaquillas (El Oro) and La Concepción (Carchi)

were border security, employment and inequality. In the case of Sucumbíos, the results are based

on a group interview with two leaders of the Federation of Women of Sucumbíos in Lago Agrio

and on the Women’s Agenda of Sucumbíos (WAS) rather than on a workshop. WAS reports the

results of several workshops conducted with local women by the Federation of Women of

Sucumbíos during 2005. The topics included in WAS are health, domestic violence, labor force

participation and the Colombian conflict. Since women’s conditions have not changed

significantly according to the two leaders of this Federation,558 the results of WAS are still a useful

source of information to assess women’s insecurity in this province.

As explained in previous chapters, the security discourse in Ecuador’s border zones

constructs and criminalizes actions such as smuggling as threats to national security, despite the

fact that these activities have been historically a way of life in the border zones. To understand this

process from the perspective of those who live in the border zones, I conducted workshops in two

locations identified as critical areas for smuggling by the security authorities. The objective of

these workshops was to identify local perceptions of security and to investigate how intersectional

inequalities affect women’s security, leading to their involvement in smuggling. The first

558 Group interview conducted by the author at the Federation of Women of Sucumbíos on July 22, 2013.

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workshop was conducted on July 13, 2013, in Huaquillas a city located on the border with Peru in

El Oro Province. According to the Mestizo male border security authorities and their data

regarding attempts to smuggle goods, Huaquillas has the highest problems related to smuggling in

the province.559 The second workshop was conducted on August 31, 2013, in La Concepción, a

small rural parish in Carchi Province. Initially, I wanted to conduct the workshop in Tulcán, the

capital city of Carchi Province, which is located closer to the border with Colombia. However,

two previous interviewees560 agreed that Afro-Ecuadorians from the Chota Valley region, which

includes La Concepción, are part of a smuggling network in Carchi Province. Therefore, I ended

up conducting the workshop in that area in order to investigate if there is a link between processes

of racialization and the criminalization of women smugglers.

Class and ethnic differences cannot be neglected within a feminist critical human security

framework seeking to ameliorate women’s quality of life. Workshops conducted with urban low-

income Mestizo women in Huaquillas in El Oro Province and with rural low-income Afro-

Ecuadorian women in La Concepción in Carchi Province illustrate the diversity of women’s

experiences of insecurity. As a result, the existing power relations based on race, class, gender and

geographical location can be exposed within the patriarchal and racist state. Overall, public policy

requires an intersectional approach that focuses on tackling material needs and changing social

constructions in order to be effective and to achieve equality.

Without a doubt, an intersectional focus on development and security planning is required

to increase the human security of women, especially in critical areas such as the border zones. One

aspect to consider when planning feminist critical human security within an intersectional

559 The interviews were conducted with the Director of the Hydrocarbon Agency for Regulation and Control- ARCH.

at the Southern border, and another with a Customs officer in Chacras, El Oro. 560 The interviews were conducted with the former Secretary for Development Planning at the Northern border, and

another with a Customs officer.

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framework is the inclusion of women’s roles in society according to their social location. Policy

makers need to recognize women’s triple role at the reproductive, productive and community

levels;561 women are not only in charge of childbearing. For example, in rural areas such as La

Concepción in Carchi Province, Afro-Ecuadorian women participate in the economy as

agricultural workers; in urban areas, such as Huaquillas and Lago Agrio, among other economic

activities, Mestizo women work in the informal sector. In these communities, women are

considered to be secondary income earners. These women also have a third role that has to do with

their active involvement in community participation.

Since feminist critical human security is inclusive of intersectionality, it makes public

policy more sensitive to the multiple identities and the process of differentiation that provoke

women’s insecurity. The following section applies intersectionality in the policy field of women's

security in the three provinces that I studied. An intersectional framework for public policy is

sensitive to the role of social locations and interacting social processes in the production of

inequities. In particular, I have previously discussed that violence against women is not only a

matter of gendered power relationships, but is also constructed within racial and class stratification

and other systems of oppression. Therefore, public policy informed by intersectionality

acknowledges the importance of gender, race/ethnicity, class, income, education and location

(rural/urban) in order to respond best to issues of differences among women and men and how

these shape their human security in the border zones. It is important to ask who are the women

who smuggle in border zones and how their lives are located at the intersection of multiple

dimensions of inequity and a web of power relations. These dimensions are analyzed quantitatively

and qualitatively to identify what inequities they may be subject to. In what follows, a feminist

561 Caroline Moser, “Gender planning in the Third World,” in Gender and International Relations, eds. Rebecca

Grant and Kathleen Newland (U.K.: Open University Press, 1991), 83, 86-87.

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critical human security approach sensitive to the intersections of gender, race, class and

geographical location is applied to the three distinct stages of the public policy cycle: intersectional

problem definition; visioning solutions; and monitoring and evaluation.

4.1 Intersectionality and Women's Security in Sucumbíos, Carchi and El Oro

This case study analyzes the intersections of class, gender, race and geographical location that

have contributed to creating women’s insecurity in Ecuador’s border zones. The study was

conducted in three provinces, El Oro, Carchi and Sucumbíos, representing three border regions,

being respectively the coast, the highlands, and the Amazon. Table 6 shows the current diversity

of the ethnic groups in these provinces. Afro-Ecuadorian, Mestizos, and Indigenous are the biggest

groups.

Table 6. Ethnic Groups in Sucumbíos, Carchi and El Oro

Sucumbíos Carchi El Oro

Capital Lago Agrio Tulcán Machala

Area 18,147km² 3,780km² 6,188 km²

Population 176,472 164,524 600,659

Indigenous 23,684 5,649 4,060

Afro-Ecuadorian 10,351 10,562 41,441

Montubio 1,682 445 16,858

Mestizo 132,354 142,933 489,843

White 8,015 4,711 46,801

Other 386 224 1,656

Source: INEC, VII Censo de Población y VI Vivienda, 2010.

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Table 7 shows the main fields in which the populations of Sucumbíos, Carchi and El Oro works,

demonstrating a significant gap between men and women in the workplace. Data about the labor

force participation rate by ethnicity and gender are needed to inform public policy that is inclusive

of a feminist critical human security perspective in Sucumbíos, Carchi, and El Oro.

Table 7. Fields in which inhabitants of Sucumbíos, Carchi and El Oro work

Occupation Sucumbíos/Men Sucumbíos/Women Carchi/Men Carchi/Women El Oro/Men El Oro/Women

Private employee 12,398 3,246 8,079 4,505 45,395 19,850

Self-employed 15,236 7,320 11,452 6,840 42,100 24,076

Hacienda worker 8,727 714 14,917 3,084 45,244 4,111

Public employee 6,965 3,676 5,048 3,686 15,330 11,492

No declared 2,112 1,912 905 1,287 6,084 5,194

Maid 165 1,869 100 1,983 622 8,457

Boss 1,130 644 1,301 888 4,955 2,715

Unpaid worker 1,091 546 532 528 2,316 1,209

Partnership 398 189 764 262 2,406 850

Source: INEC, Resultados del censo 2010 Población y Vivienda del Ecuador. Fascículo provincial Sucumbíos,

Carchi, and El Oro.

Table 7 reveals a noteworthy gap between men and women working in the private sector,

haciendas and public institutions and those who are self-employed. On the other hand, the number

of female maids is significantly greater, showing a legitimation of traditional gender roles. This

gap is expressed as inequality of opportunities to access a formal job in the formal sector. The

situation is even worse in rural parts of the province, such as La Concepción in the Chota Valley

region, which have a greater presence of Afro-Ecuadorian women.

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Ecuador’s northern border region includes three provinces, Esmeraldas, Carchi and

Sucumbíos and two Colombian departments, Nariño and Putumayo, in a boundary line extending

transversely 543 km. Ecuador’s southern border region includes three Ecuadorian provinces, El

Oro, Loja and Zamora Chinchipe, and four Peruvian departments, Tumbes, Piura, Cajamarca and

Amazonas.

Map 1. Ecuador's border

Source: Provinces of Ecuador. espanol.mapsofworld.com Permission given on January 19, 2016 (accessed on January

19, 2016).

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4.1.1 Northern Border

According to the 2010 Ecuadorian National Census, Carchi and Sucumbíos have a population of

340,996 inhabitants and a surface area of 21,927km².562 This study focuses on the rural parish of

La Concepción in Carchi Province and the Chota Valley region, where I conducted a workshop

with local women. Non-participative observations and interviews were also carried out in Lago

Agrio, the capital of Sucumbíos Province, and in Ibarra, the city where the National Office of

Planning and Development of Region 1 (northern border) is situated. Non-participative

observations were also conducted in Tulcán, where the Ecuadorian customs office is located on

the Rumichaca Bridge, which borders Colombia.

This border area boasts a complex duality. Poverty levels reach 33. 9% in urban areas and

83.5% in the rural area.563 On one hand, the northern border presents natural resource areas of

strategic importance for tourism, biodiversity, an attractive climate and ethnic and cultural

richness. On the other hand, it shows a low degree of competitiveness and investment, an

insufficient level of education and social cohesion, a high level of poverty, malnutrition, social

conflict, insecurity, forest predation and a weak presence of the state, which provides poor basic

social services,564 clearly affecting the human security of its population.

The economy of the northern border area is based on trade, agriculture and the oil industry.

In Carchi, the dominant economic activity is trade, followed by agriculture. The situation is

different in Sucumbíos due to the presence of large deposits of oil. Ecuadorian oil is exported

through Esmeraldas, another northern province, where the country's largest oil refinery, at Balao,

562 Gobierno del Ecuador, “Censo Nacional de Población y Vivienda 2010.” 563 Secretaria Técnica de Cooperación Internacional del Ecuador (SETECI), Dirección de Enlace, Seguimiento y

Evaluación –“Diagnóstico de la cooperación y resultados preliminares de la evaluación en Frontera Norte,”

Cooperamos, Diciembre 2011, no. 3, 23 http://www.seteci.gob.ec/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=24

(accessed April 1st, 2012). 564 Secretaria Técnica de Cooperación Internacional del Ecuador. Ibid.

http://www.seteci.gob.ec/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=24

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is located. Therefore, among the provinces in the northern border zone, the only province that has

no links with the oil industry is Carchi. Nevertheless, poverty levels are still very high in

Sucumbíos; the resources generated by extraction, processing and transportation of oil do not

produce wealth and development for this province.565 The incidence of extreme poverty in

Sucumbíos is 30%, the highest level recorded in the provinces of planning region 1 (northern

border), which is almost two times the national average (13%). The province has a lower per-

capita income than the minimum cost of a basic food basket that would satisfy the population’s

basic needs.566 As claimed by a representative of Plan Ecuador during an interview in Quito on

July 1st, 2013, the development features of the northern border provinces have not been similar to

those of the other provinces in Ecuador. The lack of infrastructure, such as roads and access to

water and sanitation, to meet the basic needs of the communities is a great problem. From this

representative’s perspective, the Ecuadorian government should direct all state ministries to make

it a priority to use their investment budgets to allocate resources and to intervene in the border

zones, hoping for the best results.567 It seems reasonable to assume that individuals have found

their own way to deal with the state’s abandonment, the lack of human security, unemployment,

the unequal distribution of wealth and inequality in the border region through smuggling.

At this point, it is relevant to mention that insecurity, violence and crime in Ecuador’s

border zones are not exclusively related to an external threat or to neighboring states’ security

policies. In this vein, Andrés Gómez claims that Ecuador already experienced an important growth

in crime during the 1990s within the Andean region context. Ecuador began to experience a steady

escalation of the homicide rate in the 1980s, but it remained below ten homicides per hundred

565 Pablo Samaniego Ponce, “La Economía de la Frontera Norte del Ecuador,” Fronteras 7, FLACSO Sede Ecuador

Programa de Estudios de la Ciudad (2011): 6. 566 Ministerio de Coordinación de la Producción, Empleo y Competitividad, Agendas para la Transformación

Productiva Territorial: Sucumbíos, (Junio, 2011), 24. 567 Interview translated and conducted by the author with a representative of Plan Ecuador on July 1 2013, Quito-

Ecuador.

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thousand inhabitants, but it had double by the end of 1990.568 A review of the homicide rate since

the late 1980s demonstrates that, in the provinces such as Sucumbíos, bordering Colombia,

violence was present even before the implementation of Plan Colombia.

Table 8. Homicides rate in the Andean Region

Country Late 1980s-Early

1990s

Latest figure available in 1995

Colombia 89.5 65.0

Ecuador 10.3 14.8

Peru 11.5 10.3

Source: Arcos, Carrión, and Palomeque. Ecuador, Informe Seguridad Ciudadana y Violencia 1990-1999. Quito,

FLACSO-Ecuador (2003).

The root of violence in Ecuador’s border region is not exclusively related to the consequences of

the Colombian conflict, but to the numerous inequalities experienced by the population. In

Fernando Carrión’s terms (2013), violence is diverse: there is not one but several types of

violence, because violence is an expression of various social relations of conflict that change

according to the context in which it occurs. In the context of the diversity of violence, a special

type of violence has developed in the border regions that takes advantage of asymmetries and

inequalities at the national and binational levels. When the asymmetries are exacerbated, a conflict

arises and violence at the borders increases.569 Border policies are, however, manifested in the

discourses of foreign affairs and defense of sovereignty, hiding the socio-economic problems in

568 Andrés Gómez, “La Frontera Colombo-Ecuatoriana: desde la ejecución de Políticas de Seguridad a las

consecuencias en Seguridad Ciudadana,” en Fernando Carrión, Seguridad, planificación y desarrollo en las regiones

transfronterizas, Fronteras, FLACSO-Ecuador. IDRC-Canadá. (2013), 106. 569 Fernando Carrión, “La violencia fronteriza,” en Seguridad, Planificación y Desarrollo en las regiones

transfronterizas, compilador Fernando Carrión, FLACSO-Ecuador y IDRC-Canadá (2013), 9, 24.

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the border regions.570 Thus, the policies that prevail are based on a national security approach

rather than on public safety, human security and peaceful coexistence. As a result, the living

conditions of the border populations tend to be ignored because of the state’s preoccupation with

national security interests. The border, therefore, becomes, in Carrion’s perspective, an

exclusionary barrier and not a space of integration.571 Ironically, the dynamics of violence in the

border regions are born from the very policies that the state designed to eliminate them.572 An

intersectional approach to tackling inequalities, such as feminist critical human security, is not

even considered when trying to overcome the structural violence faced in the border regions

through more comprehensive public policies. Certainly, inequalities promote a violent

environment and the ensuing disadvantages for the human security of the people living in the

border region, especially women.

The following section examines the socio-economic data from Sucumbíos and Carchi

provinces in order to assess the insecurity of women’s conditions in those provinces. In the

Ecuadorian border regions, women´s security is threatened by complex social and economic

circumstances that are worsened by multiple sources of inequality. Women in the provinces of

Carchi and Sucumbíos are affected by violence, an increased cost of living, minimal access to

education, the lack of employment opportunities and controlled trade due to the presence of border

security authorities. These factors reduce the opportunities of earning income for women, restrict

their mobility,573 generate economic insecurity and increase family instability and household

violence. Hence, the insufficient integration of women into paid and productive work restricts

their access to job opportunities in Ecuador’s border provinces, thereby significantly decreasing

570 Carrión, Ibid., 24. 571 Carrión, Ibid., 26. 572 Carrión, Ibid., 29. 573 Gloria Camacho, “Mujeres al Borde. Refugiadas Colombianas en Ecuador,” Fondo de Desarrollo de las Naciones

Unidas para la Mujer (Quito: UNIFEM, 2005), 22.

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their economic security. Although the section identifies identity markers such as race, social

status, location (rural-urban) and gender to assess the inequalities faced by local women in their

everyday lives, it is absolutely relevant to be aware that women’s material needs cannot be

considered in isolation. The simultaneous transformation of the discursive practices that have

constructed intersections of inequality within systems of oppression must be achieved as well.

This section will conclude by suggesting that only the creation of public policies concerned with

the intersection of gender, race, ethnicity, class and geographical location in the lives of the

diverse female populations living in the border regions would make it possible to address the

multiple sources of inequality experienced by the various social groups at the material and

discursive levels. In that way, it would become possible to find new ways to transform the current

conditions of insecurity in the communities.

4.1.1.1 Sucumbíos-Lago Agrio

Sucumbíos Province was created in 1989 in the northern region of the Ecuadorian Amazon,

covering 6.31% of the national territory.574 It borders Colombia to the north, the provinces of Napo

and Orellana to the south, Peru and Colombia to the east and the provinces of Carchi, Imbabura

and Pichincha to the west.

574 This province was created on February 11, 1989, according to Law No. 008, published on the Official Register No.

127 on February 13, 1989.

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Map 2. Sucumbíos Province

Source: Map of Sucumbíos Province. http://www.codeso.com/TurismoEcuador/Mapa_Sucumbios.html Permission

was given on March 27, 2016 (accessed on March 25, 2016).

The region where Sucumbíos Province is located was traditionally the territory of indigenous

peoples, such as the Cofanes, the Sionas and the Secoyas. Since the late nineteenth century, this

area has also been populated by the indigenous Kichwa group that led by caucheros,575 came to

Sucumbíos from Napo Province.

Interethnic relations in Sucumbíos have been characterized by the recognition of

differences, mutual understanding and conflict. The colonization of this province by groups from

different regions of the country led to encounters between various cultures. Initially, this

relationship was based on mutual cooperation between families of mixed descent and native

Indians of the Amazon. For example, Indigenous families recommended to Mestizo families the

use of medicinal plants that can reduce tooth pain or skin allergies.576 In a context characterized

by the absence of the central state and weak and almost non-existent local institutions, everyday

relations were based on social solidarity among the inhabitants of the region in order to support

575 Caucheros are known as the owners of the haciendas exploiting rubber in the region. 576 Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 115.

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each other to solve the problems that they faced. For instance, women helped critically ill people

in the community by providing food, medicine and care, and even by requesting soldiers to help

them to bury a decease community member.577 There were ties of cooperation and friendship

between Indigenous and Mestizo families, but cultural differences, especially regarding the

relationship with the land, and linguistic differences induced Indigenous people to search for

spaces where they could organize and could recreate better their culture. As a result, with the

support of the Mestizos inhabitants, the Indigenous inhabitants of the region advocated being given

a common territory and a reservation.578 Cultural differences were also causes of conflict, as in the

case of the relationship between Black people and Mestizos, which was aggravated by

discriminatory attitudes based on negative stereotypes. For example, Black people were often

blamed for robberies. In one incident, a Black woman refused to be arrested by the police, because

she was not involved in robbery, but she was stopped by security authorities because of her race.579

Poverty and inequality in Sucumbíos have structural roots based on discrimination against

some ethnic groups. The country’s colonial heritage resulted in the decline of welfare levels of

ethnic groups such as Afro-Ecuadorians. This situation has generated a profound asymmetry in

the levels of development of this ethnic group. For instance, it is noteworthy that, based on the

economic dependency ratio, 54.5% of Afro-Ecuadorians are economically dependent.580 Structural

inequality based on the race and ethnicity of certain social groups persists despite the presence of

the oil industry in the province.

Sucumbíos’ economy is primarily based on the oil industry, which turned the area into a

magnet for population migration from the mountains and the coast of Ecuador. The peasant

577 Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, La Historia de Sucumbíos desde las voces de las mujeres, desde distintos

lugares hemos llegado hasta aquí… (Quito, Abya Yala: 2009), 118-119. 578 Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 115-116. 579 Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 116-117. 580 INEC, VII Censo de Población y VI Vivienda, 2010.

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economy, meanwhile, was based on the production of coffee, cocoa and. in recent years, other

products such as palm oil. In 1964, the Ecuadorian government gave a Texaco-Gulf consortium

1,431,450 hectares of land in the northern Amazon region of what is now known as Sucumbíos.

