"Graduate Studies, College of (Okanagan)"@en . "DSpace"@en . "UBCO"@en . "Donoso, Claudia"@en . "2016-11-10T04:03:29"@en . "2016"@en . "Doctor of Philosophy - PhD"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "The study addresses the following central research question: What comprises the web of power relations that have led to women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border provinces, El Oro, Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos? A web of power relationships in those provinces has perpetuated intersectional inequalities that lead women to become smugglers. This web is supported by systems of oppression based on gender, class, race and geographical location that foster unequal access to education, paid work, health services and domestic violence, thereby aggravating women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity. Customs control, police and military subsumed under national and border security aggravate women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security conditions. To complement this militarized response, the government of Rafael Correa launched Plan Ecuador and the Sovereign Energy Plan in 2007 and the Comprehensive Security Plan in 2011. These plans sought to confront the involvement of Ecuadorians in activities considered illegal by the security forces. While Plan Ecuador and the Integral Security Plan incorporated a multidimensional approach and a human security discourse to complement national security, they did not recognize the diversity of women's experiences of insecurity and roles at border provinces. To address this empirical case, this dissertation advances the concept of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfeminist critical human security\u00E2\u0080\u009D to examine women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones, specifically in El Oro, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and Carchi provinces. Drawing on Black feminism\u00E2\u0080\u0099s idea of intersectionality and matrix of domination and on feminist critiques of national security, this research establishes women smugglers as referents of security rather than as criminals, as the border security discourse views them. By using a feminist critical human security lens that take into account the intersections of gender, race, class and geographical location and that includes the voices of women and their conceptions of local development and security, this research will enhance the ability of governments to improve their planning and policies related to increasing the security of women in border zones."@en . "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/59656?expand=metadata"@en . " 1 FEMINIST CRITICAL HUMAN SECURITY: WOMEN\u00E2\u0080\u0099S (IN) SECURITY AND SMUGGLING ON ECUADOR'S BORDERS by Claudia Donoso A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Interdisciplinary Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan Campus) November 2016 \u00C2\u00A9 Claudia Donoso, 2016 ii Examination Committee The undersigned certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled: FEMINIST CRITICAL HUMAN SECURITY: WOMEN\u00E2\u0080\u0099S (IN) SECURITY AND SMUGGLING ON ECUADOR'S BORDERS _____________________________________________________________________________ submitted by Claudia Donoso in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY. Dr. James Rochlin, Department of Political Science. Supervisor, Professor (please print name and faculty/school above the line) Dr. Patricia Tomic, Department of Sociology. Supervisory Committee Member, Professor (please print name and faculty/school in the line above) Dr. Ricardo Trumper, Department of Sociology. Supervisory Committee Member, Professor (please print name and faculty/school in the line above) Dr. Susan Frohlick, Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies. University Examiner, Professor (please print name and faculty/school in the line above) Dr. Pablo Andrade, Universidad Andina Sim\u00C3\u00B3n Bol\u00C3\u00ADvar, Ecuador. External Examiner, Professor (please print name and university in the line above) November, 2016 (Date Submitted to Grad Studies) iii Abstract The study addresses the following central research question: What comprises the web of power relations that have led to women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border provinces, El Oro, Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos? A web of power relationships in those provinces has perpetuated intersectional inequalities that lead women to become smugglers. This web is supported by systems of oppression based on gender, class, race and geographical location that foster unequal access to education, paid work, health services and domestic violence, thereby aggravating women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity. Customs control, police and military subsumed under national and border security aggravate women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security conditions. To complement this militarized response, the government of Rafael Correa launched Plan Ecuador and the Sovereign Energy Plan in 2007 and the Comprehensive Security Plan in 2011. These plans sought to confront the involvement of Ecuadorians in activities considered illegal by the security forces. While Plan Ecuador and the Integral Security Plan incorporated a multidimensional approach and a human security discourse to complement national security, they did not recognize the diversity of women's experiences of insecurity and roles at border provinces. To address this empirical case, this dissertation advances the concept of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfeminist critical human security\u00E2\u0080\u009D to examine women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones, specifically in El Oro, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and Carchi provinces. Drawing on Black feminism\u00E2\u0080\u0099s idea of intersectionality and matrix of domination and on feminist critiques of national security, this research establishes women smugglers as referents of security rather than as criminals, as the border security discourse views them. By using a feminist critical human security lens that take into account the intersections of gender, race, class and geographical location and that includes