The Indigenous and Peasant Movement of Cotopaxi (MICC) today denounced an alleged assassination attempt against Leonidas Iza, former president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) and former presidential candidate for Pachakutik.

This crime is not an isolated incident, it is the continuation of a systematic policy of persecution, harassment, death threats and discredit against our organisational structures and against those who raise our voices against a government subservient to economic elites, added the MICC.

The collective held President Daniel Noboa responsible for any action against the life of the leader and other indigenous leaders.

Iza, for his part, accompanied by dozens of people from his community, spoke about the incident and denounced that two alleged police agents had followed his steps from a taxi to spy on his movements.

«I decided to go out into the street and stop the vehicle. At that moment the pickup truck comes at full speed and the young man driving stopped, but the two policemen accompanying him shouted at him to run me over,» recounted the former president of Conaie.

Furthermore, he related that when the vehicle stopped, he questioned its occupants about the reasons for their presence in the area and it was then that the men confessed they were acting on orders from state intelligence, whose objective would be to end his life.

The MICC, which brings together 33 organisations and 510 communities, declared itself in a permanent and indefinite assembly «until the involved intelligence agents are sanctioned and the machinery of political persecution against the peoples is stopped».

Additionally, they called upon the peoples and nationalities of Ecuador, as well as the international community, to remain alert to the «authoritarianism and state terrorism that is attempting to establish itself in the country».