In 1967, the first oil well called Lago Agrio, extended production.581 Since 1972, the oil industry,

especially in the areas of Lago Agrio, Cuyabeno and Shushufindi, has been the leading producer

of hydrocarbon products in Ecuador, representing 40% of the national budget.582 The presence of

transnational oil companies and the exploitation of oil have resulted in serious environmental,

health and social damage to the Lago Agrio region. In the period between 1972 and 1993 alone,

more than 30 billion gallons (114 billion liters) of toxic waste and crude oil were discharged into

the lands and waterways of the Ecuadorian Amazon.583 Specifically, the oil company Chevron584

has been found guilty of these types of damage in Ecuador.585 Oil exploitation in the area has

created health risks related to exposure to chemicals, metals and drilling mud and to accidental

explosions.586 According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, when petroleum and

natural gases are burned, harmful components, such as nitrous, sulphuric and carbon oxides, heavy

metals and hydrocarbon particulates, are released into the air. The potential exposure to

hydrocarbons from the petroleum industry activities include inhalation of vapors and dermal

contact.587 Moreover, environmental contamination associated with oil exploitation has increased

cancer cases in local communities.588 The presence of the oil industry has not decreased

581 Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, La Historia de Sucumbíos desde las voces de las mujeres (Quito:

Universidad Politécnica Salesiana-Abya Yala, 2009): 71. 582 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Agenda de las Mujeres de Sucumbíos (2006):7. 583Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos. Ibid. 7. 584 The oil company Texaco operated in Ecuador from 1964-1990. Texaco was bought by Chevron in 2001. 585 BBC News, “US judge annuls Ecuador oil ruling against Chevron,” March 4, 2014.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26441836 (accessed July 7, 2014). 586 Santiago Borasin, Susanah Foster, and others, Oil: A Life Cycle Analysis of its Health and Environmental Impacts,

ed. Paul R Epstein and Jesse Selber. The Center for Health and the Global Environment (2002). 587 Michael Kelsh, Libby Morimoto, and Edmund Lau, “Cancer Mortality and Oil Production in the Amazon Region

of Ecuador, 1990-2005,” Int Arch Occup Environ Health. DOI 10.1007/s00420-008-0345-x (2008). 588 Richard W. Clapp, “Oil Extractions and Its Human Health Impacts in the Amazon Region of Ecuador,” Julio 2006.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26441836

http://chge.med.harvard.edu/publications/documents/oilfullreport.pdf

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inequalities; rather, it has created severe damage that affects the security of women and their

communities.

The adverse effects of oil extraction aggravate the insecurity of communities. In a patriarchal

society women are the keepers of the home and family. The contamination of water and the

environment, which affects the health of the population as a whole, imposes more demands,

pressures and anxieties on women than on men. For instance, women are permanently exposed to

water contaminated with hydrocarbons due to their responsibility for providing the basic

necessities of the household, such as clean water to cook and to wash clothing by

hand.589 Although Sucumbíos is a source of natural resources such as oil, the absence of the state

and the profits of the oil industry contribute little to its development. Rather, this industry has

worsened the environmental security of women and their communities. As a result of the state’s

absence, the people of Sucumbíos have exercised their collective power through several forms of

social resistance.

One interesting feature of Sucumbíos is that it has been a province characterized by its social

organization and its power to act. According to Hannah Arendt (1970), power is not just the human

ability to act, but to act in concert.590 The population in Sucumbíos has acted together through

several types of organizations, in which women were the visible protagonists of provincial

demands, as shown during actions against: a) the lack of the state’s presence in the province before

and during the earthquake of 1987; b) popular resistance due to 500 years of the Spanish conquest

in October 1992; c) the refusal to tolerate the unjust arrests of peasants and Indigenous persons in

589 Miguel San Sebastián; Ben Armstrong y Carolyn Stephens, “La Salud de mujeres que viven cerca de pozos y

estaciones de petróleo en la Amazonía ecuatoriana,” Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública 9, no. 6 (2001): 375-

384. 590Hannah Arendt, On Violence (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970), 44.

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December 1993; d) actions against the privatization of oil in 1997; and e) provincial strikes in

2005.591 Alicia’s testimony demonstrates the power of Sucumbíos’ social organization.

“I mean here [in Sucumbíos], there have been great battles waged by the organizational structures

of society. From various organizations, from the Bi-provincial [Orellana and Sucumbíos’

Assembly], it is a province that has been characterized by its social fabric. And through its social

fabric, many goals have been pursued and achieved.”592

During the strikes in 2005, women played an important role in the democratic space created by the

Bi-Provincial Assembly, which is made up of two Amazonian provinces Sucumbíos and Orellana.

This Assembly decided to pressure the government to invest 25% of the royalties or income tax

paid by the oil companies in social services and infrastructure in the two provinces.593 Currently,

the government invests 12% of the royalties from the oil sector.594 Similar to the strike in 2005,

the strike in the Dayuma area in 2007 included sabotage of public oil infrastructure and attempts

to blow up a bridge, creating millions of dollars of losses to the state.595 These strikes show the

desperation and disappointment of the population caused by the unfair distribution of the wealth.

It is a right of the Amazonian communities to receive the benefits of the oil industry in order to

improve human security in the border zone.

The empowerment of women in Sucumbíos led to the creation of a strong women’s

organization in the province. In 2006, two forums highlighted and discussed two main themes.

The first, held on March 14, 2006, examined the impact of Plan Colombia on the population of the

591 Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, La Historia de Sucumbíos desde las voces de las mujeres, Universidad

Politécnica Salesiana- Abya Yala, (2009), 161-178. 592 Interview translated and conducted with Alicia Garcés, Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos (translated as

Federation of Women of Sucumbíos) in Lago Agrio, July 22, 2014. 593 Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 167. 594 Ley de Hidrocarburos del Estado Ecuatoriano de 1978 (translated as Hidrocarbon Law). It is the law that governs

and regulates the oil and gas sector, this is the first specific law that deals with this sector. Since its publication it has

undergone many changes, the last being on November 24, 2011. See more at

file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/LEY%20DE%20HIDROCARBUROS.pdf (accessed on September 22, 2015). 595 La Hora, “Tres ministros responden ante Asamblea por Dayuma,” 18 de Febrero de 2008.

http://www.lahora.com.ec/index.php/noticias/show/683138/1/Tres_ministros_responden_ante_Asamblea_por_Dayu

ma.html#.U720F_ldXYE (accessed on July 9, 2014).

file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/LEY%20DE%20HIDROCARBUROS.pdf

http://www.lahora.com.ec/index.php/noticias/show/683138/1/Tres_ministros_responden_ante_Asamblea_por_Dayuma.html#.U720F_ldXYE

http://www.lahora.com.ec/index.php/noticias/show/683138/1/Tres_ministros_responden_ante_Asamblea_por_Dayuma.html#.U720F_ldXYE

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province, including the point of view of women. The second held, on April 10 of the same year,

focused on the analysis of the organizational and political participation of women, including a

proposal for the electoral process.596 These events evolved into the Agenda for Action for Women

of Sucumbíos, formed by the following organizations: 1) Women’s Federation of Sucumbíos; 2)

Women Center of the Cooperative Grammen Amazon; 3) Women Leaders Network for

Nationalities of Sucumbíos; 4) Women's Association of the Kichwa Nationality of Sucumbíos; 5)

Organization of Black Women “New Hope”; and 6) Table of Gender Equality.597 As a result of

several meetings, a coordinating committee was formed, composed of representatives of the

different organizations. The themes discussed were sexual and reproductive health, domestic

violence and the gendered impacts of Plan Colombia in relation to the right to live in peace, the

economy, education and political participation. The contributions of women regarding the specific

socio-cultural problems faced by them, as well as their proposed solutions, were collected through

several workshops that built the women’s provincial agenda. 403 women participated in the

workshops, including 35 in the capital of the province, Lago Agrio.598 The common goal of the

women's organizations representing different ethnic, social and geographic sectors of Sucumbíos,

was to improve the lives of women and to participate actively as a collective force in actions that

could benefit the province. By building collective strength, the women’s organizations seek to

reduce social conflict and to promote equitable relations.

In sum, the empowerment of the population of Sucumbíos is shown through several

initiatives that protect the rights of the province such as strikes to pressure the government to invest

25% of the royalties paid by oil companies in social services and infrastructure, demands to protect

the environment in the region and the creation of the women’s agenda. From an Arendtian

596 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Agenda de las Mujeres de Sucumbíos, 4. 597 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos. Ibid. 4. 598 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos. Ibid. 4-5.

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perspective, an individual’s act becomes empowering as long it turns into an action that occurs

within the web of human relationships.599 Therefore, the power exercised by the population of

Sucumbíos, in Arendt’s terms, appears when people act together. When people live together as an

organized unit, they produce power through action.

In the next section, women’s security in Sucumbíos is investigated as a policy field that

needs to integrate the intersections of gender, race, class and geographical location at all stages of

the policymaking process. The stages proposed to be analyzed are the following: intersectional

problem definition; visioning common solutions for multiple inequalities; and monitoring

(measuring indicators of improvement in achieving equality). There are multiple other

intersections that can be included, such as religion, immigration status, disability status and sexual

orientation, but my study focuses on intersections of gender, social class, ethnicity and rural-urban

location in the policy field of women’s security.

Women’s security in Sucumbíos: Intersectional problem definition

In 2006, local women’s organizations came together to create the Agenda of Women of Sucumbíos

(Agenda de Mujeres de Sucumbíos) as an important initiative to tackle the inequalities that they

faced daily. During the workshops conducted to elaborate this agenda, local women discussed six

areas of intervention: health; domestic violence; the Colombian conflict and peace; economic

rights; education and political participation.

a) Health

Health was one of the topics identified by women in the Agenda of Women of Sucumbíos. One of

the main factors that affects the health security of women is the lack of adequate infrastructure,

599 Arendt, The Human Condition, 181-184.

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supplies and medicines. Historically, health policies have not provided adequate solutions to the

health problems of the population in the province. Public clinics have usually been small spaces

with inadequate infrastructure and limited supplies and medicines. Health Area No. 1 is located in

Lago Agrio, which is the capital city of the province; in this city, the “Dr. Marco Vinicio Iza”

General Hospital has only 40 beds for the four basic specialties (general medicine, pediatrics,

gynecology and obstetrics, and surgery). In Area No. 2, which is located closer to rural areas, the

“Shushufindi Central” Basic Hospital has only 15 beds for the same four basic specialties. The

total of beds at the provincial level in the public hospitals is 55. At the private level, there are 147

beds distributed in five clinics,600 but local women cannot afford to pay a private clinic. In 2015,

the Ministry of Public Health built a public hospital with 150 beds.601 This initiative was an

important contribution to the health sector, but it is still not enough to meet the heath needs of the

provincial population. The government needs to understand that women’s security and public

health are deeply intertwined.

Another factor that affects the sexual and reproductive health of women is related to a lack

of services and personnel in the health system, which is also related to the strong patriarchal

structure that persists within families in the province. Drawing on the recommendation of the

World Health Organization (WHO), 23 physicians is the minimum number recommended per

10,000 inhabitants. However, 19 Ecuadorian provinces have not yet reached that goal, Sucumbíos

being the province with the lowest rate, namely of 11 physicians per 10,000 inhabitants.602

Although health is an essential human right, not all women have access to the public health system

600 Asdruval Albuja, Programa Médico Funcional Nueva Loja. Centro de Salud Tipo C-1. Centro de Atención

Ambulatoria IESS. Instituto Ecuatoriano de Seguridad Social. Dirección Nacional del Seguro de Salud Individual y

Familiar. http://www.iess.gob.ec/documents/10162/3321612/PMF+NUEVA+LOJA.pdf (accessed

September 15, 2015). 601 Asdruval Albuja. Ibid. 602 Ministerio de Salud Pública del Ecuador, Datos Esenciales de Salud: Una Mirada a la década 2000-2010,

Coordinación General de Desarrollo Estratégico en Salud (2012), 53. http://www.salud.gob.ec/wp-

content/uploads/downloads/2013/05/Datos-esenciales-de-salud-2000-2010.pdf (accessed September 18, 2015).

http://www.iess.gob.ec/documents/10162/3321612/PMF+NUEVA+LOJA.pdf

http://www.salud.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/05/Datos-esenciales-de-salud-2000-2010.pdf


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in Sucumbíos. Only 30% of pregnant women have access to the public health system; only 58%

of women have care during childbirth, while 42% of women who have none are located in rural

areas.603 Hospitals do not have enough medicines and supplies. Despite their lack of financial

resources, women must acquire their own medicines. Sometimes C-sections are cancelled due to

the lack of anesthesiologists.604 Access to a private clinic is not an option for women due to

economic and cultural reasons. In rural areas, midwives help during childbirth. Sucumbíos has

the highest rate of maternal deaths in the country, with 330 per 100,000 births. The main causes

of death are difficulties in labor, eclampsia, hemorrhage, postpartum and antepartum. In this

province the fertility of women, especially in rural areas, is still very high (an average of seven

children) and especially in the Indigenous population.605 Cultural practices and machismo provoke

women to start getting pregnant at a very young age, often around 13 years of age. This situation

is also the result of poor information about sexuality in the education system and the media. In this

context, the responsibility for planning, through birth control, the number of children desired in

the family is not yet determined by economic, health and emotional circumstances that guarantee

the good health of both women and their children.606 This situation diminishes the quality of life

for women.

One of the first steps to visioning solutions for multiple inequalities is that statistics

regarding health must be broken down by race and gender at the provincial level. Thus, statistics

by race and gender inform public policy design, demonstrating disparities between the health of

Blacks, Indigenous, Mestizo and Whites in urban and rural areas in Sucumbíos. In particular, the

health sector in this province needs a public policy that is targeted mainly at poor women in rural

603 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 15. 604 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 16. 605 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 15. 606 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 15.

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areas where the service is limited. In this sense, an equitable provision of basic services, healthcare

infrastructure and the permanent presence of a medical doctor in the walk-in clinics is required.

These initiatives must be accompanied by the creation of a wide variety of health indicators.

Monitoring and evaluation

Monitoring and evaluating the implementation of public health policy within an intersectional

framework is required to ensure the success of initiatives aimed at the well-being of women.

Through the Agenda of Women of Sucumbíos, women’s organizations have proposed the formation

of oversight committees for the monitoring and control of health services locally and with the

support of the women's organizations.607 It is important, therefore, to identify health indicators that

take into account differences between ethnic groups and between urban and rural populations. It

is also important to consider the negative effects of environmental issues on health.608 The

following are the measurable indicators that I propose considering in an intersectional perspective

on the health sector of this province: number of female deaths due to lack of health care in rural

areas; percentage of health care utilization and access in rural areas by ethnicity and gender;

number of well-nourished rural women during pregnancy by ethnicity; mortality rate due to

respiratory infection among rural women; and incidence of morbidity due to acute respiratory

infections among rural Indigenous, Black, and Mestizo women. These indicators are, however,

neither fixed nor universal. What makes a good indicator in one context at one time will not

necessarily be relevant at another.

607 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Agenda de Mujeres de Sucumbíos.

http://lafede.org/images/stories/documentos/agendadelasmujeresdesucumbios.pdf (accessed on September 21, 2015) 608 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 13-14.

http://lafede.org/images/stories/documentos/agendadelasmujeresdesucumbios.pdf

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b) Domestic Violence

Domestic violence disrupts women’s security in the private sphere. The organization of the family

in Sucumbíos, as in the rest of Ecuador, serves a patriarchal model that has established hierarchies

of power and roles between men and women. The direct consequence is that violence is not viewed

as a violation of a fundamental right.609 Around 38% of women in Sucumbíos have suffered

gender-based violence.610 Currently, the health system simply diagnoses these abuses as bruising,

headaches, ulcers or bleeding caused by abortion. However, these diagnoses do not show that this

kind of violence is caused by men.611 For Guadalupe León, the system of justice does little to

prevent psychological, physical and verbal violence against women.612 Women are also afraid and

ashamed to denounce violence, often leaving such crimes unpunished.613 The educational system

that discriminates against women also supports the idea of men’s sexual supremacy.614 Therefore,

violence by men is not subject to denunciation or change.615 Domestic violence in the province

mostly harms women, and it is not yet seen as a relevant public issue. Because it is exercised

within the sphere of the family, the problem of domestic violence is “privatized.” Domestic

violence also occurs when the male who assumes the role of “the provider” in the family fails to

fulfill his functions. Masculinity then also suffers its crisis, causing a huge burden of frustration,

609 Guadalupe León, “La Violencia de Género en el Ecuador: Nudos y Perspectivas,” África América Latina.

Cuadernos no. 19. Centro de Estudios de Investigación sobre el Maltrato de la Mujer Ecuatoriana, 95-97. 610 Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos (INEC) y Secretaría Nacional de Planificación y Desarrollo

(SENPLADES), Encuesta Nacional de Relaciones Familiares y Violencia de Género en contra de las Mujeres

(translated as National Survey of Family Relations and Gender Violence against Women), November 2011. 611 León, Ibid., 97. 612 León, Ibid., 95. 613 The new Ecuadorian Penal Code, launched in August 2014, protects all people suffering from psychological to

physical violence. This legislation defines such attacks (without physical injury) as a crime and establishes prison for

seven to 30 days for the aggressor and financial compensation for the victim. When it comes to pregnant women and

older adults, the penalty increases to 40 days in jail. Instead, femicide which is a crime against a woman by virtue of

being or gender is punishable by imprisonment for between 22 and 26 years. In the previous Penal Code, this crime

was not included as such, but was considered as murder and the penalties established were between 12 and 16 years. 614 León, Ibid., 96. 615 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Agenda de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, 20.

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the outcome of which often is domestic violence,616 affecting the personal security of women.

Women in most cases must suffer violent situations in solitude and silence that are socially

accepted under the common belief that the family is a sacred space.

There are no policies at the local level to address the problem of domestic violence through

specific psychological care and legal advice. In the absence of proposals from the state, some local

women’s organizations have developed initiatives to address the issue with their own resources.

In this regard, it is important to mention the shelter for female victims of violence run by the

Women's Federation of Sucumbíos since 2000.617 As a result of the ongoing struggle of women's

organizations, in November 2006, the Women's Commissariat618 began operating in Lago Agrio.

The Women's Commissariat is a public institution that seeks to prevent and detect domestic

violence. It reviews and coordinates comprehensive care for victims of domestic violence,

providing an interdisciplinary treatment through legal service, psychological and social support

and promotion of a life free of violence.619 However, other cities lack this public institution,

leaving more space for abuses against women with impunity.

Women’s organizations have proposed several strategies to tackle domestic violence in the

province.

The first strategy involves ensuring that women's organizations include domestic and

gender-based violence in their agendas as the top-priority issue.620 However, from a feminist

critical human security perspective, a way of visioning solutions for multiple inequalities will

encourage these organizations to take into consideration the extent to which the intersections of

616 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 20. 617 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 21. 618 Gobernación de Sucumbíos, “Comisaría de La Mujer,” http://gobernacionsucumbios.gob.ec/?p=1652 (accessed

on July 17, 2014). 619 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 21. 620 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 22.

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gender, class, ethnicity, race and geographical location influence the prevalence of domestic

violence.

The second strategy encourages the education of institutional staff, working on education,

health, police, the justice system, Law 103621 and its application mechanisms, along with the legal

framework that deals with sexual offenses.622 This strategy is aimed at creating awareness among

public servants, but it also needs to be targeted at families through community activities that inform

them of the social and legal consequences of discrimination and violence.

The third strategy looks at monitoring the authorities responsible for the implementation

and application of Law 103 and the legal framework that deals with sexual offenses.623 This

strategy is very important because Law 103 needs to be implemented effectively in order to avoid

allowing more cases of abuse and violence to go unpunished.

The fourth strategy is to encourage the visibility of the problem of domestic violence as a

public health issue at the county and provincial levels.

The fifth strategy suggests the establishment of police stations to serve women at the local

level, adapting the services to the sociocultural conditions of the population.

Finally, the agenda of the Women’s Federation of Sucumbíos seeks to improve specialized

health care service delivery for victims of violence.624

All these initiatives need special support from the state through technical and financial

resources, and continuous political will.

621 The Law against Violence to Women and the Family was originated at the National Directorate for Women; it is

the result of the collaboration between lawyers, judges, organized women's groups, NGOs, the Commission for

Women, Children and the Family of the National Congress and the support of international agencies. It is known as

Law 103. It was adopted on 29 November 1995 and published in the Official Gazette No 839 of 11 December of the

same year. 622 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 22. 623 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 22. 624 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 22.