the voices of women and their conceptions of local development and security, this research will iv enhance the ability of governments to improve their planning and policies related to increasing the security of women in border zones. v Preface This dissertation is an original intellectual product of the author, Claudia Donoso. The fieldwork reported herein was covered by UBC Okanagan Behavioural Ethics Board and UBC Ethics Certificate number H12-02980. The results of the fieldwork were presented at the Canadian Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CALACS) 2014 conference in Quebec City on May 16-18, 2014, at the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development (CASID) 2015 conference in Ottawa on June 3-5, 2015, and at the CALACS 2016 conference at the University of Calgary on June 3, 2016. vi Table of Contents Examination Committee .............................................................................................................. ii Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ iii Preface ........................................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ ix List of Maps ................................................................................................................................... x Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... xi Dedication .................................................................................................................................... xii Chapter 1. Conceptual framework and methodology ............................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Conceptual framework.............................................................................................................. 5 1.2.1 National Security ............................................................................................................ 8 1.2.2 Human Security and Critical Human Security ............................................................. 12 1.2.3 Feminist\u00E2\u0080\u0099s critiques of national security ...................................................................... 22 1.2.4 Intersectionality and women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity ..................................................................... 28 1.2.5 Feminist critical human security .................................................................................. 36 1.2.6 Border ........................................................................................................................... 43 1.2.7 Power ............................................................................................................................ 49 1.2.7.1 Power as domination ................................................................................................. 50 1.2.7.2 Power as empowerment............................................................................................. 54 1.2.7.3 Feminist critical human security\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conception of power ........................................... 58 1.2.8 Summary of the theoretical approach ........................................................................... 61 1.3 Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 63 1.3.1 Methods ........................................................................................................................ 64 1.3.2 Quantitative and Qualitative Data ................................................................................ 70 1.3.3 Successes and problems encountered in data collection activities ............................... 71 Chapter 2. Ecuadorian Policy on Security ............................................................................... 75 2.1 National Security as viewed by the Ecuadorian state ......................................................... 75 2.1.1 The State under Rafael Correa and Methods of Security Control ................................ 90 2.1.2 New threats to Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border security under Rafael Correa ................................... 99 2.1.3 Smuggling of fuels and propane cylinders on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s northern and southern borders ............................................................................................................................................. 103 vii 2.2 Human Security: a new paradigm in Ecuadorian security policy? ................................... 115 2.2.1 Human Security as a complement to National Security Initiatives on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Borders ................................................................................................................................ 115 2.2.2 Lack of continuity within public policy and permanent shifts in security priorities .. 120 2.3 Summary of the Chapter ................................................................................................... 127 Chapter 3. Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Insecurity and National Security ........................................................ 128 3.1 National Security and Women Smugglers in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Borders Areas .......................... 128 3.2 Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Insecurity in Ecuador: Intersectional Inequalities ............................................ 143 3.2.1 Violence against Women............................................................................................ 149 3.2.2 Education and Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Security .............................................................................. 151 3.2.3 Labor Market and Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Security ........................................................................ 154 3.3 Planning Feminist Critical Human Security in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Border Zones ......................... 165 3.3.1 Gender mainstreaming vs. Intersectionality mainstreaming ...................................... 170 3.4 Intersectionality in Public Policy ...................................................................................... 