First published at 20:51 UTC on October 14th, 2019.
Miriam Cisneros, First Female President of the Pueblo of Sarayaku, gave a heartfelt testimony telling Moreno that "My tears have dried for crying for our dead children. All the fallen brothers may rest in your conscience President."
In 20…
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Miriam Cisneros, First Female President of the Pueblo of Sarayaku, gave a heartfelt testimony telling Moreno that "My tears have dried for crying for our dead children. All the fallen brothers may rest in your conscience President."
In 2017, she said:
When I was named as President by the Congress of Sarayaku, I felt so nervous, because first of all, I did not know what challenges were awaiting me. And what I said to the women, because the women had been supporting me, was, ‘now is the time for us to demonstrate our leadership, because women have always been at the front of all of our fights, carrying our children, caring for our husbands, caring for the garden, feeding our households – in all aspects, including in the marches, so now we need to bring our strength together, to say that we are united, that we cannot be forgotten as leaders’. And so I said to them, ‘women, don’t leave me alone, I will be at the front, but it will be with the help of all of you that we will continue ahead. I will take the baton to lead not just the women, but the whole community.’ And the past presidents and leaders, wise people in the community, and the other women themselves, they have given me the support to assume this role and help strengthen my community. They have given me the strength to take on this role, so now I can say, ‘I am with my Pueblo, and my Pueblo is with me’.
With her five minutes at the Dialogue for Peace on October 13, 2019, I believe she stopped the possibility of an Ecuadorian Civil War. We shall see how Moreno lives up to his word and what happens with the IMF stipulations, but this is the speech that needs to be recorded in history books.
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