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The creation of a wide variety of domestic violence indicators is needed to benefit all women. For

example, the number of incidents of violence against women by race and ethnicity and by

geographical location (urban-rural) in the border provinces such as Sucumbíos can be a measurable

indicator from an intersectional perspective. For this reason, it is important that statistics regarding

domestic violence in Ecuadorian official documents are classified by geographical location, race,

ethnicity and gender at the provincial level. These statistics can demonstrate disparities between

exposure to domestic violence among Blacks, Indigenous, Mestizo, and White women in urban

and rural areas in the province. Thus, these statistics are required to inform public policy design

and implementation. Moreover, laws and public policies need to be accompanied by programs

aimed at changing the social constructions that perpetuate racism and sexism as sources of violence

against women living in border provinces such as Sucumbíos.

c) Labor Force Participation

Structural violence against women in Sucumbíos is also reflected in their poor economic

participation. According to the 2010 Census, the economically active population (EAP) in

Sucumbíos Province was 71,490 inhabitants. Of these inhabitants 50,237 were men and 21,253

were women,625 which shows the lack of women's contribution to the economy. Some 22.6% of

the female EAP is located in rural areas, where agriculture is the principal economic activity. Some

16.3% of the female EAP is located in urban areas and is dedicated to the service sector.626 In

urban areas, women are usually integrated into the informal sector of the economy, which explains

625 Resultados del Censo 2010 de Población y Vivienda del Ecuador. Fascículo Provincial Sucumbíos.

http://www.ecuadorencifras.gob.ec/wp-content/descargas/Manu-lateral/Resultados-provinciales/sucumbios.pdf

(accessed January, 2016). 626 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Agenda de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, 30.

http://www.ecuadorencifras.gob.ec/wp-content/descargas/Manu-lateral/Resultados-provinciales/sucumbios.pdf

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why they have less access to labor rights. Overall, the unemployment rate in the province is 10.6%.

The unemployment rate of women (15.5%) is more than double that of men (6.9%). The total rate

of underemployment for the region is 62.8%, corresponding to 56.1% for men and 71.8% for

women.627 This section presents official statistics, but aspects of the border informal economy,

such as smuggling, are not included.

Statistics demonstrate that women face limited employment options. In Sucumbíos, the

number of households headed by women is 21.6% 628 while the labor force participation rate for

women is 26.3%.629 In relation to the economic participation of women, the Participatory Strategic

Development Plan of the Province of Sucumbíos (2005-2015) points out that “inequality is also

reflected in the persistent limitation in entering and remaining in the labor market, sources of

income generation and ignorance of women’s contribution to society’s economy.”630 Furthermore,

the reproductive capacity of women has not been considered a privilege; rather it has been a pretext

for viewing as natural women’s assignment to the domestic sphere.631

Discrimination in the labor market affects women in Sucumbíos. Other areas of

discrimination against women occur in the extractive sector. The few women who are active in

this sector have no security or work-related rights under the Labour Code.632 There are no data

regarding how many women in Sucumbíos work in the extractive sector or if men and women

receive equal benefits. Microenterprises, where women do participate, face many adverse

conditions due to the lack of credit lines, the absence of information on state programs, low

627 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 30. 628 Consejo Nacional de Mujeres-CONAMU, “Jefatura de Hogar por Sexo,” Encuesta de Condiciones de Vida 1998. 629 Camacho, “Mujeres al Borde. Refugiadas Colombianas en Ecuador,” 29. 630 Gobierno Provincial de Sucumbíos, “Plan Participatorio para el Desarrollo Estratégico de la Provincia de

Sucumbíos (2005-2015),” in Género y Frontera Norte, Carmen De la Cruz, Programa de Desarrollo y Paz en el la

Frontera Norte del Ecuador, (Quito: UNIFEM-UNDP, 2007), 21 631Guadalupe León, “La Violencia de Género en el Ecuador: Nudos y Perspectivas,” África América Latina.

Cuadernos no. 19. Centro de Estudios de Investigación sobre el Maltrato de la Mujer Ecuatoriana, 97. 632 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Agenda de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, 31.

http://lafede.org/images/stories/documentos/agendadelasmujeresdesucumbios.pdf (accessed September 22, 2015).


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productivity, informality and insufficient income, which does not allow for sustainable

development. During the workshop conducted to create the Agenda of Women of Sucumbíos, the

attendees mentioned that, in addition to irregular working conditions and the limited supply of

jobs, women are often subject to sexual harassment or blackmail if they whish to keep temporary

or long-term jobs. These situations have not been sufficiently known or tackled within

organizations; they are considered to be isolated events.633 These inequalities in the labor market

reduce women’s options to empower themselves and to become self-reliant individuals.

Access to the social security system is another limitation in the province. According to the

2010 Census, in Sucumbíos 68.3% of women and 60.9% of men are not registered with the

Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS), which is responsible for implementing the

compulsory national social security system,634 which includes a pension plan, public health

benefits and access to loans. Only 22% of women and 26.7% of men contribute to this system.635

Ecuadorians receive the benefits of the social security system only if they are working in the formal

sector, where employers and employees split the cost of the monthly contributions. Nevertheless,

if Ecuadorians are not working, or if they are living abroad, they can decide to contribute in full

to these payments in a voluntary basis.

Based on their local knowledge and experiences, women’s organizations in Sucumbíos

have proposed several initiatives to improve employment conditions in the province. For example,

these organizations seek to pressure local and provincial governments to fulfill their development

role, promoting policies and actions for employment generation inclusive of a gender

perspective.636 However, in order to discover and vision solutions to structural intersectional

633 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Agenda de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, 31. 634 INEC, Censo de Población y Vivienda 2010 (translated as 2010 Census Results of population and housing in

Ecuador, Sucumbíos provincial chapter). 635 INEC, Ibid. 636 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 31.

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inequalities, it is important to produce data related to the unemployment rate by gender, race,

ethnicity and geographical location at the provincial level. A lack of data limits an intersectional

approach, such as feminist critical human security, to promoting equality. The data that is not

collected hides structural issues that affect this diverse population differently, leading to more

inequalities.

Monitoring and Evaluation

It is important to identify employment indicators that take into account racial and ethnic

differences and levels of education according to geographical location (urban-rural). For instance,

the number of (Indigenous, Black and Mestizo) women working in the extractive sector receiving

equal benefits to (Indigenous, Black and Mestizo) men, and the number of microcredits that rural

indigenous women can access.

In what follows, I discuss the effects of the Colombian conflict as another issue that has

affected women’s security in Sucumbíos.

d) Women’s security and the effects of the Colombian conflict

The impacts of the Colombian conflict have also increased the human insecurity situation in

Sucumbíos. Since the late 1990s, due to the dollarization of the Ecuadorian economy, and

subsequently, the implementation of Plan Colombia, Sucumbíos has been suffering a severe

economic crisis. This situation, according to the Women’s Movement of Sucumbíos, has been

exacerbated by the increased immigration flow of displaced Colombians,637 thereby increasing the

unemployment rate in this area through competition in the labour market. The Colombian conflict

has also increased the presence of security forces in the northern border, provoking strict

637 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 7.

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immigration controls.638 Due to these type of controls, according to the Agenda of Women of

Sucumbíos, families have been divided and cannot visit each other as before. This situation has

changed relationships characterized by deep historical family ties between the peoples of

Sucumbíos and those in border areas in Colombia. Moreover, trade channels that existed

previously have been broken and now are perceived as an illicit economy,639 or are labeled by the

Ecuadorian border security authorities as smuggling.

Historically, the presence of the Ecuadorian state has been minimal in Sucumbíos. There

have not been enough facilities where inhabitants can obtain documentation to prove that they are

Ecuadorians (identity cards, birth certificates, etc.). Currently, this situation has increased the

percentage of the population that lacks such documentation, putting them in an extremely

vulnerable situation due to the continuous migration controls of the Colombian and Ecuadorian

security forces.640 Alicia Garcés, an expert on the development of projects in the Federation of

Women of Sucumbíos, explains how the lack of a stronger presence of the Ecuadorian and

Colombian states in the border region and national security discourses and practices clearly affect

the security of women and men living in Sucumbíos.

“There are women, some of Colombian origin, who have lived in Ecuador’s border zone […] They

never had the need to regulate their stay in the country […] In the Putumayo area [Colombia

department] there was no civil registry. Then, where could they register their children born in

Ecuador? As a result of Plan Colombia, the governments focus their interest on the northern border

whereas previously all the state's interest was to defend the southern border. But since 2000, [all

the attention] went to the northern border because of the Colombian conflict. This added other

forms of regulation for the movement of citizens from one country to another. That will generate

a lot of trouble. For example, the comrades who are Ecuadorian or Colombian and have been here

for a long term, they are viewed as irregulars and have difficulties moving within the province.”641

638 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Agenda de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, 21. 639 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 25. 640 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 25. 641 Interview translated and conducted with Alicia Garcés, Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos (translated as

Federation of Women of Sucumbíos) in Lago Agrio-Sucumbíos, July 22, 2013.

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Certainly, one of the problems that affect women in particular is the Colombian conflict, especially

when Colombian women have to seek refuge in Ecuador. According to the interview conducted in

Lago Agrio with Alicia Garcés, many Colombian women looking for international protection in

Ecuador have come on their own with their children, becoming the heads of household, as they

have left their husbands and everything they owned behind.642 This situation has become a problem

that affects a large group of women in the province; these women require special support. In

addition to being refugees, these women are still vulnerable to domestic and gender violence,

which arises precisely from the conflict.643 Also, because of their more vulnerable position, these

Colombian migrants become cheap labor, competing with Ecuadorian workers and increasing

xenophobia and discrimination based on nationality. For the President of the Federation of Women

of Sucumbíos, Delia Malbay, women face multiple problems as single mothers.644 Besides, in

Delia’s view, women in Sucumbíos have more problems; for example, they have not completed

their studies or they do not have documents such as passports or identity cards, which causes them

to be at a greater disadvantage. These women have to support the whole family and their

children.645 This reality is increased by multiple sources of inequality such as that based on

nationality and marital status, exacerbating the poor human security situation of women already

present in the area.

Another phenomenon that affects women’s security in this border region is that the armed

attacks of the Colombian guerrilla can last between two and three months. These attacks take place

642 Interview translated and conducted with Alicia Garcés, Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos (translated as

Federation of Women of Sucumbíos) in Lago Agrio-Sucumbíos, July 22, 2013. 643 Interview translated and conducted with Alicia Garcés, Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos (translated as

Federation of Women of Sucumbíos) in Lago Agrio-Sucumbíos, July 22, 2013. 644 Interview translated and conducted with Delia Malbay, Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos (translated as

Federation of Women of Sucumbíos) in Lago Agrio-Sucumbíos, July 22, 2013. 645 Interview translated and conducted with Delia Malbay, Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos (translated as


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close to rivers, creating difficulties for women who need to get water from the river.646 Since

women are primarily responsible for feeding the family this lack of access to water has become a

real problem for the security of women.

Public policies intended to improve women’s security need to be sensitive to the complex

reality faced by women in Sucumbíos. Alicia Garcés explains how public policies in border zones

can be improved.

“So, the first thing that is needed is the political will to understand the various problems that exist

in these areas […] Therefore, you cannot often work in the same way as you do in Quito, and

Cuenca [Ecuador’s biggest cities]. There must be different ways to implement these policies in

these areas. Moreover, we also found out that this way of understanding development is common

in these [urban] centers […] People, professionals do not want to go out to the suburbs [rural areas

or secondary provinces]. Then, there is a difficulty in finding professionals who can work on these

types of public policy strategies. This also implies a level of economic resources that the state does

not always distribute equitably according to the needs of each region. For example, here, the border

should have more resources than other areas. And that does not occur.”647

In conclusion, policymakers need to be familiar with the local reality in Sucumbíos. Any initiative

aimed at improving women’s security must include women’s voices in policy design. Economic

security, empowerment of women and violence prevention need to be strengthened in this province

through local policies and plans to improve the quality of life for all women. It also needs to be

developed with input from grass-roots organizations and local women. From a feminist critical

human security perspective, security cannot be achieved without a comprehensive commitment to

tackling the multiple sources of inequality faced by women daily. For this reason, it is important

that the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) develops, in addition to provincial

statistics, cantons statistics disaggregated by gender, income, race, ethnicity and geographical

646 Interview translated and conducted with Alicia Garcés, Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos (translated as

Federation of Women of Sucumbíos) in Lago Agrio-Sucumbíos, July 22, 2013. 647 Interview translated and conducted with Alicia Garcés, Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos (translated as


217

location. These statistics would inform the design of public policy designed to tackle multiple

inequalities in urban and rural areas. In addition, it is necessary to have access to information about

social investment and the breakdown of this investment by race, ethnicity and gender to combat

poverty, exclusion and inequality, which are generated by systems of domination such as racism,

classism and sexism.

In the next section, I analyze the factors that affect women’s security in Carchi, which is a

province located in the highlands region.

4.1.1.2 Carchi-La Concepción -Chota Valley

Carchi is one of the smallest provinces in Ecuador. It borders Colombia to the north, the province

of Imbabura to the south, the province of Sucumbíos to the east and the province of Esmeraldas to

the west.

Map 3. Carchi Province

Source: Cantones del Carchi 2011. http://www.zonu.com/detail/2011-11-04-14830/Cantones-de-Carchi-2011.html

Permission given on March 2016 (accessed in September 2015).

http://www.zonu.com/detail/2011-11-04-14830/Cantones-de-Carchi-2011.html

218

Women’s security in Carchi: Intersectional problem definition

Carchi, like many regions of Ecuador, is characterized by being predominantly agricultural,

producing mainly potatoes and milk in the high Andean zone and beans in the dry and warm zone.

Some 82,495 people live in the urban sector, and 82,029 in the rural sector.648 Like Sucumbíos,

access to the social security system is limited in Carchi. According to the 2010 Census, in Carchi

68.2% of women and 69.3% of men are not registered with the Ecuadorian Institute of Social

Security (IESS).649 Therefore, a significant percentage of women and men have no access to

benefits from the social security system, such as pension plan, public health and loans. Only 23.7%

of women and 17.9% of men contribute to this system.650

The population of the parish La Concepcion is Afro-Ecuadorian and Mestizo. It is the most

populated rural parish of Mira Canton. La Concepcion has 3,379 inhabitants representing 26.16%

of the cantonal population. Some 1,675 (49.6%) of the parish population are women and 1,704

(50.4%) are men corresponding.651

648 Gobierno de la Provincia de Carchi-Prefectura, Gobierno Autónomo de la Provincia del Carchi “El Desarollo

continua,” http://www.carchi.gob.ec/images/informacion_cantonal/CARCHI.pdf (Accessed on July 14, 2014). 649 INEC, Censo de Población y Vivienda 2010, Carchi provincial chapter. 650 INEC, Censo de Población y Vivienda 2010. 651 Gobierno Autónomo Provincial del Carchi, La Concepción, Periódico Parroquial no 6 (Abril, 2013), 4.

http://www.carchi.gob.ec/images/informacion_cantonal/CARCHI.pdf

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Map 4. La Concepción Parish

Source: Parroquias del Cantón Mira. http://mira.ec/canton-mira/ Permission given in November 2015 (accessed on

September 2015).

The presence of the black population in La Concepción dates back to the seventeenth century

when, the Jesuits' Catholic mission decided to increase agricultural production by introducing

Black slaves of African origin. La Concepción was the most important and productive hacienda,

maintaining the largest amount of land planted by slaves. Despite the abolition of slavery, the

Black population continued living in inhumane conditions. Black workers lived on farms as

huasipungueros652 until the Agrarian Reform Law of 1964. According to data from the Ecuadorian

Institute of Agrarian Reform and Colonization (IERAC)- from 1965 to 1968, 191.9 hectares of

land in La Concepción was distributed to 158 beneficiaries to help ex-huasipungueros to meet the

survival needs of their households. However, this was insufficient to relief the poverty of the local

families.653 Currently, the inhabitants practise agricultural activities on small parcels, while raising

livestock is promoted as a means of family subsistence. Some families have a few cows for

652 Huasipungo was a legacy of the colonial system. Huasipungueros were families that were assigned a small piece

of land (huasipungo) to cultivate their own crops, thus guaranteeing that they would stay on the ranch (hacienda). In

spite of being able to use the land to build their modest homes and to raise a small crop, the land did not belong to

them but to the landlords (terratenientes). 653 Gobierno Autónomo Provincial del Carchi, Ibid., 4.

http://mira.ec/canton-mira/

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breeding, as well as horses, mules or donkeys for transportation and for agricultural work.654 The

community has one school, with 198 students and 13 teachers. The leader of the National Council

of Black Women (CONAMUNE), Barbarita Calderón Lara, is a teacher at that school. She has

encouraged the inclusion of ethnic education as part of the curriculum.

There is a great sense of community in La Concepción. Minga is a tradition of Afro-

Ecuadorians in which, youths and children become involved in community work. It is a way for

occupying free time by cleaning or painting communal areas, demonstrating solidarity and sharing

experiences and anecdotes.

Through music and dance Afro-Ecuadorians in La Concepción and the Chota Valley region

maintain an African ancestral tradition. La Bomba (translated as the bomb) involves music and

dance, expressing experiences and feelings that have to do with the realities of the social group,

such as frustrations and personal illusions. The bomb thus became a communication tool par

excellence and a tool for cultural manifestation.655 Traditional music groups use drums and other

instruments made from local plants and fruits.

As in Sucumbíos, Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian women are the most discriminated

against in La Concepción and the Chota Valley region. In particular, women of African descent

continue to face racism, discrimination and xenophobia manifested through sexual exploitation,

human trafficking, domestic violence and forced territorial displacement.656 A representative of

the National Coordinator of Black Women in Imbabura explains how discrimination experienced

by Afro-Ecuadorian women particularly in the workplace.

654 Gobierno Autónomo Provincial del Carchi, Ibid., 5. 655 Gobierno Autónomo Provincial del Carchi, Ibid., 10. 656 Fundación Afroecuatoriana Azúcar, Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras y Cooperación Alemana al

Desarrollo-GIZ, Haciendo visible y enfrentado la violencia contra las Mujeres Afroecuatorianas. Del Territorio

Ancestral de Chota, La Concepción, Salinas y Guadalupe. Quito-Ecuador (2012): 5.

221

“In the workplace, Afro-Ecuadorian women are mostly domestic workers. It has often been said

that is the way we cook. Indigenous women are more discriminated against, because they go

together with men to the field […] many indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian women are in public

office and […] have succeeded. But mostly, this discrimination still exists even in our own

family.”657

Discrimination is also expressed in different types of violence. Verbal, psychological, physical,

cultural, economic, political or territorial violence are not recognized as violent acts at the legal

level.658 But violence is not unknown for women in the Chota Valley and La Concepción; this

violence also involves negative stereotypes about Afro-Ecuadorians that go unchallenged,

aggravating racism and discrimination and exacerbating the context of poverty lived by Afro-

Ecuadorians, especially those from rural areas.659 Because of racism, Afro-Ecuadorians have the

highest rate of unemployment. Moreover, they report the lowest rate of school attendance in the

country both at high school and university.660 Hence, the discrimination against Afro-Ecuadorian

women is manifested through their limited access to quality education, housing, medical care and

decent and well-paid jobs.661 Inequality clearly affects the human security conditions of these

women, limiting their opportunities to improve their quality of life. For this reason, local women’s

organizations in La Concepción and the Chota Valley region advocate for equality and

empowerment of women in Carchi.

657 Interview translated and conducted with the author with a representative of National Coordinator of Black Women

(CONAMUNE). Ibarra, July 31, 2013. 658 Fundación Afro-ecuatoriana Azúcar, Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras (CONAMUNE) y Cooperación

Alemana al Desarrollo (GTZ) Ibid., 5. 659 Fundación Afro-ecuatoriana Azúcar, Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras (CONAMUNE) y Cooperación

Alemana al Desarrollo (GTZ) Ibid., 7. 660 Fundación Afro-ecuatoriana Azúcar, Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras (CONAMUNE) y Cooperación

Alemana al Desarrollo (GTZ) Ibid., 7. In Sánchez, John Antón. Los afro-ecuatorianos en Cifras, Sistema de

Indicadores Sociales del Pueblo Afro-ecuatoriano- SISPAE, Ecuador 2004. Presentado en el Seminario Pueblos

Indígenas y Afrodescendientes CEPAL, Chile 2005. 661 Fundación Afro-ecuatoriana Azúcar, Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras (CONAMUNE) y Cooperación

Alemana al Desarrollo (GTZ) Ibid., 7.