176 3.5 Summary of the Chapter ................................................................................................... 182 Chapter 4. Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Insecurity in Carchi, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and El Oro ..................................... 186 4.1 Intersectionality and Women's Security in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Carchi and El Oro ..................... 189 4.1.1 Northern Border ......................................................................................................... 192 4.1.1.1 Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos-Lago Agrio ........................................................................................ 196 4.1.1.2 Carchi-La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n -Chota Valley ................................................................. 217 4.1.1.2.1 Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations in Carchi ............................................................... 222 4.1.1.2.2 Border Security ............................................................................................ 224 4.1.1.2.3 Employment ................................................................................................. 227 4.1.1.2.4 Women and intersectional inequalities ........................................................ 229 4.1.2 Southern Border ......................................................................................................... 233 4.1.2.1 Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Insecurity in Huaquillas- El Oro ......................................................... 236 4.1.2.1.1 Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations in El Oro ............................................................... 239 4.1.2.1.2 Border Security ............................................................................................ 243 4.1.2.1.3 Employment ................................................................................................. 247 4.1.2.1.4 Women and intersectional inequalities ........................................................ 251 4.2 Summary of the Chapter ................................................................................................... 254 Chapter 5. Analytical Conclusions .......................................................................................... 258 5.1 Theoretical implications .................................................................................................... 258 5.2 Policy Recommendations .................................................................................................. 262 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 274 viii Appendices ................................................................................................................................. 299 Appendix A: Contact letter for key informant ........................................................................ 299 Appendix B: Consent form for key informant ........................................................................ 300 Appendix C: Poster-Invitation for participants in workshop .................................................. 303 Appendix D: Consent form for participants in workshop ....................................................... 304 Appendix E: List of Key Informants Contacted ..................................................................... 307 Appendix F: Interview Guides for Key Informants ................................................................ 309 Appendix G: Interview Guide for Participants ....................................................................... 311 Appendix H: Certificate of Approval...................................................................................... 312 ix List of Tables Table 1. Value in US dollars of Apprehensions of Merchandise in Zone 1 \u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6.. 110 Table 2. Value in US dollars of Apprehensions of Merchandise in Zone 7 ............................. 112 Table 3. Paid and unpaid average work hours per week by gender and ethnicity\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6.. 160 Table 4. Average hours per week spent on unpaid work by gender and ethnicity\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6. 161 Table 5. Work load by level of education, gender and ethnicity/ Average hours per week\u00E2\u0080\u00A6... 162 Table 6. Ethnic groups in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Carchi and El Oro .......................................................... 189 Table 7. Fields in which inhabitants of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Carchi and El Oro work ........................... 190 Table 8. Homicide rate in the Andean Region ........................................................................... 194 Table 9. Human Insecurity Problems of Local Women from La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and Chota Valley..226 Table 10. Employment problems of local women from La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and Chota Valley ....... 227 Table 11. Equality demands of local women from La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and Chota Valley .............. 231 Table 12. Border security demands of local women in Huaquillas ............................................ 245 Table 13. Employment demands of local women in Huaquillas ................................................ 249 Table 14. Gender equality demands of local women in Huaquillas ........................................... 253 x List of Maps Map 1. Ecuador's Border ............................................................................................................ 191 Map 2. Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Province\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6... 197 Map 3. Carchi Province\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6.. 217 Map 4. La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n Parish\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6. 219 Map 5. El Oro Province\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u00A6.. 