U.S. Trade representative Zoellick put in uncomfortable position.

• Position: Protests against proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas

Food First / Institute for Food and Development Policy, www.foodfirst.org

Quito, November 1, 2002: The protests against the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)--and the police violence that rocked Quito during the day yesterday--ended on a positive note for protesters in the evening, putting the Bush Administration's negotiator, Mr. Robert Zoellick, in an embarrassing and awkward position.

At about 3 pm yesterday, after the worst of the police violence against the tens of thousands of indigenous people, farmers, students and other members of civil society from across the Americas had taken place, a police platoon, including various officers, rebelled against their own government and joined with indigenous leaders and other protesters in demanding that the trade ministers from 34 countries meeting to negotiate the FTAA agree to receive a delegation from the protesters carrying a declaration of opposition to the FTAA.

According to sources, this news rocked a government that has seen two previous presidents thrown out of office by the indigenous movement in alliance with rebel security forces. At that point, the Ecuadorian government sent in the army to relieve the police and began to lean heavily on the trade ministers, and especially on Mr. Zoellick, the US Trade Representative, to accede to the protesters' demands.

As the popular movements re-grouped at Arbolito Park in the afternoon, the government extracted a reluctant offer from the ministers to receive a delegation composed of two representatives of the protesters. When the indigenous leaders of the CONIAE, Leonidas Iza and Blanca Chancoso, said no to the offer, the ministers came with an offer of ten. When that was refused they said that 30 people could come, but that too was refused, as was an offer of forty. The protesters finally accepted to send a delegation of 50 people, over the strenuous objections of Mr. Zoellick, to be accompanied by the entire march up to the innermost security perimeter.

At about 6:30 pm the delegation passed the barricades, escorted by special forces soldiers heavily armed with automatic weapons. Although the agreement was for a delegation of fifty, in fact 65 protesters managed to get into the meeting at the Swiss Hotel. The delegation included the top leadership of Latin America's most powerful social movements, including Iza and Chancoso from the CONIAE, Joao Pedro Stedile of the Landless Workers' Movement (MST) of Brazil, Rafael Alegria of...