Indigenous passports assert self-determination in Ecuador

On October 12, 2015, the day of Indigenous Resistance, Carlos Pérez Guartambel entered Ecuador with a Kichwa passport. It caused confusion for Immigration authorities who said “We have never seen such a passport before.” Not long after, they determined that it was “not a valid document.”

Guartambel, an Indigenous lawyer and president of The Confederation of Kichwa Peoples of Ecuador (ECUARUNARI) invoked the Ecuadoran Constitution to defend his Kichwa passport. “The first Article of the Constitution establishes Ecuador as a pluri-national state, and over twenty articles recognize collective rights,” he argued. To issue a passport, he insisted, is a core dimension of Indigenous Peoples’ right to self-governance and self-determination.

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