237 xi Acknowledgements I offer my enduring gratitude to the faculty, staff and to my fellow students at UBC-Okanagan, who inspired me to continue my work. I owe particular thanks to my supervisor, Dr. James Rochlin, to my committee members, Dr. Patricia Tomic and Dr. Ricardo Trumper, the university examiner, Dr. Susan Frohlick, and the external examiner, Dr. Pablo Andrade, for their thoughtful reading of this dissertation and their invaluable suggestions. I thank the Transition Commission to the Council of Women and Gender Equality (CDT), UN Women-Ecuador, Movimiento de Mujeres El Oro, Confederaci\u00C3\u00B3n Nacional de Mujeres Negras del Ecuador (CONAMUNE), Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, and FLACSO-Ecuador for enlarging my vision of equality and human security and providing coherent answers to my endless questions. This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada. Information on the Centre is available on the web at www.idrc.ca xii Dedication To my sons Juancho and Nacho, my companions during this journey. To my father for his great emotional support. To my mother and all those women who inspired this research. 1 Chapter 1. Conceptual framework and methodology 1.1 Introduction This dissertation analyzes the main critical human security problems faced by women in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border provinces, namely unemployment, health, a lack of access to education and training, and domestic violence. More particularly, the dissertation examines smuggling as a case study that illustrates how systems of oppression based on intersected gendered, class, race and geographical inequalities interact at the border. My research seeks to understand what comprises the web of power relations that have led to women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border provinces, El Oro, Carchi, and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos? Thus, it analyses how women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s involvement in smuggling is related to conditions of insecurity at the border. It also strives to assess the extent to which Ecuadorian public policies related to human security at its northern and southern borders encourage the security and well-being of local women, taking into consideration the intersections of gender, race, class and geographical location. Through a feminist critical human security lens, this research establishes women smugglers as referents of security rather than as criminals, as the border security discourse views them. Intersectional inequalities may lead women to become smugglers, but they can be both empowered and dominated by smuggling fuel, propane cylinders and other goods in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s aforementioned border provinces. My research employs the theoretical framework of critical human security and feminist security. The utility of the concept of human security from a feminist perspective is explained by first outlining the history of the concept, culminating in the concept of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfeminist critical human security\u00E2\u0080\u009D drawing on the works of feminist critiques of national security. In addition, by applying Black feminist Kimberl\u00C3\u00A9 Williams Crenshaw\u00E2\u0080\u0099s idea of intersectionality and Patricia Hill Collins\u00E2\u0080\u0099 2 concept of the matrix of domination to the notion of a feminist critical human security approach, it is possible to be attentive to power relations and to understand how insecurity is embedded into people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s daily lives and livelihoods in ways that are classed, gendered, racialized and geographical at Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders. By using a feminist critical human security lens that takes into account the intersections of gender, race, class and geographical location and that includes the voices of women and their conceptions of local development and security, this research will enhance the ability of governments to improve policies related to increasing the security of women in border zones. The first chapter explains the conceptual framework and methodology used in this study. I begin the conceptual discussion by explaining the state-centric concept of national security through Realism as the dominant school of thought in International Relations Theory. I then discuss the concept of human security as emancipatory and focused on the security of the individual and communities rather than on the security of the state. By doing so, I question traditional constructs of national security and national interest through a critical human security approach and a feminist critique of national security that enrich the understanding of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security. I argue that national security, as a masculinized, racialized and militarized discourse, deploys border security practices that criminalize women smugglers. In this sense, security forces as the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cknowers\u00E2\u0080\u009D of security issues have excluded the security of women. The concept of feminist critical human security is usefully advanced when analyzing the need to transform the national security approach used by the state. In this dissertation, feminist critical human security is understood as an emancipatory approach for women and their local communities in which the intersectionality of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity is recognized. Such a concept recognizes that the conditions of insecurity of women are aggravated by border security practices and the urban/rural dichotomy and by racial and class discrimination in Ecuadorian society. 