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4.1.1.2.1 Women’s organizations in Carchi

Various women’s organizations working on community development and women issues, such as

the Missionary Group of Women, the Medallita Milagrosa Association of Women, the Light, Faith

and Joy Association of Women, the Immaculate Conception Association, Bank of Women “June

5th” 662 are present in Carchi and the Chota Valley region. However, the National Coordinator of

Black Women (CONAMUNE) is one of the most active organizations, and it has advocated for

poor rural Afro-Ecuadorian women since 1999. CONAMUNE’s aim is to combat violence,

inequality, exclusion and lack of opportunities for Afro-Ecuadorian women in order to achieve the

full exercise of their human rights. In Carchi, CONAMUNE has become the most influential

women’s organization. Its leader in Carchi Barbarita Calderón Lara, whom I got to know better

through an interview and the organization of a workshop with local women for the Chota Valley

region in the small rural parish of La Concepción.

For Afro-Ecuadorian women, power is achieved collectively through social organizations

that strive to improve their security conditions. In this sense, Afro-Ecuadorian leaders, members

of the Black Women’s Movement of Ecuador, have clearly indicated the first steps required to

improve their quality of life.

“[...] to overcome poverty, firstly, an organizational process must exist. Strength is located within

organizations. If Black women are not organized, we will continue to be manipulated, we will

continue to be beneficiaries and not protagonists of our own processes.”663

The above testimony is imbued with a post-development feminist framework: women want to be

the protagonists of their own development and security. Moreover, power is achieved collectively.

662 Sistema Integrado de indicadores Sociales del Ecuador (translated as Integrated System of Social Indicators of

Ecuador) Organizaciones del Valle del Chota. http://www.siise.gob.ec/siiseweb/PageWebs/pubsis/pubsis_F048.htm 663 Fundación Afroecuatoriana Azúcar, Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras y Cooperación Alemana al

Desarrollo (GTZ). Ibid., 8. En CLACSO-CROP, Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales-Programa- Pobreza

y desigualdad en América Latina y el Caribe, Exclusión, pobreza y discriminación racial en los afroecuatorianos,

(mayo de 2011): 199-223.

223

In this sense, local social organizations allow them to accomplish this goal through joint agency

and strategy; they find power as a social group. While agency is needed as a feature of mobilization

efforts, the strategy can be expressed through public education, direct service and structural

change664 in order to diminish the discriminatory circumstances that affect women’s security

locally.

The several forms of discrimination that Afro-Ecuadorian women face on a daily basis

need to be eliminated in order to increase their equality as a precondition for improving human

security. For instance, for women members of the National Coordinator of Black Women

(CONAMUNE), Afro-Ecuadorian women living in the Chota Valley region and in La Concepción

suffer a quadruple type of discrimination for being women, black, poor and living in a rural area;

these conditions are expressed by a lack of support, services and opportunities.665 Hence, by

identifying these forms of discrimination based on systems of oppression, such as patriarchy,

colonialism and racism, Afro-Ecuadorian women through their own voices have sought to

establish alliances and strategies with the public sector, with the private business sector and with

the community in order to protect their culture and dignity.

In order to improve the lives of Afro-Ecuadorian women in Carchi, specifically in La

Concepción and the Chota Valley region, it is important to get to know the communities living on

the border. A first priority is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the communities. A second

goal is to make visible the historical contribution to the country's development made by those

border communities.666 Understanding the contributions of those communities demonstrates

664 John D. McCarthy and Mark Wolfson, “Resource Mobilization by Local Social Movement Organizations:

Agency, Strategy, and Organization in the Movement against Drinking and Driving,” American Sociological Review

61, No. 6 (Dec., 1996): 1071-1072. 665 Fundación Afroecuatoriana Azúcar, Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras (CONAMUNE) y Cooperación

Alemana al Desarrollo (GTZ). Ibid., 8. See also interview conducted and translated by the author with Barbarita

Lara, CONAMUNE on August 23, 2013. 666 Interview conducted and translated by the author with Barbarita Lara, CONAMUNE-Carchi, August 23, 2013.

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respect for cultural, social and worldview differences. This great diversity has to be enhanced

within policies that benefit everyone, but without neglecting differences or universalizing

solutions.667 Policies must, therefore, acknowledge the particularities of women’s experiences.

During the workshop that I conducted on August 31, 2013, in La Concepción, local women

from the Chota Valley region discussed three axes of action that need to be taken into account

when seeking to improve women’s security in their communities: border security, employment

and equality.

4.1.1.2.2 Border Security

Local women from La Concepción and the Chota Valley region view security in the border zone

in a non-traditional way. For them, the border is not a space of division, but one for integration of

culture, history and communities. The following testimony expresses the perception of the border

by the leader of CONAMUNE-Carchi, which is also shared by other local women. The last part

of this leader’s testimony shows that viewing the border as a dividing line encourages inequalities.

She refers to colonialism as a system of oppression that creates discrimination at the border.

“The border is a single line where the political interests of others come together […] for those of

us who live within the border, this boundary does not exist, because we share, those lines are

strategies for unity. A vivid example is the border between Imbabura and Carchi [two provinces

of the northern highlands of Ecuador] for us there is no border […] The Chota-Mira river is used

to divide these provinces. For us, however, [the river] is the backbone, the vein, and the artery that

feeds and nourishes a community […] and the same goes for the border between countries […]

and with Colombia, there is no difference. Yes, there are differences across the line, but in cultural

aspects, there is no difference […] so that's pretty much a perception from the outside, because

from inside […] it unites many ways. The border has been instrumental in fostering inequalities,

on top of those already structurally present since the colonial slavery […] There remain colonizers

and colonized through this divisive politics. That's my perception, which has not helped us. Rather,

it has weakened us as communities, as people.”668

667 Interview conducted and translated by the author with Barbarita Lara, CONAMUNE-Carchi, August 23, 2013. 668 Interview conducted and translated by the author with Barbarita Lara, CONAMUNE. August 23, 2013.

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Afro-Ecuadorian women in rural areas struggle to achieve equality and security. Despite the

recognition of their rights in the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008, Afro-Ecuadorian communities

living in rural areas still face historical and structural discrimination, which is reflected in

inadequate access to basic social services.669 In the Chota Valley, unequal access to good quality

land and resources continues to impede the development of the community. In the region, Afro-

Ecuadorians have reported that it is impossible to access credit, thwarting their attempts to achieve

sustainable development in their territory and to enjoy their rights.670 Structural racism671 is a

central barrier to the effective guarantee of the human rights for Afro-Ecuadorians as set up in the

2008 Constitution. In particular, the structural racism suffered by local Afro-Ecuadorian women

in a border province such as Carchi affects their security and the fulfillment of their material needs.

In Table 9, I have compiled the main human security demands and actions to overcome the

problems discussed by local women during our group discussion.

669 The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Centre for Human Rights and Justice, Territorios olvidados, derechos

incumplidos: Afroecuatorianos en áreas rurales y su lucha por tierra, igualdad y seguridad, University of Texas at

Austin, School of Law (Noviembre 2009), 3. https://law.utexas.edu/humanrights/projects_and_publications/afro-

descendant%20reports/ecuador-esp.pdf (accessed October 8, 2015). 670 The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Centre for Human Rights and Justice, Ibid. 671 The term “structural racism” refers not only to direct discrimination based on race, but also to broad social and

institutional practices resulting in the unequal distribution of resources and social opportunities. See more at Andrew

Grant-Thomas and John a. Powell, “Toward a Structural Racism Framework,” Poverty & Race: 15, no. 6 (2006): 3-

6.

https://law.utexas.edu/humanrights/projects_and_publications/afro-descendant%20reports/ecuador-esp.pdf

https://law.utexas.edu/humanrights/projects_and_publications/afro-descendant%20reports/ecuador-esp.pdf

226

Table 9. Human Insecurity Problems of Local Women from La Concepción and Chota

Valley

Problems Actions

Food Security: More production and clean water.

Economic security: There are not opportunities

at the National Bank of Foment to get a loan

because women do not qualify for them. This

situation creates emigration.

Create productive projects to reduce poverty and

migration of the entire population of the Chota

Valley, Salinas, and La Concepción.

Health Security: Health is not for everybody, the

local clinics lack specialties and the waiting list is

too long.

Change the way appointments are booked (by

phone). Provide a sufficient supply of drugs and

physicians in clinics.

Personal Security: Suicide, drug trafficking,

smuggling and child trafficking in Rumichaca and

Chota Valley.

Awareness campaigns to prevent these problems are

necessary.

Source: Workshop conducted by the author in La Concepción on August 31, 2013.

Although I have classified the human insecurity problems of the local women in the Chota Valley

region as food security, economic security, health security and personal security, from a feminist

critical human security perspective public policy aimed at this population needs to consider social

location based on the intersection of gender, race, geographical location and socio-economic

status. In particular, the fact that these Afro-Ecuadorian women live in rural areas affects their

access to the health system, since better services and supplies are found in urban areas. Afro-

descendent women have to wait several minutes or even an hour on a public phone just to book an

appointment; once they finally get it, they have to travel outside their communities to receive

medical care; according to a local woman, the closest hospital is located in Ibarra, which is one

hour away from La Concepción. Women’s family responsibilities and the lack of financial

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resources to travel outside the parish discourage them from seeking medical services. Health care

services need to be accessible to them in their own communities.

4.1.1.2.3 Employment

Women attendees at the workshop in La Concepción defined several demands and actions needed

to improve their employment options and economic security as a dimension of the human security

approach.

Table 10. Employment Problems of Local Women from La Concepción and Chota Valley

Problems Actions

Women working in nurseries of MIES672 with no

professional qualification were fired.

-Re-open the nursery.

-A free education and implementation of the

accelerated baccalaureate.673 Degrees in early

childhood education, administration, finance and

accounting.

No jobs, people migrate to Quito and Ibarra. -Remuneration to the mother who raises a child (0-

3 years old).

Lack of market for local products. - Sustainable productive projects of beans and

cassava. Transformation to add value.

Lack of market research.

Failure of previous projects due to lack of

monitoring and of training in marketing strategies.

- Training in project and public policy design.

-Mapping productive projects.

-Training women in political participation.


672 Ministerio de Inclusión Económica y Social del Ecuador (MIES). 673 The accelerated baccalaureate is a program designed for adults who could not finish their studies, it is ran by the

Minister of Education of Ecuador.

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While discussing the axis “employment,” women complained about the closure of a childcare

center that was giving jobs to local women and providing a safe place for their children.

“Most of the women that are here were working on the issue of childcare. Under the pretext of

reorganization of nurseries, they were closed. Here women have to work, the child must be on the

floor with lizards and snakes, eating dust.”674

According to local women, the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion requires that the women

who take care of children in the local childcare center must have a degree in early childhood

education. Unfortunately, most of the Black women in the area, who previously worked in the

center have not even completed high school. For that reason, as noted in Table 9, the women

propose the creation of an accelerated baccalaureate program in their community. They believe

that the main issue to be solved in order to increase their economic security and to live with dignity

is to have access to education that allows them to get a formal job.675 The lack of permanent access

to education and employment for women affects women’s economic security in La Concepción

and the Chota Valley region. Since there are no employment options in the zone, most people

migrate to the big cities. To avoid migration, a local Afro-Ecuadorian woman mentioned during

the workshop the need for sustainable productive projects to add value to agricultural products

such as beans.

“We can make bean cookies but we have faced not only economic barriers. Men say that [bean]

trees take too long to grow and they do not want to be involved with the project. We need training

and equipment to produce products (flour, biscuits, jam).” In response to this, another woman

replied saying that “training is not enough because we do not know where to sell our products.”676

674 Women’s discussion during the Workshop conducted by the author in La Concepción on August 31, 2013. 675 Workshops conducted with local women between July and August 2013 in Carchi and El Oro-Ecuador. 676 Women’s discussion during the Workshop conducted by the author in La Concepción on August 31, 2013.

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Based on the workshops and the interviews, it is recommended that the Ecuadorian government

should develop a program that provides productive rural lands to women and their families in the

Chota Valley to ensure more equitable management of local resources. In addition, the government

should support and promote local community development, ensuring fair lending and credit

practices for rural Afro-Ecuadorian women. These microcredit programs must be planned and

implemented with the full participation of the Afro-Ecuadorian community of La Concepción and

the Chota Valley region. Training regarding how to produce goods and services is fundamental,

but it is also important that women receive training on how to put their local products into the

markets. Local women also want to receive training in public policy design in order to be able to

submit their own proposals to the local and national authorities.

4.1.1.2.4 Women and intersectional inequalities

Inequality is reproduced through systems of oppression such as classism, racism and patriarchy.

These systems, which are interconnected and interdependent, have decreased the security of Afro-

Ecuadorian women in Carchi Province. The traditional division of labor in the household has

contributed to a feminization of poverty that simultaneously affects access to education and

employment and the achievement of equality for women in the Chota Valley region.

“Women are the most disadvantaged due to the lack of education […] lack of job opportunities.

Women are still un-paid domestic workers; their work is not valued […] The state should definitely

appreciate the work of women to solve the problem of inequality, because it still views women as

working tools, without pay […] Especially a rural woman, she works in domestic activities, and

she also works in productive activities. They work for the family but they don’t get paid…When

I talk about this topic, I give you an example: the woman is the one who raises the pig, and the

man sells it and puts the money in his pocket. That is economic violence… Well, at least, I think

about a proposal, which is not a crazy proposal […] a basic salary should be established. A basic

salary for women working at home. I have no technical words. I always question this issue. Then

a good policy will give access to social insurance to housewives.677

677 Interview conducted and translated by the author with a local leader. August 23, 2013.

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During the discussion about “gender equality,” women attendees at the workshop were asked if

they thought that they have had the same opportunities as men to find work in a parish such as La

Concepción. Carlota answered the following:

“Men are machistas, they think we [women] can only be wives and moms. I decided to work and

to get into political life because I am concerned about the development of the community. I hope

we do not only discuss among women. It would be good that men listen to us and see that we are

not only good for parir [giving birth] and to be in the chacra” [within the Andean culture, chacra

is the space where vegetables and fruits are grown and animals are raised].678

Carlota’s testimony acknowledges the need to involve men in discussions about equality as a

significant step towards creating awareness and then transforming unequal gender relations.

Gender equality in the community can be achieved if men “give importance to women, respect

their voices and their decisions.”679 The women suggested that men also need to be included in

women’s discussions for equality as a way to improve dialogue and understanding and to achieve

changes to gender roles.

Women in La Concepción and the Chota Valley region do not face inequality based only

on their gender, but also on their race. Gender inequality is not the only source of discrimination

that Black women deal with in their everyday lives. Racism is another source of inequality that

Afro-descendant women and men who live in La Concepción and the Chota Valley region face

daily. Racism is internalized within legal institutions and the education system, thereby

perpetuating discourses and practices of discrimination at the community level.

678 Woman’s testimony during the Workshop conducted by the author in La Concepción on August 31, 2013. 679 Workshop conducted by the author in August 2013 in La Concepción, Carchi.

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“People think that we [Black people] are thieves. The law has also discriminated against us. If a

White person commits a crime, a Black person is blamed for it. If a White or Mestizo assaults a

black, there is no justice. Once a Mestizo hit a Black man with a horse, stabbed him and threw him

in the river. The culprit was caught, but the prosecutors released him. Black people are the ones to

be imprisoned.”680 “Afro-descendant people are devalued as human beings […] the problem is

structural, is part of the colonial structure, in which Mestizos are above Afro-descendants who

were viewed as an object, as property. Racism is institutionalized in educational institutions, but

it should be the space for solving that problem […] Policies need to serve as a tool to disarm

[deconstruct] what is established and to re-arm. Take note that this is a structural, historical,

cultural problem. Colonialism has been the basis for encouraging such inequalities.”681

Table 11 illustrates women’s demands regarding equality based on gender and race.

Table 11. Equality Demands of Women from La Concepción and Chota Valley

Demands Actions

Decrease machismo. Men believe that women are

good only to be mothers and wives. Women are

also machistas.

Educate community members through:

workshops with men and women about the equal

division of roles in the household; creative games

such as volleyball or card games; workshops about

empowerment, leadership and equal rights; TV,

radio and theater campaigns with messages such as

“Love me, Respect me” to teach values against

violence and to attack indifference.

Boys and girls cannot view more

violence in their households.

Encourage a good role model that does not

reproduce gender- and race- based violence.

Fewer violent TV programs. Check TV programs that children watch.

Decrease racism. Non-discrimination campaign. Ethno-education

through formal and popular education.


680 Women’s discussion during the Workshop conducted by the author in La Concepción on August 31, 2013. 681 Interview conducted and translated by the author with Barbarita Calderón Lara, CONAMUNE, August 23, 2013.

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The northern border area presents several challenges for policy makers. It is noteworthy that the

actions identified by women in Table 11 are more concerned with the discursive level and with

changes in values and roles as a fundamental step towards achieving equality. From a feminist

critical human security perspective, public policy sensitive to the intersections of race, class,

gender and geographical location is required to deal with the material needs faced daily by women

in Sucumbíos and Carchi. Structural inequalities are reinforced, in Patricia Hill Collins’ terms, by

a matrix of domination682 that reinforces discourses and practices of discrimination based on the

race, gender, socioeconomic status and place of residence of women. From a feminist critical

human security perspective, public policy must hear and include in security planning the voices of

those experiencing intersectional inequalities. By doing so, discriminatory social constructions

that prevail in systems and discourses of oppression can be challenged and transformed to

potentially promote social change, dignity and respect for women. Such a policy must commit to

finding solutions relevant to the whole person, and not just to a single dimension of his/her

experience of discrimination, such as gender. Affirmative action policies based on race and class

respect diversity and improve women’s socio-economic conditions. Thus, a policy that promotes

equality in the border areas must provoke systemic change. Applying feminist critical human

security approach in the border zones requires data that includes the effects of the intersections of

gender, race, class and geographical location. It also entails local communities’ participation and

political engagement. In order to gather data from the various groups that face inequalities, policy

makers must work collaboratively with different representatives of society such Afro-Ecuadorian,

Indigenous and women’s organizations.

682 Patricia Hill Collins. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment

(Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990).

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4.1.2 Southern Border

In this final section, I shall analyze how the southern border also presents national security

challenges for the Ecuadorian government and structural inequalities that affect women’s security

despite the discourse of binational integration and peace.

The southern border is considered by many Ecuadorian development and security officials

to be a less problematic zone than the northern border and a space of binational integration. After

signing the peace accord with Peru on October 26, 1998, the Ecuadorian and Peruvian

governments created the Binational Ecuador-Peru Plan. According to one official of the National

Secretariat of Planning and Development (SENPLADES), the Binational Plan has been

successful.683 This plan, as an International Public Law, was established following the signing of

the Comprehensive Agreement on Border Integration and Neighborhood Development. According

to the Ecuadorian Government, the Binational Plan is an unprecedented experience. Through the

implementation of the Strategy for Economic and Social Cohesion and Culture of Peace in the

Border Region, both countries co-finance projects in such areas as highways, drinking water and

sanitation, watershed management, basic infrastructure, health and education, bilingual education

and the creation of a binational city, namely Huaquillas (Ecuador)-Aguas Verdes (Peru).684

Moreover, since Correismo,685 there has been continuous monitoring of the commitments agreed

upon in the peace accords with Peru, and bilateral meetings at the level of ministers of state and

Presidents have taken place. By recognizing the importance of binational planning in the border

zones, the Ecuadorian government has discussed a mechanism to carry out a similar initiative with

Colombia, as shown in the following testimony:

683 Interview translated and conducted with representatives of the National Secretariat of Planning and Development-

SENPLADES region 1, Ibarra- Ecuador, August 14, 2013. 684 Secretaria Nacional de Planificación y Desarrollo, “Plan Binacional de Desarrollo de la Región Fronteriza Ecuador-

Perú,” http://www.planbinacional.gob.ec/informacion-general/pb-desarrollo-region-fronteriza-ec-pe/quienes-

somos.html (accessed on July 7, 2014). 685 I use the term Correismo to refer to the current Ecuadorian government of Rafael Correa.



234

“Through the Binational Plan there has been an investment, there has been a better relationship

with the border that has to do with Peru. So you could say that the investment made in development

is more in the south than the north […] The Presidential Declaration of the Presidents of Ecuador

and Colombia [has given] a period of 120 days to set out the structure of a binational agenda, in

which areas of intervention can be proposed depending on the agreements that have been carried

out through the Andean Community of Nations […] So the responsibility has been given to

SENPLADES to elaborate this Binational Plan, to identify issues in the border zone.”686

Within the official discourse, there is still the belief that the southern border is less conflictual than

the northern border. A former functionary of Plan Ecuador687 explains how threats to Ecuadorian

security come from outside the state, mainly from neighboring countries and from the armed

conflict that has affected Colombia for several decades.

