Just Water Allocation in the Dulcepamba Watershed
Current Reflections - The Mayor
Our house in San Pablo de Amalí
After everyone else had gone to bed on the night of November 8, 2016, I sat on a plastic chair on the tiny balcony of our house in San Pablo de Amalí desperately trying to refresh the New York Times’ U.S. election returns webpage. We have very little cell service here and I was switching back and forth between the presidential electoral results and those of the Senate and the House, so I only got updates on any given race every 30 minutes. I watched in horror as the NYT prediction gage went from pointing to 95% Clinton to 95% Trump in a single refresh. I sat on the balcony stunned until the sun rose.
But the U.S. presidential election was not the only tragedy of November 8, 2016--
The next day we drove up to our office in Chillanes (the county seat of the county we live in) in a daze. When we arrived, we learned that the Mayor of Chillanes had lost the final appeal in one of the highest courts in Ecuador. He had been take to prison the day before for a crime he did not commit.
Mayor Ramiro Trujillo is the most incredible person I know of to hold political office: Mayor Trujillo works with all of his heart and soul for the people of Chillanes, and is nothing but humble and selfless.
Trujillo started his public service unofficially 20 years ago. He was working as a notary for the campesinos (farmers) of Chillanes, who would bring him applications, forms, and other documents they needed notarized. He would help his clients understand the legal jargon, most of whom only had an elementary level education, and some of whom could not read or write at all. He would also go above and beyond by helping his clients actually write the documents they needed to buy and sell property, obtain permits, apply for welfare, open bank accounts, form cooperatives, and incorporate businesses, among other things. He would also write certificates of honorability and vouch for those unfairly accused in court.
Mayor Ramiro Trujillo in a televised interview in 2015
Trujillo helped hundreds of campesinos over the years and often did not charge them for his services.
Trujillo ran for Mayor of Cantón Chillanes in 2009 and won well over 80% of the vote.
On Mondays, Mayor Trujillo held office hours for his constituents. He did not leave the office until he had listened to each of their issues and requests, and had identified next steps for all of them. This means that he was in the office until 3:00 or 4:00am most Mondays working with his constituents. The Mayor spent the rest of the week out in the field, making site visits to all the various projects his office was, or would be working on throughout the cantón (county).
The projects the mayor’s office worked on under Mayor Trujillo included: building and improving roads so that some of his poorest, most remote constituents would have road access; building community centers, public bathrooms, sports fields, and multipurpose community spaces in poor rural villages; helping his constituents gain access to running water and electricity for the first time; and planning cultural events. When the municipality didn’t have enough money to answer to all of its constituents' requests, (which often happens given that Chillanes is the second poorest cantón (county) in the country and the Central government allots it a tiny budget) Mayor Trujillo would pay for drainage pipes for the roads and gasoline for the road building equipment with his own salary.
Until 2016, the only way to get to the farm where team member Darwin Paredes' parents live was an hour long, very steep hike
Thanks to Mayor Trujillo, Darwin Paredes and his mother, Clara Hurtado (and their whole family) were very happy to gain road access to their farm last year
Trujillo’s enemies searched long and hard to find something they could use against him to get rid of him for good. The best they could come up with was an alleged mismanagement of funds regarding which contractor he chose to fix a few roads. Trujillo’s enemies brought a case against him for choosing a contractor that offered more expensive cement blocks but an overall lower price, alleging that he could have disaggregated the contractors' packages and chosen the cheaper cement. This was not in fact possible given the circumstances. In all, there was only a $2000 difference between the wholesale prices of the different brands of cement.
The case against Trujillo was weak at best, but Trujillo’s enemies have power and influence all the way up the judicial chain.
Mayor Ramiro Trujillo and three others in his office were convicted and sentenced to six months in prison. As if prison is not bad enough, Trujillo has been stripped of his right to run for, or hold public office for the rest of his life—Although there still is a chance that he will have that aspect of the sentence overturned in the Constitutional Court.
As Trujillo gained notoriety and popularity in Chillanes, he also gained enemies. His enemies are members of the wealthier and politically powerful families in Chillanes, who couldn’t stand to see a “nobody” originally from another region become so popular. Trujillo’s enemies include the current National Public Defender, (the U.S. equivalent of the Attorney General) who is originally from Chillanes.
When Trujillo refused to support Hidrotambo (the company that owns the dam on the Dulcepamba River in San Pablo de Amalí), they presented a legal case against him for the crimes of terrorism and sabotage. Subsequent pressures from Hidrotambo and the national government ended with six county councilors turning against him and throwing him out of office in 2012.