3 Through this feminist critical human security framework, I analytically review the traditional understanding of the border and other perceptions that view the border as a space of integration where multiple identities encounter each other. Regarding the methodological approach, in this first chapter I explain that feminist methodologies in political sciences and international relations influenced the collection of quantitative and qualitative data as well as the fieldwork carried out in Ecuador between June 2013 and May 2014, which included workshops with local women and interviews with functionaries, feminist scholars, women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organization leaders, and local women. The fieldwork was completed by examining national statistics and census data and by conducting an analysis of Ecuadorian mass media sources at the national and local levels. The second chapter examines the Ecuadorian policy on security through two theoretical approaches, namely national security and human security. Realism has been the dominant approach in the field of international relations; it focuses on state security and national interests. Smuggling, as an \u00E2\u0080\u009Cillicit economy,\u00E2\u0080\u009D is viewed as a new threat to Ecuadorian national security; national security initiatives to tackle it are patrolling and customs surveillance. In contrast, human security emphasizes the importance of the security of the individual and their community. In this chapter, I also reveal how Ecuadorian security policies have manipulated the concept of human security to complement national security and to maximize national interests, provoking the failure of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security at the borders. In the third chapter, I take up the challenge of discussing feminist critical human security as an emancipatory approach for the wellbeing of women and their communities in three provinces on the Ecuadorian borders. The chapter studies the extent to which smuggling has become a borderland economic dynamic that empowers and dominates women. The chapter applies the concept of power as domination and empowerment from a feminist perspective. The chapter also 4 examines border concepts explained by local experts, local authorities and women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organization leaders in order to better comprehend the debate between traditional and alternative understandings of the border. The chapter recommends that the Ecuadorian government develop feminist critical human security to emancipate local women and their communities rather than a fake alternative that \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccomplements\u00E2\u0080\u009D its national security, ultimately regulating women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s bodies through border security practices. Using a feminist critical human security lens, the fourth chapter assesses the extent to which the intersectionality of inequalities based on race, class, gender and geographical location at the Ecuadorian borders with Peru and Colombia has encouraged women to become involved in smuggling. The chapter also reviews security and development planning agendas in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zone and the border dynamic in the three Ecuadorian provinces chosen for this study. This chapter incorporates mainstream media analysis and a significant amount of testimony collected during my fieldwork conducted in Ecuador during the summer of 2013. It also includes local women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s contributions made during workshops conducted with the support of the Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Movement in El Oro Province (MMO) and the Black Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Movement in Carchi Province (CONAMUNE). The results of the Women Federation of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos\u00E2\u0080\u0099 agenda are also included. Finally, the fifth chapter presents my conclusions regarding the theoretical and policy implications of my research for Ecuador, including suggestions for Ecuadorian public policy initiatives that include women's voices. It is recommended to include intersectionality mainstreaming in the policy design cycle. This chapter suggests the need for a public policy within an intersectional framework to improve women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s wellbeing in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones. 5 1.2 Conceptual framework The main critical human security problems faced by women in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border provinces are unemployment, health, lack of access to education and training, and domestic violence. This dissertation analyzes smuggling as a case study that illustrates how systems of oppression based on intersected gendered, class, race and geographical inequalities interact at the border. This chapter develops the conceptual framework and methodology that contribute to the analysis of the security of local women in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones, specifically in El Oro, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and Carchi provinces. Such an analysis makes possible to understand what comprises the web of power relations that lead to women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity at the border and to determine whether their smuggling indicates their empowerment or domination. My research combines the theoretical framework of critical human security and feminist security. Subsequently, I propose the concept of feminist critical human security, which draws on the works of feminist critiques of national security, on Black feminist Kimberl\u00C3\u00A9 Williams Crenshaw\u00E2\u0080\u0099s idea of intersectionality, and on Patricia Hill Collins\u00E2\u0080\u0099 concept of the matrix of domination. A feminist critical human security allows this research to be attentive to power relations and understand how insecurity at Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders is rooted in people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s daily lives in ways that are classed, gendered, racialized, and discriminatory depending on geographical location. Through a feminist critical human security lens, this research establishes women who smuggle as referents of security rather than as criminals, as the border security discourse views them. The conceptual discussion analyzes the state-centric concept of national security through Realism as the dominant school of thought in International Relations Theory. The concept of human security is then discussed as emancipatory and focused on the security of the individual and communities rather than on the security of the state. By doing so, this dissertation questions traditional constructs of national security and national interest through a critical human security 6 approach that incorporates