“The northern border has a particular feature, which is Colombia's armed conflict that has

continued for 50 years, making it different from the southern border […] However, this war in the

neighboring country gives the northern border some special characteristics that affect the human

rights of the population and leads to the strengthening of certain activities that are not being fully

recognized as legal, fostering an alternative economic development, that is far away from

becoming a complete social development […]involving the intrinsic respect for human rights. On

the northern border, everybody knows that there is the influence of smuggling of arms and drugs

and of human trafficking, the Ecuadorian people being the most affected by the influence of these

activities.”688

According to this testimony, the human rights and the security of the population of the northern

border are affected exclusively by the consequences of the Colombian conflict, denying in my

view the failure of the Ecuadorian state to achieve human security in zones that are distant from

the capital city, Quito, where decisions regarding security and development issues are made. A

lack of human security in border zones does not occur only in the northern border zones, it also

affects the southern border zones, where a discourse of peace and integration prevails. Moreover,

686 Interview translated and conducted with representatives of SENPLADES Region 1, Ibarra- Ecuador, August 14,

2013. 687 Plan Ecuador was a plan launched by the Ecuadorian government in April 2007 aimed to increase the human

security of the population at the northern border. 688 Interview translated and conducted by the author with a Plan Ecuador former official on July 1, 2013, Quito-

Ecuador.

235

smuggling fuel and propane cylinders as a national security issue is not a problem exclusive to the

northern border area, since it also occurs in the southern border zone. An interview conducted in

Machala, the capital of El Oro Province demonstrates how smuggling affects both borders in

Ecuador.

“Both [the northern and southern borders] are similar in the sense that there is a large amount of

informal trade [smuggling]. In the specific case of fuels, both borders are pretty similar…fuel

prices are subsidized throughout the country; a big difference with Colombia and Peru is the large

price differential. On the northern border, the principal activity is the smuggling of gas [propane

cylinders for domestic use]. And at the southern border, the main product, which most people who

seek to engage in this illegal activity, is diesel. And this can be explained by how productive the

different areas are. Both El Oro [Ecuador] and Tumbes [Peru] have higher production than Carchi,

Sucumbíos and part of Ipiales in Colombia. So here [province of El Oro] diesel is used in the

shrimp industry [camaroneras]; and there are also many camaroneras on the Peruvian side.”689

Human insecurity is experienced in both border zones. Smuggling and other insecurity problems

cannot be blamed only on the effects of the Colombian conflict, which evidently is an issue in the

northern border zone. The absence of the state through a human security approach in both

Ecuadorian border zones has created an insecurity crisis that cannot be addressed only within a

national security framework, including the presence of security forces’ operatives to tackle

smuggling. Despite the discourse of integration and the good bilateral border relations between

Ecuador and Peru, it cannot be denied that the lack of human security characterizes both

Ecuadorian border zones. Focusing on women, specifically in El Oro Province, in the southern

border zone, women’s security is critical. Some 45% women there have suffered gender-based

violence,690 clearly affecting their wellbeing. The following testimony illustrates a local woman’s

689 Interview translated and conducted by the author with the Economist Cesar Emilio Bravo Ibáñez, Regional Director

of the Agency for Hydrocarbon Control ARCH-Machala-El Oro province. August 2013. 690 INEC y SENPLADES, Encuesta Nacional de Relaciones Familiares y Violencia de Género en contra de la Mujer,

(translated as National Survey of Family Relations and Gender Violence against Women), November 2011.

236

perception of the lack of improvement in women’s wellbeing after the peace agreement with Peru

was signed.

“In 98, following the signing of the peace agreement with Peru, women at the border wondered:

What will happen to women and development? And peace for whom? During the war, we put our

children, our families at risk and lived in unstable economy…Each year, every February the war

was coming. Women have experienced the impact of the war; now we are entitled to live the

impacts of peace. The resources that are allocated to the border zone are mainly dedicated to

expanding infrastructure or to investing in certain sectors, but not to women.”691

In sum, the Peace Accord between Ecuador and Peru created hope among women in El Oro

Province, but a comprehensive improvement of the security and quality of life of women and their

communities has not been achieved yet.

The objective of the next section is to identify the structural inequalities that create

insecurity in Huaquillas, El Oro Province. It suggests that through the design and implementation

of public policies that address the multiple sources of inequality experienced by women due to

their social location, their insecurity in their communities can be challenged and transformed.

4.1.2.1 Women’s Insecurity in Huaquillas- El Oro

At the provincial level, access to the social security system is still limited in El Oro. According to

the 2010 Census, in El Oro 69.5% of women and 71.6% of men are not registered with IESS.692

As in Carchi and Sucumbíos, a significant percentage of women and men have no access from

benefits of the social security system, such as a pension plan, public health and loans. In El Oro,

691 Interview conducted and translated by the author with an active member of the El Oro Women’s Movement July

4, 2013. 692 INEC, Resultados del censo 2010 Población y Vivienda del Ecuador. Fascículo provincial El Oro. In Ecuador, it

is mandatory for employees to pay a personal contribution of 9.45% of their salary to the social security system,

employers pay 11.15%. The employer must provide to the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security-IESS the total

amount of the two contributions described (20.60% of pay).

237

only 24.4% of women and 18.2% of men contribute to this system. 693 Probably, in my view, those

who work as bureaucrats form the main group receiving the benefits of IESS.

El Oro Province includes cities such as Arenillas, Atahualpa, Balsas, Chilla, El Guabo,

Huaquillas, Las Lajas, Machala, Marcabelí, Pasaje, Piñas, Portovelo, Santa Rosa and Zaruma.

Map 5. El Oro Province

Source: Cantones de El Oro 2011. http://www.zonu.com/America-del-Sur/Ecuador/El-Oro/Politicos.html

Permission given on March 2016 (accessed on September 2015).

Huaquillas is one of the smallest cities in the province. It is located in the south coastal area; its

territory represents 1.1% of El Oro Province and it has 48,300 inhabitants. Some 98.8% of the

population lives in urban areas and 1.2% lives in rural areas.694 Huaquillas is located on the border

with Peru. An international bridge that spans the Zarumilla River connects the town with the

Peruvian district of Aguas Verdes; currently the binational authorities have built a new

693 INEC. Ibid. 694 INEC, Censo de Población y Vivienda 2010. http://app.sni.gob.ec/sni-

link/sni/Portal%20SNI%202014/FICHAS%20F/0707_HUAQUILLAS_EL%20ORO.pdf (accessed October 21,

2015).

http://www.zonu.com/America-del-Sur/Ecuador/El-Oro/Politicos.html

http://app.sni.gob.ec/sni-link/sni/Portal%20SNI%202014/FICHAS%20F/0707_HUAQUILLAS_EL%20ORO.pdf

http://app.sni.gob.ec/sni-link/sni/Portal%20SNI%202014/FICHAS%20F/0707_HUAQUILLAS_EL%20ORO.pdf

238

international bridge located on the outskirts of the city. Street vendors and small business illustrate

the intense commercial activity in this border region. Although Huaquillas’ economy is based on

trade and tourism, poverty reaches 9.7%, and the illiteracy rate among men reaches 3.7%, and that

of women 4.6%.695 These conditions aggravate the security conditions for women and their

communities, decreasing opportunities to get better-paid jobs. Strong public policies must increase

literacy programs targeted at both men and women as a way to promote equal access to education

within the population.

Huaquillas has been identified by the border security authorities as a location where

smuggling of fuel, propane cylinders and other goods takes place. I conducted an interview with a

local official at the City Hall and a group interview and a workshop with local women there.

Interviews with border security officials and non-participative observations were also carried out

in other cities in El Oro Province, such as Machala and Chacras, in the latter of which a Customs

office is located. In one of the interviews conducted in Machala, the Regional Director of the

Agency for Hydrocarbon Control (ARCH) for El Oro mentioned that Huaquillas is the city with

most complex security issues in the province, such as drug trafficking, smuggling and murders

related to sicariato.

“In both, the southern and the northern border areas, all these processes of informal trade are also

linked to drug trafficking. Much of the money that finances the purchase of these products

[smuggled goods] comes from mafias engaged in drug trafficking. So this is most noticeable in

Esmeraldas [province in the northern border coastal area] where even the fuel is used as the basis

for the preparation of cocaine. Here in the south the issue of drug trafficking is also [present] as

are contract killings [sicariato]. Every month, in Huaquillas there are murders. Then, the state

faces numerous problems that are caused by all this traffic, all this informal and illegal trade of

products that the state intends to consider strategic products.”696

695 INEC, Ibid. 696 Interview translated and conducted by the author with the Economist Cesar Emilio Bravo Ibáñez, Regional Director

of the Agency for Hydrocarbon Control ARCH-Machala-El Oro province, August 2013.

239

The insecurity experienced in Huaquillas is being addressed through national security initiatives.

Local newspapers and the official website of the National Police of Ecuador demonstrate the

efforts made by a specialized unit of the police to tackle smuggling in Huaquillas. On June 18,

2014, agents of the Energy and Hydrocarbon Crimes Investigation Unit (UIDEH), together with

personnel of the Intervention and Rescue Group (GIR), of the Special Operations Group of the

Huaquillas Sub-area, raided a warehouse that functioned as an illegal fuel storage facility. They

arrested two persons and confiscated 600 gallons of fuel.697 Although this operation seemed

“successful” from a border security perspective, the insecurity experienced in this border town

cannot be addressed only within a national security framework that includes the presence of

security forces’ operatives to tackle smuggling. In contrast, a feminist critical human security

perspective understands that insecurity is the result of multiple inequalities. In more concrete

terms, inequality, which is sustained through powerful systems of domination, creates insecurity

in the border zone towns. Therefore, a feminist critical human security approach embedded within

public policy seeks to eliminate the numerous sources of inequality faced by women smugglers.

In order to mitigate inequality, advocacy organizations seek to influence public opinion and

policymakers in order to achieve women’s security in the province.

4.1.2.1.1 Women’s organizations in El Oro

The women's organizations representing the different ethnic, social and geographic sectors of El

Oro have as a common goal, the improvement of the lives of women and the active participation

in actions that can benefit the province. In this sense, these organizations exercise power as a

697 Policía Nacional del Ecuador, “Policía evita contrabando de combustible en El Oro,” June 19, 2014.

http://www.policiaecuador.gob.ec/policia-evita-contrabando-de-combustible-en-el-oro/ (accessed on July 20, 2014).

http://www.policiaecuador.gob.ec/policia-evita-contrabando-de-combustible-en-el-oro/

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collective force,698 empowering themselves as a movement, but also as local women in their

communities. Women’s organization exercise power daily to resist and challenge the patriarchal,

racist, and classist system at the border region. For instance, the Committee for Development of

Women of the Border Region (CODEMUF) was established in Vilcabamba in April 1999, one

year after the peace accord between Ecuador and Peru was signed.699 CODEMUF is a regional

organization made up of women from the five southern provinces that share a border with Peru:

El Oro, Loja, Zamora Chinchipe, Morona Santiago and Pastaza. CODEMUF encourages local

women’s activism and political participation in positions such as Vice-Prefect, Vice-Mayor,

councilors, women leaders of Afro-Ecuadorian organizations and women representatives of sexual

diversity.700 Thus, this organization seeks to promote the coordination and integration of women

from various political, ethnic and economic sectors in the southeastern border region of Ecuador.

By strengthening its identity as a border region organization, CODEMUF promotes policies, plans

and projects that benefit local and regional development. It also seeks to enhance the socio-

political leadership of women in the region.

Another significant organization in El Oro is the Women's Movement-El Oro which is

characterized by diversity and the goal of tackling various types of oppression. It has become an

umbrella organization of various social and ethnic groups and, in recent years, of sexual diversity,

questioning completely the heterosexual political subject that gave identity to the feminist

movement in Ecuador.701 Since its formation in 1998, the Women's Movement-El Oro has been

698 For further discussion about power as a collective force refer to Hannah Arendt’s On Violence (New York:

Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970). 699 Agencia Pública de Noticias del Ecuador y Suramérica (Andes), “Mujeres Fronterizas de Ecuador y Perú integran

gremio para defender sus derechos,” Abril 5, 2013. http://www.andes.info.ec/es/regionales/mujeres-fronterizas-

ecuador-peru-integran-gremio-defender-sus-derechos.html (accesed July 20, 2014). 700 Interview conducted and translated by the author with an active member of El Oro Women’s movement on July

4, 2013. 701 Cecilia Manzo, “Movimiento de Mujeres El Oro: Acción Colectiva basada en la diversidad,” (Tesis de Maestría

Género y Desarrollo: FLACSO-Ecuador, 2011), 6,9.

http://www.andes.info.ec/es/regionales/mujeres-fronterizas-ecuador-peru-integran-gremio-defender-sus-derechos.html

http://www.andes.info.ec/es/regionales/mujeres-fronterizas-ecuador-peru-integran-gremio-defender-sus-derechos.html

241

characterized by bringing together women with different socioeconomic statuses, such as

politicians, professionals, housewives and sex workers, including Afro-descendent women from

low-income neighborhoods.702

The Women’s Movement-El Oro has become a political platform for its members. On the

one hand, it prioritizes the individual and collective needs of women in terms of gender and class.

On the other hand, it is used as a political platform, as women’s participation in it allows greater

visibility and recognition at the local level.703 Hence, women who started in politics found access

to the public space in the women's movement, achieving a relationship with the low-income

neighborhoods and an identification with the struggle of women.704 Nevertheless, once women,

trained in political participation by the Women's Movement-El Oro, achieve positions of power in

the public sphere, they neither reciprocate back to the movement nor fully advocate for the

establishment of public policies that benefit women,705 forgetting key points for which they were

trained in political affairs.

The male-dominated political system tends to ignore proposals from public policies

coming from feminists. Gender inequality is still present at the level of decision-making in this

province. Therefore, the possibility for improving the security of local women is limited even with

the presence of women politicians at the city hall in Huaquillas. An interview with the Vice-Mayor

of Huaquillas, a young woman, revealed that there are no significant municipal activities targeted

at increasing the security of women and reducing the multiple inequalities to which they are

exposed.

702 Manzo. Ibid., 12. 703 Manzo, “Movimiento de Mujeres El Oro: Acción Colectiva basada en la diversidad,” 51-52. 704 Manzo. Ibid., 51. 705 Interview conducted and translated by the author with Women’s Movement-El Oro on July 4, 2013.

242

“Here in Huaquillas, I'm the first woman who has become Vice-Mayor. Here […] you can say that

women have not participated as candidates for Mayor. I participated in Woman's Day, Mother's

Day… for four years, I have led the Committee of Queens [female beauty contest at the local

level]. Everything about women. I have the unconditional support of the Mayor [an older Mestizo

man] who allows us to do projects related to women. For example, he adopted a by-law in gender

equality… The Department of Culture delivers free workshops to women in first aid, nursing,

beauty salon and tailoring.” 706

Despite the good intentions behind the activities led by the Vice-Mayor, these activities reinforce

those traditional gender roles according to which women are only good to participate in a beauty

contest or to attend workshops that require skills considered feminine. These initiatives reflect a

misunderstanding of gender equality at the local level. Moreover, this misunderstanding has

paralyzed a tangible commitment to tackling multiple sources of inequality. The above testimony

even shows the Vice-Mayor's gratitude to the Mayor for allowing some activities targeted at

women. The patriarchal foundation of the political system needs to change the relationship

between men and women in positions of power, de-masculinizing the gender order by being more

inclusive, more collaborative and less hierarchical and oppressive. A post-masculinized political

system views gender equality as a right that needs to be executed in order to improve the security

of all women.

The workshop conducted with local women in Huaquillas on July 13, 2013, was benefited

from the support of the Women’s Movement El Oro.707 Some of the characteristics of the women

attending the workshop were that they did not finish high school and that they had between two

and five children. Most of the women attendees had participated in leadership and volunteer

programs in their communities. During the workshop, the women attendees discussed three

706 Interview translated and conducted with Vice-Mayor of Huaquillas. July 15 2013. Huaquillas-El Oro, Ecuador. 707 I want to specially thank Margarita Ramos representative of the Women's Movement El Oro and her daughter

Karen who contributed to the organization of the workshop with local women in Huaquillas.

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thematic areas designed to improve the security of local women: border security, employment and

equality. They defined what needed to be done in order to solve the problem of each thematic area.

4.1.2.1.2 Border Security

In order to understand the dynamic of border security, the attendees at the workshop in Huaquillas

explained what the border means in their everyday lives.

“The border is a boundary with another country; it is the end of one country and the beginning of

another; it is where the homeland begins and ends. But it is also considered as a trading zone,

where food and other products can be bought for less. And second, the border is the space where

the populations of both countries shares traditions, language and culture. At the border, there is a

strong link among binational families, because Peruvians marry Ecuadorians and vice-versa.”708

Although the idea of a homeland is still strong among women in the community more than a

decade after the signing of the peace agreements with Peru, the perception of the border among

women in Huaquillas is not limited to understand it as a dividing line. Like local women in Carchi

and Sucumbíos, for women living in this border town the main economic activities of which are

related to trade and the service sector, it is common to view the border as a trading zone and as a

space where culture and traditions meet one another. Moreover, for binational families, crossing

the border allows them to visit each other.

During the workshop, I realized that, for them, a conversation about border security needed

to recognize that Huaquillas has become a city where many assaults, robberies and murders take

place. One participant pointed out that the insecurity conditions in Huaquillas are so severe that

the only feature missing is the presence of Colombian guerrilla groups in the southern border zone.

Another woman claimed that security means a place where she can live without fear and where

708 Workshop with local women in Huaquillas on July 13, 2013.

244

she has a secure and stable job to survive with her family without fear of being kidnapped. She

also mentioned that nowadays there have been even killings in Huaquillas.709 In further discussions

during the workshop, I was able to find out that these killings were gang-related and resulted from

the unequal distribution of merchandise to be smuggled. This situation provoked between 15 and

20 murders per week, affecting deeply the security of women and the community.

Women’s security is also affected by a matrix of domination that prevails when women

who cross the border are stopped by the border control authorities in Huaquillas and its

surrounding areas. An active member of EL Oro Women Movement’s response to one of my

questions demonstrated the presence of racism and sexism among the border control authorities,

perpetuating several systems of oppression.

“I think that the treatment of customs authorities… I had to cross the border, for example, it is

differentiated. If you are a Mestizo woman with glasses [she describes herself] they [border control

authorities] believe that you are an authority [a government official] or an academic. But if you're

Black… and here we have a Black colleague, you can also ask her about that situation. We have a

very strong racism. There is a quite strong discrimination against that condition [being Afro-

Ecuadorian]. The treatment given to female sex workers in the border has been extremely brutal,

more abuse, more violence. And here in the movement, some members are female sex workers,

the treatment given depends on their ethnicity, age and appearance.”710

Similar to the two previous provinces, in Huaquillas, Chacras and its surroundings, systems of

domination sustained by discrimination based on age, race and even the profession of local women

are closely interconnected to border security disciplinary practices. The border security practices

framed in a national security discourse punish women who become involved in smuggling. During

an interview with a local woman, I asked her about the most important security issues in El Oro

Province that affect women, and if smuggling is a matter of border security in the province. Her

response referred too the power dynamic based on gender and class within smuggling and drug

709 Discussion with local women during workshop in Huaquillas, July 13, 2013. 710 Interview conducted by the author with a member of the Movimiento de Mujeres Machala- El Oro. July 4, 2013.

245

trafficking networks. Women in the lower levels of the network are the ones that get caught and

then incarcerated by the border security authorities.

“If you go to jail you will see women who have been caught because they are mulas. They were

transporting drugs at very low levels. The big smuggling is not in the hands of women. The big

drug trafficking is not in the hands of women… The more important smuggling and drug

trafficking cross in a different way… If you want to know how smuggling works...go to the border

to see what happens with the fuel issue: for example, women or men pass the fuel from one pump

to another, sucking it themselves, getting sick… But the big trucks that cross, nobody knows how

they pass the propane cylinders.”711

Another important issue that was mentioned by a local woman was that the border security

operations control the smuggling of propane cylinders by authorizing the distribution of one

propane cylinder per month per family. In this context, the Agency for Regulation and Control of

Hydrocarbons (ARCH) in the Province of El Oro has identified 16,985 families in Huaquillas.

Therefore, this agency controls the distribution of the same number of propane cylinders.712

According to an interview with this local woman, this policy increases women’s workload in the

household.

“You know, right now we have a shortage. Who is affected by the shortage of propane cylinders?

