The people of Ecuador are rising up to refound their country as a pluri-national homeland for all. This inspiring movement, with Ecuador's indigenous peoples at its heart, is part of the revolution spreading across the Americas, laying the groundwork for a new, fairer, world. Ecuador Rising aims to bring news and analysis of events unfolding in Ecuador to english speakers.

Friday, January 12, 2007

President Rafael Correa take power next Sunday in an indigenous ceremony

12/1/07

Translated from Rebelion

The president-elect of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, will symbolically take office next Sunday in an indigenous ceremony in the Andean páramo (highlands) to which the leaders of both Bolivia and Venezuela have been invited, according to the prefect, César Umajinga.

He indicated that the act will take place in the indigenous community of Zumbahua (in the province of Cotopaxi, in the south), where Correa undertook a year of community work with Salesian priests during the 80’s.

“In the Tantarimuy ceremony (Gathering of the Peoples of America), Rafael Correa will be symbolically inaugurated and will receive the baton of command (made of wood and multicoloured tapes representing the diversity of the country) before 40 thousand people from the indigenous and social sectors”, Umajinga declared.

He added that Correa, who assumes office before the unicameral Congress on January 15, will also participate in an outdoor mass that Salesian priests will celebrate in Kichwa (the main indigenous tongue) and that 'native healers' will conduct a 'cleansing' of the recently elected leader to “clear him of bad energies”.

Umajinga, prefect of Cotopaxi and ex-student of Correa in Zumbahua - where he taught mathematics classes, wrote down that the indigenous people will also give him a whip so that “he leads the people well and provides them with work”.

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