'Many drown' in Ecuador shipwreck

[Eugene]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4161050.stm

Last Updated: Wednesday, 17 August 2005, 18:47 GMT 19:47 UK

'Many drown' in Ecuador shipwreck

More than 100 people are feared drowned after an Ecuadorean ship
carrying illegal migrants sank off the coast of Colombia, local
authorities have said.

The boat is thought to have sailed from the port of Manta in Ecuador.

Nine people - seven men and two women - were rescued by a fishing
vessel, the Colombian navy said. Search operations are still under way.

Ecuadorean migrants often use the route across the Pacific Ocean to try
to reach the United States.

The shipwreck is believed to have taken place more than 160km (100
miles) off the Colombian coast.

more...

[alarcojon]

1. Very sad

There are, and have been, lots of people willing to risk their lives to leave Ecuador for the US, Spain, and elsewhere. The numbers aren't like those of Mexicans willing to risk a hazardous passage into the States, but they are significant, especially considering that Ecuador is a small country. Economic duress and uncertainty, together with constant political strife, are the main reasons, IMO.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Very, very sad. So many people disappearing into the void

due to crushing poverty in their homeland.

For anyone who's uninformed, like me, who knows nothing about Equador, I found this tiny info. grab:

The Andes, dominating the country, cut across Ecuador in two ranges and reach their greatest altitude in the snowcapped volcanic peaks of Chimborazo (20,577 ft/6,272 m) and Cotopaxi (19,347 ft/5,897 m). Within the mountains are high, often fertile valleys, where grains are cultivated, and the major urban centers, such as Quito, Cuenca, and Riobamba, are located. Earthquakes are frequent and often disastrous; in 1949 the city of Ambato was leveled. East of the Andes is a region of tropical jungle, through which run the tributaries of the Amazon River. The Pacific coast region, with hot, humid valleys north of the Gulf of Guayaquil, is the source of Ecuador's chief exports including oil and coffee. Large deposits of oil are also located in the northeast.

Most of the population live in the highlands. Over half of the people are mestizo, and a quarter are indigenous. Spanish is the official language, but many natives speak Quechua or Jarvo. European-descended residents, who account for about 10% of the population, are mostly landholders and play a dominant role in Equador's unstable political life. Some 10% of the country's inhabitants are of African descent. Roman Catholicism is the main religion, although there is no established church. Ecuador has ten universities.
(snip/)

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0857891.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's the jist of a statement made to FTAA officials in Quito, Equador by a large gathering of citizens protesting the coming agreement which IN NO WAY BENEFITS the people of Equador:

Leonidas Iza, the
President of the CONAIE (the Ecuadorian indigenous federation), stated the
social movements clear rejection of the FTAA and of neoliberalism in
general. We are in desperate shape, he told the ministers. You couldnt
possibly understand, you who were born in golden cradles and have never
suffered (at this the ministers looked even more uncomfortable). But we
dont have food to feed our children. Our markets are flooded with cheap
imports. Imported milk is dumped in Ecuador for half of what it costs to
produce it, but transnationals sell it back to us at $1.80
per litre. We have no way to live, and the FTAA will only make it worse.
When we complain, the U.S. government calls us terrorists. We are not
threatening anything, but we are hungry and tired and things have to
change.
(snip)

http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/a-list/2002w45/msg00037.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Judi Lynn]

3. Survivor: Dozens locked in hold when boat sank

Survivor: Dozens locked in hold when boat sank

Thursday, August 18, 2005; Posted: 1:29 p.m. EDT (17:29 GMT)

MANTA, Ecuador (Reuters) -- An Ecuadorean teenager who survived days in the sea clinging to a barrel of fuel said Thursday that dozens of people who hoped to emigrate to the United States were locked in the hold of a boat when it sank.

More than 100 Ecuadoreans drowned when the wooden fishing boat with a capacity for 13 people sank in the Pacific Ocean last week. Nine people survived by hanging on to fuel and water tanks until a passing boat picked them up on Sunday. Four others who initially escaped the sinking vessel gave in to exhaustion and drowned.

The trip was organized by smugglers charging $10,000 to bring people to the United States. No arrests have been made.

Maria Cuzco, 15, described the moment when the boat sank in a heavy sea.

"When we were hit by the giant waves, the people who were in the hold screamed and wept, but they couldn't get out because it was locked," Cuzco told Reuters in a police station in the port of Manta where she was helping investigators.
(snip/...)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/08/18/ecuador.sink.reut/index.html

[alarcojon]

4. As an Ecuadorean-American, this story hits very close to home

The incident illustrated the ruthlessness of human traffickers as well as the risks people were willing to run to escape Ecuador, where 60 percent live in poverty and three presidents have been toppled amid popular unrest since 1997.

U.S. and Ecuadorean authorities have rescued 400 would-be migrants from Ecuador in rickety boats in the Pacific so far this year.

At least 500,000 Ecuadoreans -- about one in 25 of the population -- have left their country since 1997, mainly heading for Spain and the United States.

My parents came here for economic opportunity in the early sixties, and I and my sisters were born and raised in Chicago. Fortunately, my folks had the means and opportunity to fly into the States, find work, and raise a family.

I don't even know how these people scraped up $10,000 for this voyage under sub-human conditions.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Ecuadorean survivors tell of horror in Pacific, passengers sliding into wa

Ecuadorean survivors tell of horror in Pacific, passengers sliding into water one by one

By Edison Lopez
ASSOCIATED PRESS

1:16 p.m. August 18, 2005

MANTA, Ecuador – Last week, 113 men, women and children boarded a tiny fishing boat with dreams of a new life in the United States. On Thursday, only nine were believed alive after clinging for days to debris in the Pacific Ocean, watching their companions let go – one by one – and slip below the water.

Pedro Diaz, a heavyset 28-year-old farmer, cried bitterly as he recalled the final words of his sister-in-law before she let go of the plastic barrel keeping them afloat.

"Carmen said to me, 'Save yourself if you can so you can tell this story,'" he told The Associated Press.

The group assembled before sunrise on Aug. 12 in Esmeraldas, 125 miles north of Manta. The 65-foot fishing boat was built for only 10 people, Ecuador's navy said, but the smugglers loaded 113 aboard for the journey to Guatemala, expected to last six or seven days.
(snip/...)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20050818-1316-ecuador-boatsinks.html