You can read more about Trujillo’s experiences with Hidrotambo in this interview Rachel Conrad conducted with him, which was published in the 2015 Winter edition of The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) Report on the Americas.
...But Trujillo could not be kept down for long. He ran for mayor again in 2014 and won again by a landslide.
In 2016, Trujillo gave the Dulcepamba Project an office in one of the cantón government buildings in Chillanes as a way of providing continued support for the water rights of his campesino constituents, especially those upstream from Hidrotambo's hydro project.
Always a huge supporter of San Pablo de Amalí leaders, Mayor Trujillo publicly hailed Manuela Pacheco (pink shirt) and Manuel Trujillo (not pictured) when they were exonerated in January 2016, from the charges of terrorism and sabotage Hidrotambo had brought against them as well for peaceful resistance
2015 - Mayor Trujillo (middle, white shirt), team members Rachel Conrad (blue sweatshirt), Beatriz Stambuk (glasses), and employees of the county government including Cesar Arguello (white shirt on the far left), the lawyer that was jailed with Trujillo for alleged mismanagement of funds
Town of Chillanes: These cement block roads are common in the larger towns of Bolívar Province
PRISON (Written in February 2017):
Fridays and Saturdays are visiting days at the prison where Trujillo is being held, so every Friday we make the 3 hour drive up the hill (an elevation gain of 2300 meters) to Guaranda, the capital city of the Bolívar Province. We spend the morning in SENAGUA (the National Secretariat of Water) turning in water adjudication applications and doing various other tasks associated with the water adjudication process. Then we go through the security checks to enter the prison.
The front entrance to the prison in Guaranda where Trujillo is being held
The prison is fairly benign compared to many of the other prisons here in Ecuador, and we have made friends with several of the other prisoners there. On visiting days, both the prisoners and the visitors are permitted to sit outside in the courtyard, play soccer or volleyball, or gather in the hallways and cells.
Trujillo’s cell is a small concrete room with two bunk beds (4 beds), and a small bathroom with a cold-water shower. Six men, including Trujillo and Cesar Arguello, the lawyer who was also convicted from his office, share the cell. They are all locked in their cell from 5pm to 8:30am each day, and two of them have to sleep on the cold hard cement floor.
Trujillo has fairly severe type two diabetes, so the little bit of white rice and noodle soup that they feed him, along with all the stress, has only exacerbated his health condition to the point where the prison guards have to take him to the hospital three times a week…
But what keeps Trujillo going are the dozens of his constituents that travel long distances to visit him each week. They bring news, words of solidarity and encouragement, lots of hugs, and their guitars. They turn the bleak, concrete prison into a song and dance party with music local to Cantón Chillanes and Bolívar Province.
Trujillo has told us that if he cannot work in public office when he is released from prison, “I will still be 100% committed to working for the wellbeing of the people of my beloved Chillanes, and I see working with you [on your water justice and planning project] as a big part of that.”
A rare photo of the courtyard inside of the prison (visitors are not allowed to bring in cameras)
RELEASE (Written in May 2017):
Good news! The Mayor (as we still call him) was released from prison a little early! It’s election season here in Ecuador and the major political party currently in power, Alianza Paíz, is looking to gain more support in our region, so they pulled some strings to move up his release.
He and his family were only given three hours notice, but they were still able to get the word out, and 20 cars full of friends and Chillanes constituents came from all over the region to meet him in front of the prison. They/we escorted him on the two-hour drive to his home in the town of Chillanes. We were met by over 100 more well-wishers in front of his house.
With only 3 hours notice, 20 cars full of friends and Chillanes constituents showed up at the prison to escort Trujillo to his home, where we were met by more than 100 more
Trujillo is still getting his bearings after the stress and malnourishment of 5 months in prison. The county government has since been taken over by his previous vice-mayor, who has different goals, different staff, and different ways of operating. But Trujillo's resolve to continue to work for the wellbeing of the people of Cantón Chillanes has not wavered:
Trujillo has already started working with some of his fellow prisoners from Chillanes. Most of the prisoners in the prison in Guaranda have very little education, no resources, and no one to help them navigate the legal system. So, Trujillo is helping several of the most long-term prisoners understand the law and their rights, and is finding them proper legal representation, free of charge.
As far as his own case goes, Trujillo is still trying to regain his right to run for and hold public office. Word on the street is if he were to run for mayor again tomorrow, Trujillo would, again, win by a landslide.
That's it for now. Look out for more updates and stories and in the coming weeks, and as always, please ask us questions, share any advise or resources you have, donate to our effort, and let us know what you'd like to hear more about.
The Dulcepamba Team