Women and their families. In Huaquillas, the situation is even worse. Because one propane

cylinder is assigned to each family per month, the women are forced to cook on charcoal and

firewood. That increases our workload too.”713

Border security practices of surveillance affect women’s everyday life. According to my

conversation with local women in Huaquillas, it is more important to capture the bigger smuggling

networks than the small scale smugglers who become involved in this activity in order to survive

711 Interview conducted and translated by the author with a local woman in El Oro, July, 2013. 712Ecuador Immediato, “Avanza la entrega de tarjetas inteligentes para compra de cilindros de gas en Huaquillas,”

http://ecuadorinmediato.com/index.php?module=Noticias&func=news_user_view&id=2818758646&umt=avanza_e

ntrega_tarjetas_inteligentes_para_compra_cilindros_gas_en_huaquillas (accessed December, 2015). 713 Interview conducted and translated by the author with a local woman in Machala, El Oro, July 4, 2013.

http://ecuadorinmediato.com/index.php?module=Noticias&func=news_user_view&id=2818758646&umt=avanza_entrega_tarjetas_inteligentes_para_compra_cilindros_gas_en_huaquillas

http://ecuadorinmediato.com/index.php?module=Noticias&func=news_user_view&id=2818758646&umt=avanza_entrega_tarjetas_inteligentes_para_compra_cilindros_gas_en_huaquillas

246

and to improve minimally their economic security.714 Based on the discussion with local women

in Huaquillas, it is possible to conclude that border security creates more insecurity for women.

Moreover, a matrix of domination perpetuates the intersected inequalities of local women living

in Huaquillas based on their gender, race and class.

Based on the workshop conducted in Huaquillas, it was possible to compile Table 12,

which summarizes women’s demands for improving border security in their community.

Table 12. Border Security demands of Local Women in Huaquillas

Demands Actions

Stop the corruption among police and judges. Grievance system without retaliation.

Awareness campaigns to prevent smuggling and

drug trafficking.

Monitoring crime.

Source: Workshop conducted by the author in Huaquillas in July 2013.

In conclusion, the workshop attendees suggested that the border security practices provoke more

insecurity than security for women. For that reason, they believe that awareness campaigns in the

mass media are extremely important to prevent locals’ involvement in smuggling and drug

trafficking. Through the discussion in the workshop, it was possible to demonstrate that women in

Huaquillas are against smuggling, because the profitable smuggling is done by powerful local

networks. Meanwhile, the small-scale smugglers practising hormiga type smuggling are the ones

that get caught by the border control authorities. Unlike the case of Afro-Ecuadorian smugglers in

the Chota Valley region in Carchi, where men and women collaborate with each other to improve

the community’s economic security, in Huaquillas women perceive that the benefits of smuggling

714 Workshop conducted and translated by the author with local women in Huaquillas, July 13, 2013.

247

are not distributed fairly. Moreover, women are located at the lowest level of the smuggling

network.

The next section analyzes the discussion regarding employment. Women’s perception of

economic security links the lack of employment in Huaquillas to the involvement of men and

women in smuggling.

4.1.2.1.3 Employment

The attendees at the workshop in Huaquillas defined employment as an activity done in exchange

for a fair remuneration, in which extra hours need to be recognized and paid accordingly. One

woman mentioned that a job should cover their needs, but it has to be honest and transparent.

Women in Huaquillas want jobs where they feel respected and appreciated.715 One attendee at the

workshop was a lawyer and provided legal support to women in the Women’s Movement El Oro

(MMO). The other women were housewives, domestic workers or part-time employees involved

in selling clothing or beauty products. During the discussion of the “employment” axis, the women

were asked if they thought that they had had the same opportunities as men to find work in a small

town like Huaquillas. Several topics were discussed: for instance, some women claimed that they

had faced job discrimination. Many of the participants used to work cleaning and packing shrimp

in the camaroneras (shrimp industry), but the owners told women that they preferred to hire men.

For the attendees, machismo encourages the belief that only men are good for better-paid

positions.716 Unemployment and under-employment affect women’s economic security in

Huaquillas. Another woman’s response links the lack of employment to the presence of smuggling

715 This concept of employment was defined by women during the workshop “Human Security of Women in border

areas” conducted by the author with local women on July 13, 2013 in Huaquillas, El Oro-Ecuador. 716 Workshop conducted in Huaquillas on July 13, 2013.

248

networks and illustrates how smuggling is a source of the domination of women rather than their

empowerment.

“I think for us women, here in Huaquillas, it is hard to work […] Huaquillas is characterized by

trade. Years ago, sales were great, you earned a lot for food, but not anymore. Right now,

Huaquillas lives off the smuggling. It's a fight with the state, with officials, men and women. There

was a time that women became pregnant… It was a terrible mess and that was the only way she,

as the sole provider, was able to buy a meal for her children and stay at home. Since there was no

other source of income, or was the only source of work [fuel smuggling] … it was easy [to smuggle

fuel] because the state installed several gas stations [laughs] in Huaquillas. The problem is that the

state always got the defenseless people, not the true millionaires in Huaquillas. The true

millionaires [members of the big smuggling networks] made more money than the poor and

humble people. Many have gone to jail for it. Why? Because they [the members of the smuggling

networks] give you a car, make your work easier, you get paid the day and get engaged in

work…And the poor is to blame for and what about the one who has the money? The powerful

one is the one who exploits men and women looking to make enough money on a daily basis.

That's the story of Huaquillas. Those who are selling [fuel] there are the only people who survive.

This is a mafia”717

This participant’s testimony reveals clearly the power relations based on class and gender within

smuggling networks in Huaquillas; these relations keep women under conditions of domination.

Similar to the cases of Carchi and Sucumbíos, in Huaquillas-El Oro smuggling has been viewed

as a mean of survival for local women. Nevertheless, it is considered as a crime by the border

authorities. In this case, smuggling dominates women rather than empowers them. The only ones

who succeed are the one located in the upper levels of the smuggling network. Moreover,

testimonies from local women and that from border security authorities agree that women get

pregnant in order to conceal contraband, to avoid being imprisoned and to provide for their

children. In particular, the border security authorities believe that women have purposely decided

to get pregnant as a way to dissuade the border control authorities and to cross the border; if caught,

717 Discussion during the workshop conducted in Huaquillas on July 2013.

249

the security authorities must release pregnant women.718 This situation occurs in the case of low-

income Afro-Ecuadorian women smugglers in the Chota Valley region and among low-income

Mestizo women smugglers in Huaquillas.

The lack of permanent job opportunities for women in Huaquillas affects their economic

security. Table 13 presents the main demands of the women when they discussed how employment

options could be improved in their border town.

Table 13. Employment demands of Local Women in Huaquillas

Demands Actions

Being able to be your own boss [self-employed]

Training in small business creation.

Formation of small businesses.

Government bond of solidarity invested in the

creation of small business for women.

Have easy access to micro credits.

Being able to complete studies through distance

learning or in the evenings.

Training in finance, human relations, leadership

and marketing.

Extended hours of child care Request a non-standard schedule

Source: Workshop conducted by the author in Huaquillas on July 13, 2013.

During the workshop, several women referred to an initiative such as sewing development

[translated as Hilando el Desarrollo]. This governmental initiative was founded in 2011 and

718 Interview conducted and translated by the author with a Custom officer on July 1st, 2013. Quito-Ecuador. According

to article 537 of the Penal Code of Ecuador, pregnant women who commit crimes are subject to house detention. In

the article 525 is stated that a person under house arrest, not necessarily be subjected to constant police surveillance

but must wear an electronic monitoring device. See at Código Orgánico Integral Penal-COIP, February 10, 2014.

http://www.correosdelecuador.gob.ec/wp-

content/uploads/downloads/2015/05/CODIGO_ORGANICO_INTEGRAL_PENAL_COIP.pdf (accessed February,

2016).

http://www.correosdelecuador.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2015/05/CODIGO_ORGANICO_INTEGRAL_PENAL_COIP.pdf

http://www.correosdelecuador.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2015/05/CODIGO_ORGANICO_INTEGRAL_PENAL_COIP.pdf

250

became a successful policy that linked the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education and the Institute of

Popular and Solidarity Economy (IEPS).719 This program promotes the economic inclusion and

social mobility of thousands of artisans in the textile sector of the Popular Solidarity Economy

(EPS), who seek to achieve decent and fair economic and living conditions.720 Through this

initiative, women sew school uniforms and sell them to the public schools. The implementation of

a similar program, through a joint effort of the District office in Machala and the El Oro Women’s

Movement, would be one important way to begin improving local women’s wellbeing in

Huaquillas.

Women's opportunities to work cannot be subject to traditional perceptions of their proper

role in society. Therefore, any public policy in this regard requires that the Ecuadorian state takes

additional steps aimed at modifying the social constructions that determine the roles and

behaviours of men and women, including the design and implementation of educational programs,

in order to counteract stereotypes and practices based on perceptions of the superiority of men

over women.

Finally, public policies aimed at improving employment options for women in Huaquillas

need to simultaneously improve child care accessibility and schedules, as well as education and

training for less advantaged mothers.

719 Instituto de Economía Popular y Solidaria, Hilando el Desarrollo un proyecto que genera trabajo para artesanos

de la economía popular y solidaria en Ecuador, 14 de septiembre, 2013. http://www.economiapopular.coop/hilando-

el-desarrollo-un-proyecto-que-genera-trabajo-para-artesanos-de-la-econom%C3%ADa-popular-y (accessed

September 17, 2014). 720 Instituto de Economía Popular y Solidaria, Hilando el Desarrollo ciclo Sierra 2015-2016 priorizará el trabajo

asociativo, 29 de mayo, 2015 http://www.economiasolidaria.gob.ec/hilando-el-desarrollo-ciclo-sierra-2015-2016-

priorizara-el-trabajo-asociativo/ (accessed October 26, 2015).

http://www.economiapopular.coop/hilando-el-desarrollo-un-proyecto-que-genera-trabajo-para-artesanos-de-la-econom%C3%ADa-popular-y


http://www.economiasolidaria.gob.ec/hilando-el-desarrollo-ciclo-sierra-2015-2016-priorizara-el-trabajo-asociativo/

http://www.economiasolidaria.gob.ec/hilando-el-desarrollo-ciclo-sierra-2015-2016-priorizara-el-trabajo-asociativo/

251

4.1.2.1.4 Women and intersectional inequalities

For local women in Huaquillas, inequality is strongly affected by machismo. Unfortunately,

machismo is not only a social behavior among men. Rooted in the values of society at large,

patriarchy is also deeply engrained among local women, thereby perpetuating traditional gender

roles. When we began to talk about equality, one participant complained that women are also

machistas. From her perspective, that is one of the first issues that must be transformed.

“There is no equality in Ecuador; there are still many women who are machistas [laughs]. For

example, when choosing political candidates, men always receive support, the same doesn’t occur

with women, because we think that women are not capable. If we want to elect a community

leader, we say that she will not be able to do it, then we choose a man. We are creating

machismo...We need to create awareness among women that we also create machismo.”721

During the discussion, conservative thoughts rooted in the local patriarchal culture emerged,

showing a misunderstanding of what equality means. One woman mentioned that it is good to talk

about equality and freedom, but doing so lead to immorality.

“There are women who have confused freedom with immorality. Women do not ask permission

from their husbands anymore; they just go to parties and do whatever they please.”722

This comment provoked astonishment among some members of the group. In order to clarify the

connection between freedom/equality and immorality, I asked the group what they understood by

immorality. The response of one participant showed internalized patriarchal values.

“For example, the husband gave permission to the wife to come to this workshop. But once the

workshop is over, this woman, instead of going back home, she meets with another person, that’s

immorality […] there have been many women who have confused leadership with degeneracy.”723

721 Workshop conducted by the author in Huaquillas on July 13, 2013. 722 Workshop conducted by the author in Huaquillas on July 13, 2013. 723 Workshop conducted by the author in Huaquillas on July 13, 2013.

252

The reaction of another participant attempted to clarify the confusion between equality and

immorality.

“I think that degeneracy is not what has been said, because if I don’t do what I like, I am violating

my personality, because what I do with my life is my responsibility.”724

To some extent, the women attendees at the workshop in Huaquillas seemed to have internalized

messages about the inferiority of women and their roles as mothers and wives; they had struggled

with new possibilities and understandings of gender relations, going as far as to confuse equality

with immorality. Once it was clarified that equality is not equivalent to immorality, the attendees

were able to explain that gender equality involves “no male superiority, no discrimination against

women, the same opportunities and responsibilities in society.”725

In order to overcome inequality, local women in Huaquillas wanted to learn the skills that

would enable them to participate in and to transform their communities. If they were able to receive

a quality education that encouraged their autonomy and agency, they would be in a very strong

position to contribute to their societies. Table 14 summarizes the women’s demands for equality.

724 Discussion about equality and immorality during the workshop conducted in Huaquillas on July 13 2013. 725 Discussion during the workshop conducted in Huaquillas on July 2013.

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Table 14. Gender Equality demands of Local Women in Huaquillas

Demands Actions

Creation of awareness among women of our value

as women.

Workshops and campaigns rejecting sexual,

physical and psychological violence or situations

of discrimination against women.

Share household responsibilities.

Equal respect between wife

and husband/joint decision-making.

Workshops with men and women to address the

issue of mutual respect.

Reject all forms of violence Educate our children, boys and girls.

Source: Workshop conducted by the author in Huaquillas on July 13, 2013.

Educational workshops aimed at transforming gender relations should explain that differences

between men and women are not something natural; rather, they are supported by traditions and

machismo. Such workshops needed to increase the self-esteem of women. It is also important that

men attend the workshops proposed by local women in Huaquillas. Workshops and media

campaigns to tackle machismo need to be permanent in order to create awareness about the value

of women at home and in society. Women want these workshops to teach men that household

chores must be shared in order to create a harmonious relationship.


By monitoring and evaluating the implementation of equality policies sensitive to the intersections

of race, gender, class and geographical location, it is possible to ensure the success of initiatives

aimed at the well-being of women.

The formation of oversight committees is relevant for the monitoring and control of

equality policies with the support of women's organizations. In this sense, it is important to identify

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indicators that take into account ethnic, class, geographic (urban-rural) and gender differences.

The following are some measurable indicators that I propose based on the discussion with local

women in Huaquillas: % of low-income women attending post-secondary education in Huaquillas;

% of low-income women completing post-secondary education; number of Black, Mestizo,

Montubio, White, and Indigenous men attendees at gender relations workshops in urban and rural

areas; number of Black, Mestizo, Montubio, White, and Indigenous women attendees at gender

relations workshops in urban and rural areas.


By using a feminist critical human security perspective sensitive to the particularities of women’s

daily experiences, this chapter was able to examine the complexity and diversity of the

intersectional inequalities that women experience in three Ecuadorian border provinces. The

application of a feminist critical human security approach to analyzing the case includes a

consultative dialogue that empowers women to articulate their own needs and agendas. Thus,

responsibility for fulfilling the aspirations of local women to improve their lives cannot be

exclusively assumed by public policy makers. Rather, these aspirations are discovered and

constructed on the basis of these women’s multiple experiences affected by the intersections of

gender, race, class and geographical location. In this chapter, I discussed how some local women

view smuggling as a way of living linked to the lack of economic security and inequality in the

border zones. While women in La Concepción and the Chota Valley region might be empowered

by smuggling activities –when they help family and community members- in Huaquillas, the

situation is different. The women there recognized that this activity does not empower them in the

long term; rather, they argue that it increases domination and inequality based on gender, race and

class. Only the big smuggling networks that use local women from Huaquillas benefit and profit

255

from smuggling. For this reason, a public policy informed by a feminist critical human security

approach acknowledges that planning equality policies must include the voices of women facing

multiple inequalities based on their gender, race, class and geographical location; such inclusion

has to be accompanied by effective implementation.

To summarize, the three provinces where the study was conducted revealed similarities

and differences. Regarding the similarities, in Sucumbíos, Carchi and El Oro, a significant

percentage of women and men have a limited access to the social security system, such as pension

plan, public health and loans. In particular, in the communities of the three provinces studied

Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian women are the most discriminated against due to negative racist

stereotypes. The systems of domination sustained by discrimination based on age, race and even

the professions of local women are closely connected to border security disciplinary practices.

However, for local women in these three communities, the border is a trading zone and space

where diverse cultures and traditions meet one another. Moreover, for binational families, crossing

the border allows them to visit each other. Unlike the northern border zone, the southern border

zone is considered by many Ecuadorian development and security officials to be a less problematic

zone, since it is perceived as a space of binational integration. Nevertheless, human insecurity also

affects this border zone. A main difference between the communities where this study took place

is that, although smuggling has been viewed as a mean of survival for local women, in Huaquillas

smuggling dominates women (the only ones who succeed in this activity are the ones located in

the upper levels of the smuggling network) while in La Concepción it is a source of empowerment.

Regarding the local women attendees at the workshops, I was able to assess that Black women in

La Concepción are more empowered and more aware of their sources of discrimination than are

Mestizo women in Huaquillas.

256

The Ecuadorian government has to carefully rethink the public policies that have been

implemented in the border zones. State feminism, being the advocacy of women’s demands inside

the state, 726 is still weak in Ecuador. In my view, the minor inclusion of gender issues achieved to

date has been due to the pressure exerted by the women’s movement rather than emanating from

a real concern with gender equality among government officials. The roots of discrimination based

on gender, race, class and geographical location need to be eliminated in order to achieve the goal

of decent human security conditions for all women. For instance, women attendees at the

workshops in Huaquillas and La Concepción clearly identified, using their own words, the

dimensions of the human security approach that need to be improved the most. Local women at

the northern and southern Ecuadorian border zones want more economic security, personal

security, health security and community security. They want access to education and training in

order be able to access jobs and opportunities in the formal sector. In order to achieve fair work

for women, it is necessary to design and implement labor policies aimed at equality within an

intersectional framework in the labor market. The respect and protection of the rights of women

who do not work outside the home and those who do work in the formal and the informal sectors

requires the removal of structural insecurities so as to enhance women’s access to quality jobs.

Ecuadorian initiatives to achieve equality cannot be limited to political agendas or to

discourses that do not include a clear action plan. The women in Ecuador’s border zones want

policies that solve their everyday life needs and that overcome systems of inequality such as

sexism, classism and racism. An optimal action plan cannot be limited to another diagnostic of the

situation of women’s inequality and the formulation of general policy guidelines. An acceptable

plan must identify in great detail and with considerable clarity strategic objectives, targets,

726 Johanna Kantola and Joyce Outshoorn, “Changing State Feminism,” in Changing State Feminism, eds. Joyce

Outshoorn and Johanna Kantola (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007), 2.

257

indicators and those responsible for implementing the tasks needed to achieve these strategic

objectives. Particularly attention must be directed to implementing mechanisms for monitoring

compliance with the objectives by the institutions responsible for implementing the plan. Progress

reports must be submitted regularly by the institutions in charge of achieving those objectives for

ensuring equity.

In the next chapter, I present the analytical conclusions of the dissertation, the theoretical

implications and the policy recommendations.

258

Chapter 5. Analytical Conclusions

This chapter presents the theoretical implications and the policy recommendations arising from

my research. The recommendations can be used for policy makers, NGOs, teachers and students

interested in women’s security from an intersectional perspective as proposed by a feminist critical

human security approach.

5.1 Theoretical implications

Several concepts were analyzed in order to propose a feminist critical human security approach to

tackling women’s insecurity in border zones. First, the concept of national security was analyzed

in order to explain a state-centric vision of security studies based on national interests and values.

According to the Realist school of thought, security emanates from the state’s survival in an

anarchic international system in order to preserve its sovereignty.727 The joint presence of a state’s

security and national interests has fostered a national security approach that accepts a permanent

state of war encouraged by a state’s own interests. This approach has been used to protect state

political and economic interests and values, using military strategies to battle local, national,

regional and global threats. By analyzing the concept of national security, my study was able to

explain Ecuador's current security policies, which view the smuggling of fuel and propane

cylinders as a critical new threat to national security in border zones. Currently, in Ecuador,

conflicts between states are less relevant than those provoked by non-state actors such as

smugglers in the border zones. Despite the multidimensional characteristics of this new threat,

smuggling is still confronted through a national security approach that is insufficient to solve the

root causes of a complex security scenario. For most local women in Huaquillas, Lago Agrio and

727 Björn Hettne, “Development and security,” Security Dialogue 41, no. 1 (2010): 33, DOI:

10.1177/0967010609357040

259

La Concepción/Chota Valley Region, a feeling of insecurity arises primarily from worries about

daily life, such as economic security.

