Jaime Vargas, president of the National Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador (Conaie), was expelled last Saturday from Guatemala, where he attended to participate the day before of an assembly with representatives of peoples from other countries in the region.
According to an interview that Vargas would have offered, and that was disseminated on social networks, intelligence personnel of the Guatemalan Police would have followed him and his Ecuadorian companions, María Lozano Quizhpe and Apawki Castro Vaca, who were also expelled.
The president of the @CONAIE_Ecuador Jaime Vargas recounts what he considers intimidation of the Guatemalan Police and rejects it because “we are not like any Ecuadorian citizen, we are the authority, president of Conaie, who is like the country’s second president.” pic.twitter.com/3veU0BZ7t7
– LaHistoria (@lahistoriaec) February 16, 2020
Vargas questioned that they have been treated as suspects and not as ‘authority’ of Ecuador. “We are not any Ecuadorian citizen, or migrant say, we are authority, I am president of the indigenous movement of Ecuador, there we say the second president of the country …”.
For the Guatemalan authorities, he published the TN23 portal of that country, Vargas, Lozano and Castro would have been encouraging the spirits and doing political work. “We are not going to allow any foreign person to come to ease the spirits of our people. They were wanted in their country. The Ecuadorian authorities asked us to return them, because they have pending causes and we proceeded to do so, ”said Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, according to TN23.
[Comunicado]@jaimevargasnae, @ApawkiCastro and Luisa Lozano fulfilled activities in Guatemala at the invitation of brothers @WaqibKej. We condemn the false information about an alleged “expulsion”, according to planning this Monday 17 will be the Parliament of the Peoples in Azuay. pic.twitter.com/04VPmsP5Bp
– CONAIE (@CONAIE_Ecuador) February 16, 2020
Through a statement, Conaie rejected Vargas and his companions being expelled from Guatemala. The organization indicated that once intercepted, the Guatemalan Police verified the immigration status of the leaders and closed the procedure. (I)
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