Security studies require a broader framework of analysis. For this reason, another concept

that was reviewed in this study was human security, which locates security at the personal and

community levels. Human security, as a security paradigm, challenges the national security

approach; specifically, it encourages states to protect the security of the individual and the

community. Despite attempts to narrow the definition of human security, the concept's strength

lies in its holism and inclusiveness. Therefore, the inclusion of more topics in security studies also

involves other non-state actors. These actors can influence the local, national and international

agendas. Human security acknowledges that threats and vulnerabilities have multiple dimensions.

Furthermore, an alternative and multidimensional approach to security studies, such as human

security, implies a change in the concept of armed conflict, peace and security. Certainly, human

security has become a strategic project involving development, cooperation, human rights and

conflict prevention and resolution. This study follows the broader definition of human security; 728

this definition includes a preventative approach, which addresses threats to human life, livelihood

and the dignity of people within a policy framework sensitive to the intersections of race, gender,

class and geographical location, especially in high risk areas such as borders. In its application

human security generates an improvement in people’s quality of life by reducing levels of

violence, inequality and exclusion.

Currently, the human security approach complements national security in Ecuador’s border

areas. The attempts of the Ecuadorian government to develop a human security approach through

Plan Ecuador were promising, but the main concern relates to the need to strengthen human

728 Japan, the Human Development Report (1994), and the Human Security Now Report (2003) foster a broader

agenda focusing on development. On the contrary, the narrow definition of human security is more reactive in cases

of human rights violations and interventions post-conflict.

260

security for women within the development planning agenda, especially during a period of reform

within the main institution dedicated to gender equality in Ecuador. Starting in June 2014, the

former Transition Commission for Gender Equality became the Council for Gender Equality. The

expectation is that the recently created Council will contribute to the design of the institutional

structure to ensure equality between women and men729 within public policies sensitive to the

intersections of race, class and location of residence.

Another concept reviewed in this study is intersectionality, which made it possible to

analyze the diversity of women’s experiences of insecurity in the Ecuadorian border zones. In this

sense, inequality in Ecuador’s border zones was studied as a matrix of domination that includes

discrimination based on race, class, gender, nationality and the dichotomy between urban and

rural. In the border zones, in particular, the construction of gender identities and the politics of

masculinities are shown through border control practices, but also by women’s roles as secondary

smugglers.

This study has proposed feminist critical human security as a progressive approach for

rethinking security issues. The dissertation draws on a broad notion of a human security approach

from a critical perspective, feminist critiques of national security, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw’s

idea of intersectionality and Patricia Hill Collins’ concept of the matrix of domination. Thus, this

dissertation advances the concept of “feminist critical human security” to examine women’s

security in Ecuador’s border zones, specifically in El Oro, Sucumbíos and Carchi provinces. A

feminist critical human security approach is attentive to power relations and understands how

insecurity is related to people’s daily lives in Ecuador’s border zones in gendered, racialized,

729 Consejo Nacional para la Igualdad de Género. http://www.igualdadgenero.gob.ec/ (accessed on November 13,

2014).

http://www.igualdadgenero.gob.ec/

261

geographical and class ways. In addition, this research established women smugglers as referents

of security rather than as criminals, as the border security discourse views them.

In employing the concept of feminist critical human security, the originality of this

dissertation lies in the application of this adapted approach to an under–researched case study.

This concept contributes to the analysis of what comprises the web of power relations that has led

women in Huaquillas, the Chota Valley Region and Lago Agrio to become smugglers. It also

addresses to what extent do public policies related to human security at Ecuador’s northern and

southern borders include a focus on women’s well-being from an intersectional perspective. This

dissertation combines critical human security and feminist security to analyze human security as

an emancipatory approach for women and their local communities in the three border provinces

where the study was carried out. Thus, the study proposed feminist critical human security as a

theoretical framework. Within this framework, the border is not viewed as a dividing line between

states; rather, it is understood as a space of integration, social interaction, cultural encounter and a

way of life, where the intersecting identities of women and the security forces interconnect in

everyday life.

Feminist critical human security policies must consider all the interconnected factors that

create insecurity in the zone of intervention. For instance, intersecting systems of inequality such

as sexism, racism and classism have provoked women’s insecurity. Thus, this dissertation

questions the intersectional relations of domination and subordination within state-centric

perspectives of security. In contrast, the dissertation understands that equality based on race,

gender and class must be seen as the main component of a feminist critical human security

approach. Such a perspective understands that unequal access to education, healthcare and political

and economic participation is affected by negative stereotypes based on race, gender, class and

geographical location, thereby undermining women’s security. For this reason, the achievement

262

of material needs is insufficient to overcome inequalities; what is needed is to transform the

socially constructed power relations that have fostered structural inequalities and exclusion on

allegedly undisciplined bodies. Women’s security, within a feminist critical human security

approach, is assured only through feminist policy initiatives within an approach to development

planning that is aimed at decreasing the intersecting factors of inequality.

My analysis of women’s (in) security in Ecuadorian border zones understands feminist

critical human security as an emancipatory concept that fosters strong community participation

and engagement while repositioning women and their potentialities at the center of security

objectives. A feminist critical human security approach is enriched by post-development that

recognizes and incorporate local knowledge and people-centered development models. Such a

conception encourages the agency of local communities and local women in the area where this

research was conducted. It also emphasizes the idea of group solidarity as a social process that

fosters women’s efforts and joint work for the benefit of themselves, their families and their

communities.

5.2 Policy Recommendations

The study has shown that smuggling cannot be tackled successfully by means of national security

approach. Border security initiatives aggravate women’s security conditions, which are already

adversely affected by inequality based on the intersections of race, class, gender and geographical

location. At the borders, asymmetry refers to the differences in the relationship of each country.

But these differences also entail the need for integration by complementarity, typical of the unity

in diversity.730 In concrete words, the complementary asymmetries that are structuring border

730 Fernando Carrión, Asimetrías en la frontera Ecuador-Colombia: entre la complementariedad y el sistema,

FLACSO-Ecuador, IDRC- Canadá (2013), 10.

263

relations are possible to build and sustain due to the fact that governments of the countries have

the following three features. First, a strictly national vision of development rather than a binational

vision; this denies the understanding of the border as an integrated region where development

policies should converge. Second, the defense of sovereignty and territorial integrity leads to an

increase of the military presence on each side of the border. In other words, the neighbor is seen

as an enemy and not as a friend to cooperate with.731 Third, governments’ centralist policies that

concentrate power in few hands. The mere consideration of the need for public safety, the

promotion of development from the locals’ perspectives and the strengthening of local institutions

would be a remarkable paradigm shift.732 Therefore, decentralization becomes an excellent

security strategy as long as financial and technical resources are allocated to improve the

development and security conditions of the border region. Moreover, integration should be viewed

as a security policy that can decline what has been considered by border security authorities as

“illegality” and not a way of living of the inhabitants of the border zone.

This study has used empirical findings to demonstrate that current human security policy

and National Development Plan do not result in a significant impact at the borders. The theoretical

arguments suggest the need for policy review, which will enable the Ecuadorian government’s

public policies related to the security of women and their communities.

In this dissertation, I have demonstrated that insecurity, poverty, racism and patriarchy in

Ecuador’s border zones have been influenced by relations of domination. I argue that the

achievement of women’s security and equality within an intersectional framework requires that

the Ecuadorian government pursues feasible strategies and workable alliances through state-

society partnerships. Local women want to be involved in public policy design and to be able to

731 Fernando Carrión, Ibid., 10. 732 Fernando Carrión, Ibid., 10.

264

oversee the allocation of financial and technical resources to projects that are needed in their

communities. Representatives of the public sector must collaborate in public policy design led by

women, sharing their technical skills with them.

The study has also demonstrated a clear necessity to sensitize leaders and decision makers

at the political, technical and administrative levels to the importance of strengthening their

understanding of the critical place of equity within an intersectional framework. Therefore, it is

extremely important to implement an action plan and to produce a diagnosis of the institutional

capacity to mainstream intersectionality. Participatory diagnosis including members of public

institutions can enable the identification of critical issues to be processed in order to move forward.

In order to improve coordination with the recently created Council of Gender Equality, there is a

clear need for technical skills in intersectional mainstreaming to support the creation of women’s

units sensitive to the intersections of gender, class, race and geographical location.

Once the political will of the leaders is ensured, internal institutional changes can be

promoted. Currently, most of the technical staff in state institutions are not familiar with the

different needs of women and men depending their social location. Unfortunately, technical staff

do not always have the necessary tools to analyze the differential impacts that their decisions and

projects might have in improving or worsening conditions of inequality.733 Thus, public servants

need to attend workshops about equality and non-discrimination, based on gender, race and socio-

economic status. Additionally, a close interaction with potential beneficiaries of public policies

needs to be strengthened in order to address this potential practical limitation.

As shown throughout my study, despite their participation in several workshops conducted

by governmental authorities, Afro-Ecuadorian, Mestizo, and Indigenous women from Carchi, El

733 Saskya Lugo, Análisis de la incorporación del enfoque de género en los proyectos públicos de desarrollo. Quito:

Fundación Friedrich Ebert, FES-ILDIS (2010), 15.

265

Oro and Sucumbíos provinces do not believe that their voices, demands and interests were

included within security and development plans.734 It is important to guarantee the full inclusion

of the voices of the women living in the border zones in order to ensure their full representation.

Moreover, the Ecuadorian authorities cannot work in isolation on gender equality diagnosis such

as the Agenda Nacional de las Mujeres y la Igualdad de Género [translated as National Agenda

for Women and Gender Equality]. It is important to analyze potential policy impacts before the

policies are implemented. This should include a prior consultation with potential beneficiaries and

the development and application of indicators based on intersections of race, class, gender, and

geographical location. SENPLADES, the provincial government, the municipalities and local

women’s organizations must all be involved in monitoring. For this reason, the Council for Gender

Equality needs to enable intersectional mainstreaming in plans and projects to be implemented

locally. It needs also to foster a plan of action, including identifying actors involved and

establishing deadlines, which is highly recommended in order to improve the implementation of

public policies that seek equality and non-discrimination. Since gender cannot be included as the

only axis of discrimination, it is important to acknowledge the place of residence, the socio-

economic status and the race of women. Thus, intersectional policies must guarantee economic

security, access to education and employment and the elimination of domestic violence.

Another relevant policy implication is the need for greater support for women involved in

the informal economy. Women in Carchi, Sucumbíos and El Oro provinces have found an

alternative to unemployment in the informal economy. In this context, informal economic cross-

border activities such as smuggling have been legitimized and accepted by locals as a way to

secure a livelihood in these Ecuadorian border provinces. However, the small-scale, or hormiga

734 Interview conducted by the author with Delia Malbay and Alicia Garcés, Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos.

Also Interview with Rosa López, Movimiento de Mujeres El Oro and Interview with Barbarita Lara, CONAMUNE-

Carchi. July-August, 2013.

266

type, smuggling considered as a “low-status job,” does not enable women to lift themselves out of

poverty or to provide fully for their families. Women in the three provinces in which my study

focused on need education and training that permit them to get and to keep a job in the formal

sector.

The pervasive job discrimination against women locates them in low-productivity jobs

with fewer responsibilities, which directly affects their salaries. In order to discover structural

intersectional inequalities, data related to the unemployment rate by gender, race, ethnicity and

geographical location at the provincial and canton level must be collected and analysed. If such

data are not collected, the structural factors that affect different segments of the population

differently due to their social location will be hidden, leading to more inequalities. For this reason,

there is a substantial need to increase jobs options in the Huaquillas, Lago Agrio and La

Concepción areas. Formal jobs will improve the economic security of local women. In this context,

an employment policy that includes an intersectional perspective sensitive to the intersections of

race, class, gender and geographical location must be inserted into the national development

policy. By doing so, public policies will contribute to improving the quality of life of women and

their families, thereby strengthening their self-esteem and autonomy.

The unpaid work performed by women limits their options to remain in formal

employment. Family responsibilities force women to keep an informal employment,735 particularly

in the case of single mothers, who assume the sole responsibility for providing economic

sustenance and caring of children. Poor women are forced to bring their children to work because

they cannot afford to pay for daycare,736 limiting even more their employment options. It is

735 Naomi Cassirer y Laura Addati, “Ampliar las oportunidades de trabajo de la mujer: los trabajadores de la economía

informal y la necesidad de servicios de cuidado infantil,” http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---

protrav/---travail/documents/publication/wcms_145655.pdf (accessed November 19, 2014). 736 Cassirer, Ibid., 3-4.

http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---travail/documents/publication/wcms_145655.pdf


267

important to promote and implement community services such as day care and activities for

women workers with family responsibilities. A subsidized system of child care consistent with the

needs of working mothers in La Concepción-Carchi, Lago Agrio-Sucumbíos and Huaquillas-El

Oro provinces should be a policy priority. Public policies aimed at improving employment options

for women need to simultaneously ameliorate child care accessibility and schedules, as well as

education and training for less advantaged mothers.

El Buen Vivir (Good Living) as a new development regime in Ecuador builds a model of

economy based on solidarity as an alternative to the capitalist economy. This new development

regime seeks a different economy that is more social and inclusive. Thus, this regime is different

from that characterized by free competition, which encourages economic cannibalism among

humans.737 Therefore, the redistribution of wealth, the distribution of income with equity and

access to economic resources should be the goals of this new development regime. In this sense,

the Ecuadorian government has several responsibilities regarding women’s security in order to

foster the so-called Buen Vivir within the framework of the social and solidarity economy. Thus,

it is highly recommended that the government designs public policies that promote the eradication

of occupational segregation and income gaps, affirmative action programs for occupational

training and qualification programs for female labor and empowerment from a rights perspective.

Moreover, all acts of discrimination and harassment on account of gender, ethnicity, age, class,

sexual orientation, disability or maternity have to be punished by law. The government has to

encourage proposals that generate mutual responsibility between women and men in the

reproductive sphere. It also needs to provide social security benefits for all women workers,

regardless of the forms of work they perform. Finally, there is a need to strengthen and promote

737 María Jacinta Zea, Género y trabajo justo, digno y solidario en el marco del Buen Vivir, ILDIS. Documento de

Trabajo. (Octubre 2010), 11.

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economic initiatives at small and medium scales to create new and sustainable local jobs for

women.

This dissertation proposes specific recommendations for each province. In Sucumbíos, it

is important that the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) collects cantons and parish

statistics by gender, class, race, ethnicity and geographical location in addition to provincial

statistics. These would inform the design of public policy concerned with issues of

intersectionality as a way of tackling multiple inequalities in urban and rural areas. It is also

necessary to have access to information about social investment broken down by race, ethnicity

and gender in order to combat better poverty, exclusion and inequality, which are generated by

systems of domination such as racism, classism and sexism. For instance, statistics regarding

health in Ecuadorian official documents are not classified by ethnicity and gender at the provincial

level. If these statistics can be broken down by race and gender, they can demonstrate disparities

between the health of Blacks, Indigenous, Mestizo, and Whites in urban and rural areas. In

addition, the health sector in Sucumbíos needs public policy to be targeted mainly at poor women

in rural areas where services are limited. Health care infrastructure and the permanent presence of

medical doctors in the walk-in clinics are required.

Regarding domestic violence in Sucumbíos, local women’s organizations have proposed

several strategies to tackle this type of violence. The first strategy involves ensuring that women's

organizations include domestic and gender-based violence in their agendas as the top-priority

theme.738 The second strategy encourages the training of institutional staff working on education,

health, police, and the justice system, on Law 103739 and its application mechanisms, in addition

738 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 22. 739 The Law against Violence to Women and the Family was originated at the National Directorate for Women; it is

the result from the collaboration between lawyers, judges, organized women's groups, NGOs, the Commission for

Women, Children and the Family of the National Congress and the support of international agencies. It is known as

Law 103. It was adopted on 29 November 1995 and published in the Official Gazette No 839 of 11 December of the

same year.

269

to the legal framework that deals with sexual offenses.740 This strategy also needs to be targeted

at families through community activities that inform them of the social and legal consequences of

domestic violence. The third strategy looks at monitoring the authorities responsible for the

implementation and application of Law 103 and the legal framework that deals with sexual

offenses.741 The fourth strategy encourages widespread acknowledgement of domestic violence as

a public health problem. The fifth strategy suggests the establishment of police stations to serve

women at the local level, adapting the services to the sociocultural conditions of the population.

Finally, the agenda of Women of Sucumbíos seeks to improve specialized health care service

delivery for victims of violence.742 All these initiatives need special support from the state through

technical and financial resources and continuous political commitment.

To improve the lives of Afro-Ecuadorian women in Carchi, specifically in La Concepción

and the Chota Valley region, it is important to get to know the communities living on the border

by looking at their strengths and weaknesses. For this reason, it is indispensable to make visible

the historical contribution to the country's development by those border communities.743

Understanding the proposals of those communities would demonstrate respect for cultural, social

and worldview differences.

Local women in La Concepción and the Chota Valley region proposed the creation of an

accelerated baccalaureate program in their community. They believe that the main issue to be

solved in order to increase their economic security and to allow them to live with dignity is to have

access to education so as to be able to get a formal job.744 The lack of permanent access to

740 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 22. 741 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid., 22. 742 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumbíos, Ibid. 743 Interview conducted and translated by the author with Barbarita Lara, CONAMUNE-Carchi, August 23, 2013. 744 Workshops conducted with local women between July and August 2013 in Carchi and El Oro-Ecuador.

270

education and employment for women in Carchi Province affects their economic security. Since

there are no employment options in the zone, most people migrate to the big cities.

The Ecuadorian government should develop a program that provides productive rural lands

in the Chota Valley region to women and their families in order to ensure a more equitable

management of local resources. During the workshop, a local Afro-Ecuadorian woman suggested

the need for sustainable productive projects to add value to agricultural products such as beans. In

addition, the government should support and promote local community development, ensuring fair

lending and credit practices for rural Afro-Ecuadorian women. These microcredit programs must

be planned and implemented with the full participation of the Afro-Ecuadorian community of La

Concepción and the Chota Valley region. Training regarding how to produce goods and services

is fundamental, but it is also important that women receive training on how to put their local

products into the markets. Local women also want to receive training in public policy design in

order to be able to submit their proposals to local and national authorities.

Women's opportunities for work cannot be subject to traditional perceptions of their

“proper role” in society. Workshops conducted with local women in Huaquillas and La

Concepción clearly showed the need to change these type of social constructions. Engaging men

around issues of gender equality will foster alternative attitudes and actions around the social

construction of masculinity and femininity. A strategy that seeks social transformation and

incorporates public awareness through publicly campaigns and education programs is required to

tackle larger social issues, such as the low self-esteem of women. Such a strategy will in the long

term put an end to the history of women and men reproducing patriarchy in Ecuadorian society.

Such transformative programs that challenge gender stereotypes in the household, the community

and the workplace can contribute to a decrease of gender-based violence, which in Ecuador also

intersects with discrimination based on race, class and geographical location (rural-urban).

271

Therefore, any public policy in this regard requires that the Ecuadorian state takes additional steps

aimed at modifying the social constructions that determine the roles and behaviours of men and

women. This should include the design and implementation of educational programs aimed at

counteracting stereotypes and practices based on perceptions of the inferiority or superiority of

men over women. Involving men in discussions about equality would be a significant step towards

creating awareness and then transforming unequal gender relations. Educational workshops aimed

at transforming gender relations should explain that the differences between men and women are

not something natural; rather, they are supported by traditions and machismo. Workshops and

media campaigns need to be permanent to tackle machismo in order to create awareness about the

value of women at home and in society. Women want these workshops to teach men that household

chores must be shared so as to create harmonious relationships.

To summarize, this section has recommended that specific policies and programs for the

three provinces (El Oro, Carchi and Sucumbíos) must respond to the lived experiences of women

where gender, race, ethnicity and geographical location intersect. Government programs are

designed with the entire population as the target group; these programs are also directed towards

alleviating inequalities based on a single identity marker. Consequently, programs designed to

alleviate poverty among women may not work as well for Indigenous women given that the

intersection of Indigenous status is not built into these programs. Additionally, poverty programs

directed at women may have a greater impact on the lives of Mestizo women than on impoverished

Indigenous or Afro-Ecuadorian women, because they may overlook the unique problems that these

last two groups may face.

There are, of course, practical limits to these policy recommendations. First, if continuous

political will and an established budget are not guaranteed, it will be impossible to carry out the

initiatives that have been recommended. Second, if the human security policies aimed at the border

272

zones are not implemented as targeted programs aware of the intersections of race, class, gender,

and location, the historically discriminated populations will continue to be excluded. If the policies

do not reflect this uniqueness, they will remain largely ineffective in solving the human security

problems of marginalized groups. Third, strong state-society partnerships might be affected if

there is not enough cooperation and mutual trust among the partners to achieve a common goal.

Trust can be hard to obtain if there are shifts of security priorities and a permanent power inequality

between the partners. Therefore, addressing the unequal power relations between the partners can

be a great challenge. Usually, the actors in partnerships bring their own values, skills and

organisational resources, influencing power relations. In this case, new mechanisms of trust and

commitment need to be created through power sharing that avoids hierarchical relationships.

Finally, if the viability and impact of intersectional mainstreaming are not tested through a pilot

project of public policies aimed at women and their communities in the three border provinces

studied, the implementation of this approach will likely fail, which will in turn create doubts about

the effectiveness of the feminist critical human security perspective.

Approaches such as feminist critical human security to improving women's security require

transformative measures at the local and national levels. Open exchange, dialogue and state-

society partnerships could substantially enhance the conditions of security among women.

Moreover, agreement must be reach in the ideological understandings of the purpose of security

in general, and the importance of security for women in particular. If the commitment to women's

security in Carchi, Sucumbíos and El Oro provinces is genuine, then the approach to achieving it

will need to be very different from the existing one, which is rooted in a patriarchal, classist and

racist system. These systems of oppression prevent women from achieving their full potential as

equal citizens of their communities. The women in my study - Mestizo, Indigenous, Black and

Montubio from extremely impoverished rural and urban contexts in three Ecuadorian border

273

provinces- are poised to become a powerful force of change in their communities. If they receive

an education that provides them with opportunities to develop the capabilities that they need to

negotiate with local, national and international power structures, they will truly become

empowered and autonomous agents.

274

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Appendices

Appendix A: Contact letter for key informant

October 24, 2013

Dear ….,

I am a PhD candidate from the University of British Columbia-Okanagan in Canada, but I was

also a security consultant and advisor for the government of Ecuador between 2007 and 2010. In

this moment I am working in my PhD's Dissertation- research fieldwork. My focus is on Ecuador,

a country in which I have many years of experience in my field. This work is carried out with the

aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada. Information

on the Centre is available on the web at www.idrc.ca

The objective of this research is to assess the extent to which the Ecuadorian government’s border

policies related to human security include a concern for gender issues such as policies to facilitate

the participation of women on safe and productive employment and child care. I also want to

determine the extent to which Canadian international cooperation in these policies and projects

take into account the reproductive, productive, and community leadership roles of women on the

Ecuadorian borders.

In this way, due to your position as Senior Media Advisor, I will like to kindly request arrange an

interview with Francisco Cos-Montiel and/or Susanne Szabo in which I will explain in detail my

project, but I will also like to include in this project their opinion concerning international

cooperation in developing countries and how Canadian International Cooperation can be

increased and improved at Ecuador’s borders zones specifically projects involving gender issues

in Carchi, Sucumbíos, and El Oro provinces.

I will be visiting Ottawa from November 5th until November 6th 2013. Therefore, for this

interview I am able to fit my time according to your availability. I will really appreciate if you

can let me know date and time of the interview to the following email [email protected] or

250 300 0738.

Sincerely,

Claudia Donoso, PhD. Candidate

University of British Columbia-Okanagan, Canada

http://www.idrc.ca/

mailto:[email protected]

300

Appendix B: Consent form for key informant

The University of British Columbia Irving K Barber School of Arts and Sciences Unit 8 Economics, Philosophy, & Political Science Okanagan Campus 3333 University Way Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 1V7

“Women’s Human (In) Security on the Ecuadorian Borders”

INTERVIEW CONSENT FORM

I. Study Team

Who is conducting the study?

Principal Investigator: This project is conducted by Dr. James Rochlin, Political Science Professor

from the University of British Columbia- Okanagan Campus in Canada. 250-807-9388

Co-Investigator: Claudia Donoso, PhD. Candidate, Interdisciplinary Studies from the University

of British Columbia, Okanagan, Canada. This research is conducted in order to undertake field

research on “Women’s Human (In) Security on the Ecuadorian Borders” in partial fulfillment of

the Co-Investigator’s PhD Degree.

II. Sponsor

Who is funding this study?

This work is carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research

Centre, Ottawa, Canada. Information on the Centre is available on the web at www.idrc.ca

III. Invitation and Study Purpose

Why should you take part in this study? Why are we doing this study?

As an investigator or administrator regarding development, international cooperation and gender

specific public policy in Ecuador, we would like to kindly invite you to participate in this interview

of the current state of Canadian International Cooperation and gender equality in this country. This

will consist of an interview, centered upon one principal discussion point. That is, how do you see

the role of international cooperation and Canadian International cooperation as a mean to develop

and contribute to the interests of local women who live in the border provinces in Carchi,

Sucumbíos, and El Oro in Ecuador? This study will form the basis of a PhD. Dissertation regarding

http://www.idrc.ca/

301

to the address the concerns and benefit local women in the border provinces of Carchi, Sucumbíos

and El Oro in Ecuador.

III. Study Procedure

This study will consist of gathering information from individuals with vested interests in

international cooperation, public policy making, and gender. This information will be obtained

through interviews of approximately 30 minutes each. Individuals will be asked for their opinions

regarding how such strategies might be developed and implemented.

IV. Study Results

The results of this study will form the basis for a graduate thesis in Interdisciplinary

Graduate Studies at UBC. Copies of this thesis will be provided to all institutions of those who

participated in interview and focus groups. Results may also eventually be published.

V. Potential Risk of the Study

We do not believe there is anything regarding the results of this interview which may be used to

harm your personal integrity or that of your institution.

VI. Potential Benefits of the Study

Your opinion as a participant is valuable due to your professional position and experience

regarding international cooperation in developing countries such as Ecuador. This study may help

you, as well as your institution, improve and more efficiently include gender as planning issue to

increase equality and human security for women living in areas such as border zones in Ecuador.

VII. Confidentiality

All information collected during the interview will be confidential. Notes from the interview will

be transcribed and stored in a password protected, personal database at the University of British

Columbia, Okanagan. All files will be destroyed after five years in accordance to UBC Okanagan

institutional policy.

VIII. Contact for Information about the Study

If you, as a participant, have any questions regarding this study, you may contact the

Co-Investigator, Claudia Donoso, at the e-mail address listed on the footer of this consent form. If

you wish to contact the Principal Investigator, Dr. James Rochlin, you may do so using the

following e-mail address: [email protected].

IX. Contact for Complaints

If you have any concerns about your rights as a research participant and/or your experiences while

participating in this study, you may contact the Research Subject Information Line in the UBC

Office of Research Services at 1-877-822-8598 or the UBC Okanagan Research Services Office

302

at 250-807-8832. Alternatively, you may email the Research Subject Information Line at:

[email protected]

Taking part in this study is entirely up to you. You have the right to refuse to participate in this

study. If you decide not to take part, you may choose to pull out of the study at any time without

giving a reason and without any negative impact on you. If you wish to withdraw from the

interview, you may also ask for any information collected up to that point is deleted as well.

By signing below, you will consent to being interviewed and participate in this study; and

accepting that the information gathered can be used in a PhD’s Thesis, preliminary reports and

publications arising from this research.

Please print your name:_____________________________________

Participant signature:________________________ Date: ______________________

Your signature above indicates that you have received a copy of this consent form for your

own records.

303

Appendix C: Poster-Invitation for participants in workshop

Seguridad Humana de las Mujeres

en la Zona de Frontera

[Sábado 13 de Julio], 2013

9h30-15h00 Lugar: [Huaquillas]

Entrada libre

Información al [email protected]

La Universidad de British Columbia-Okanagan tiene el agrado de invitar

a mujeres de la provincia de [El Oro] a un taller de trabajo y/o entrevista

que constituyen parte del estudio"(In) Seguridad Humana de la Mujer

en las Fronteras Ecuatorianas" conducido por el Investigador principal

Dr. James Rochlin y la Co-Investigadora Claudia Donoso. Este estudio

es parte de la tesis doctoral de la co-investigadora. Este trabajo se lleva

a cabo con el apoyo financiero del Centro para la Investigación para

el Desarrollo Internacional (IDRC), Ottawa, Canadá. Información sobre

el Centro está disponible en la página web www.idrc.ca

En este estudio se discutirán sus experiencias como habitante de

frontera, los mayores problemas de desarrollo y equidad de género en

su provincia con el objeto de plantear una propuesta de seguridad

humana en la zona. Así, el estudio pretende contribuir a la planificación

de políticas públicas para aumentar la igualdad y la seguridad

humana de las mujeres que viven en áreas tales como las zonas

fronterizas de Ecuador, reconociendo la capacidad de agencia de

estas mujeres.

mailto:[email protected]

304

Appendix D: Consent form for participants in workshop

The University of British Columbia Irving K Barber School of Arts and Sciences Unit 8 Economics, Philosophy, & Political Science Okanagan Campus 3333 University Way Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 1V7

“Women’s Human (In) Security on the Ecuadorian Borders”

WORKSHOP CONSENT FORM

I. Study Team

Who is conducting the study?

Principal Investigator: This project is conducted by Dr. James Rochlin, Political Science

Professor from the University of British Columbia- Okanagan Campus in Canada. 250-807-9388

Co-Investigator: Claudia Donoso, PhD. Candidate, Interdisciplinary Studies from the University

of British Columbia, Okanagan, Canada. This research is conducted in order to undertake field

research on “Women’s Human (In) Security on the Ecuadorian Borders” in partial fulfillment of

the Co-Investigator’s PhD Degree.

II. Sponsor

Who is funding this study?

This work is carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research

Centre, Ottawa, Canada. Information on the Centre is available on the web at www.idrc.ca

III. Invitation and Study Purpose

Why should you take part in this study? Why are we doing this study?

As a representative or member of women’s organization regarding gender inequality and gender

specific public policy in Ecuador, we would like to kindly invite you to participate in this interview

of the current state of Canadian International Cooperation and gender equality in this country. This

will consist of an interview, centered upon one principal discussion point. That is, how do you see

the role of international cooperation and Canadian International cooperation as a mean to develop

and contribute to the interests of local women who live in the border provinces in Carchi,

Sucumbíos, and El Oro in Ecuador? This study will form the basis of a PhD. Dissertation regarding

to the address the concerns and benefit local women in the border provinces of Carchi, Sucumbíos

and El Oro in Ecuador.

http://www.idrc.ca/

305

III. Study Procedure

This study will consist of gathering information from individuals with vested interests in

international cooperation, public policy making, and gender. This information will be obtained

through interviews of approximately 30 minutes each. Individuals will be asked for their opinions

regarding how such strategies might be developed and implemented.

IV. Study Results

The results of this study will form the basis for a graduate thesis in Interdisciplinary

Graduate Studies at UBC. Copies of this thesis will be provided to all institutions of those who

participated in interview and focus groups. Results may also eventually be published.

V. Potential Risk of the Study

We do not believe there is anything regarding the results of this interview which may be used to

harm your personal integrity or that of your institution.

VI. Potential Benefits of the Study

Your opinion as a participant is valuable due to your professional position and experience

regarding gender inequality in developing countries such as Ecuador. This study may help you, as

well as your institution, improve and more efficiently include gender as planning issue to increase

equality and human security for women living in areas such as border zones in Ecuador.

VII. Confidentiality

All information collected during the interview will be confidential. Notes from the interview will

be transcribed and stored in a password protected, personal database at the University of British

Columbia, Okanagan. All files will be destroyed after five years in accordance to UBC Okanagan

institutional policy.

VIII. Contact for Information about the Study

If you, as a participant, have any questions regarding this study, you may contact the

Co-Investigator, Claudia Donoso, at the e-mail address listed on the footer of this consent form. If

you wish to contact the Principal Investigator, Dr. James Rochlin, you may do so using the

following e-mail address: [email protected].

IX. Contact for Complaints

If you have any concerns about your rights as a research participant and/or your experiences while

participating in this study, you may contact the Research Subject Information Line in the UBC

Office of Research Services at 1-877-822-8598 or the UBC Okanagan Research Services Office

at 250-807-8832. Alternatively, you may email the Research Subject Information Line at:

[email protected]

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Taking part in this study is entirely up to you. You have the right to refuse to participate in this

study. If you decide not to take part, you may choose to pull out of the study at any time without

giving a reason and without any negative impact on you. If you wish to withdraw from the

interview, you may also ask for any information collected up to that point is deleted as well.

By signing below, you will consent to being interviewed and participate in this study; and

accepting that the information gathered can be used in a PhD’s Thesis, preliminary reports and

publications arising from this research.

Please print your name:_____________________________________

Participant signature:________________________ Date: ______________________

Your signature above indicates that you have received a copy of this consent form for your

own records.

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Appendix E: List of Key Informants Contacted

27 Interviews y 2 Workshops

63 participants in the study in Ecuador and Canada.

Folder A (15 participants)

A1 Interview Plan Ecuador 43m50s, 1 person.

A2 Interview Centro de Vigilancia Aduanera 1h00m08s, 1 person.

A3 Interview Secretaria Técnica de Cooperación Internacional-SETECI 29m27s, 1 person.

A4 Workshop Huaquillas 2h35m41s, 8 participants.

A5 Interview Vice-alcaldesa de Huaquillas 39m16s, 1 person.

A6 Interview Oficial de Aduanas Chacras-El Oro 13m28s, 1 person.

A7 Interview Ambassador of Canada in Ecuador Pamela O’Donnell 41m39s, 2 participants.

Folder B (6 participants)

B1 Interview Comisión de Transición 1h16m17s, 1 person.

B2 Interview Comisión de Transición 54m00s, 2 participants.

B3 Interview ONU Mujeres 32m16s, 1 person.

B4 Interview Former Development Planning Officer for the Northern border 1h08m23s, 1 person.

B5 Interview Consejo Nacional de Mujeres Negra-Carchi (CONAMUNE) 49m34s, 1 person.

Folder C (9 participants)

C1 Interview FLACSO-Ecuador 32m02s, 1 person.

C2 Interview Federación de Mujeres de Sucumbíos 1h28m29s, 2 participants.

C3 Interview Fondo Canadiense para Iniciativas Locales 46m56s, 1 person.

C4 Interview ONU Mujeres 13m10s, 1 person.

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C5 Interview Senior Program Specialist Social and Economic Policy, IDRC, 1 person.

C6 Interview Ambassador of Ecuador in Canada, 1 person.

C7 Interview North-South Institute, 1 person.

C8 Interview North-South Institute, 1 person.

Folder D (28 participants)

D1 Interview Gabriela Rosero, first section 37m07s, 1 person.

D2 Interview Afro-Ecuadorian woman 27m35s, 1 person.

D3 Interview SENPLADES planning zone 1 / 47m22s, 2 participants.

D4 Interview follow up interview ONU mujeres 37m48s, 1 person.

D5 Workshop Carchi 2h11m4s, 25 participants.

Folder E (5 personas)

E1 Interview local women in Huaquillas 54m04s, 2 participants.

E2 Interview Movimiento de Mujeres El Oro 57m06s, 1 person.

E3 Interview Profesora Universidad Central Experta en temas de Género 39m21s, 1 person.

E4 Interview Director Regional de la Agencia de Control Hidrocarburífero El Oro (ARCH),

37m46s, 1 person.

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Appendix F: Interview Guides for Key Informants

Questions for human security and border security experts

1. What is your understanding of the concept of a border?

2. How do the northern border and the southern border of Ecuador differ or resemble

between each other?

3. What are the most significant border security issues faced by Ecuador?

4. Is smuggling a relevant topic for the border security agenda? Could you please explain to

me the economic losses generated by smuggling in the country?

5. What are the products that are smuggled into the borders? Are the smuggled goods

similar or different between the northern border and the southern border?

6. Has your institution identified smuggling networks within the country?

7. Are smuggling networks constituted by men or are also women involved?

8. What is the role of these women within the smuggling networks?

9. Do border authorities give privileged treatment for women who engage in smuggling? Or

do women get the same treatment as men?

10. How is smuggling penalized in Ecuador?

11. What are the steps initiated by the Government of Ecuador to improve border security?

12. How many members of [the armed forces, national police, immigration agents or customs

control agents] control smuggling at Ecuador’s borders?

13. How do you evaluate the success of the patrolling and confiscation operatives?

14. Is the border security approach focused on the militarization of the border enough to

combat security problems in the area?

15. Which security and development plans include the human security approach in Ecuador?

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16. Does the human security approach involve a gender perspective within public policy?

Questions for experts in gender and public policy

1. What is the nature of gender inequality in Ecuador? What are its causes?

2. What is necessary to improve the lives of all women in Ecuador, specifically in the border

zones?

3. What is the proper role of the state in the struggle to overcome gender inequality?

4. What are the limitations and potential dangers of using policy to resolve problems of gender

inequality?

5. How is gender mainstreaming ensured in public policy?

6. When have gender issues become institutionalised in Ecuador? Do gender issues really matter in

the Ecuadorian society?

7. How are public policies for gender equality promoted within the Ecuadorian government?

8. Could you please tell me which have been the main challenges in the application of a gender

perspective within public policies in Ecuador?

9. Which is the responsible institution for ensuring that a gender perspective is applied?

10. What public policies with a gender perspective have been planned at the national level?

11. Are there any public policies with a gender perspective in the border areas?

12. What specific policies are implemented in the provinces of Carchi, Sucumbíos and El Oro?

13. What is the role of [the academia/ your institution] in the promotion of gender equality in

Ecuador?

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Appendix G: Interview Guide for Participants

Questions for women who live in the border during discussion group

1. How long have you been living in Huaquillas/ La Concepcion?

2. How many of you have a husband?

3. Do you live with your husband? Who is the head of household? Where does your husband / father

of your children lives?

4. How many of you have children?

5. Are you full-time mothers or what other activities do you do in a daily basis?

6. Have you engaged in other activities in your community? Are you a member of an organization?

Which one? Why did you choose to become a member of that organization?

7. Do you think you have had the same opportunities as men to find work in a small town/parish like

Huaquillas/ La Concepcion?

8. Do you earn the same or less than men in the same position?

9. Is it enough what you earn in your job or need to find another source of income?

10. Do you have family on the other side of the border?

11. Do border authorities are cordial with you when crossing the border?

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Appendix H: Certificate of Approval

The University of British Columbia Okanagan Research Services Behavioural Research Ethics Board

3333 University Way Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7 Phone: 250-807-8832 Fax: 250-807-8438

CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL - MINIMAL RISK AMENDMENT

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: DEPARTMENT: UBC BREB NUMBER:

James F. Rochlin UBC/UBCO IKE Barber School of Arts & Sc/UBCO Admin Unit 8 Arts & Sci

H12-02980

INSTITUTION(S) WHERE RESEARCH WILL BE CARRIED OUT:

Institution Site

CO-INVESTIGATOR(S):

Claudia V Donoso

SPONSORING AGENCIES:

International Development Research Centre - "Women’s Human (In) Security in Ecuadorians borders"

PROJECT TITLE:

Women’s Human (In) Security in Ecuadorians borders

Expiry Date - Approval of an amendment does not change the expiry date on the current UBC BREB approval of this study. An application for renewal is required on or before: May 22, 2014

AMENDMENT(S): AMENDMENT APPROVAL DATE:

June 18, 2013

Document Name Version Date

Consent Forms:

Consent Form Workshop and individual interviews with local women English Version 2 June 17, 2013 Consent Form Workshop and individual interviews with local women Spanish Version 2 June 17, 2013 Advertisements:

Poster Spanish Version 2 June 16, 2013 Poster English Version 1 June 16, 2013 Questionnaire, Questionnaire Cover Letter,Tests:

Question for individual interview with local women Spanish and English Version 2 June 16, 2013 Other Documents:

Recruitment letter Spanish and English Version 1 June 11, 2013 Other:

N/A

The amendment(s) and the document(s) listed above have been reviewed and the procedures were found to be acceptable on ethical grounds for research involving human subjects.

Approval is issued on behalf of the Behavioural Research Ethics Board Okanagan and signed electronically

by:

Dr. Carolyn Szostak, Chair

1 FEMINIST CRITICAL HUMAN SECURITY - Open Collections

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