feminist critiques of national security, in order to understand women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security in particular. The concept of feminist critical human security is proposed to support the need to transform the national security approach used by the state. Feminist critical human security is understood as an emancipatory approach for women and their local communities in which the intersectionality of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity is recognized. Thus, feminist critical human security recognizes that the conditions of insecurity of women are aggravated by the urban/rural dichotomy and by racial and class discrimination in Ecuadorian society in general and patriarchal and racist border security practices in particular. Through this feminist critical human security framework, I review the traditional understanding of the border and contrast it with views of borders as spaces of integration and of intersection of multiple identities. In this first chapter, I discuss the methodological approach of my dissertation. I used feminist methodologies in political sciences and international relations to collect quantitative and qualitative data during the fieldwork that was carried out between June 2013 and May 2014. Feminist critical human security determined the methods chosen in this research, which included workshops conducted with local women in Ecuador and interviews with Ecuadorian functionaries, feminist experts and women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organization leaders. The research topic was also approached by examining national statistics and census data and by conducting an analysis of Ecuadorian mass media sources at the national and local levels. Even though, the women studied had not written security documents that I could read and analyze, I set out to research security from the perspective of local women. In preparing for the fieldwork, I conducted research on women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organization in the three provinces chosen for this study. I was then able to select key organizations that, in my view, represented the different identities and interests of women at the border. To gain a better understanding of what security meant to those women, I conducted interviews and workshops with local women in the provinces 7 of Carchi, El Oro and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. The participants were low-income, black, Indigenous and mestizo women that suffer at least a triple discrimination. Since they have experienced racism, sexism, and classism, their security has multiple roots within the systems of power. This section discusses the concepts that will be applied to the empirical case studied in this dissertation. The central ideas from which I borrow to form the conceptual framework for my thesis are national security, human security, critical human security, feminist security, feminist critical human security, border and power. I begin by explaining that, from the perspective of the realist school of thought, the state-centric concept of national security is primarily concerned with the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s national interest and security agenda. In order to challenge this state-centric view, this dissertation discusses the concept of human security as emancipatory and focused on the security of the individual and the community rather than on the security of the state. To enrich the understanding of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security, I question masculinized and militarized constructs of national security and national interest through a feminist security lens. In this sense, the concept of feminist critical human security seeks to transform the national security discourse deployed by border security practices that criminalize women smugglers. This feminist critical human security framework challenges the traditional understanding of the border, questions patriarchal border security practices and locates women at the center of security concerns. By recognizing the intersectionality of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity experiences, the feminist critical human security perspective acknowledges that the insecurity of women at the border is the result of inequalities based on race, class, gender and the urban/rural dichotomy. The feminist critical human security approach is emancipatory, as it fosters women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s empowerment and active participation in their communities. 8 1.2.1 National Security I analyze the concept of national security through Realism, which is the mainstream theory in international relations. For Realism, states are the principal actors in global politics, emphasizing issues such as power,1 national interest and national security. International politics has been linked to the idea of human nature, where the concept of interest is defined in terms of power.2 The realist view of security emanates from the survival of the state in an anarchic international system in order to preserve a state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s sovereignty.3 For classical realism, political issues are ruled by human nature;4 anarchy, in the absence of international government, turns international relations into the realm of competition and interest. Furthermore, state behavior seeks to maximize its power so as to survive in an international anarchical system that lacks a higher authority to enforce laws. Hence, realism views military superiority as the core of power, where inter-state relationships are dominated by powerful states imposing demands on the less powerful. For realists, international relations have included an important security component sustained and supported by a state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s national interest; thus, the interrelation between a state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security and national interest has fostered a national security approach within international relations. A national security approach fosters a self-interested agenda in which power is viewed as the political and military manipulation of one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s own position to pressure others. In this sense, the 1 From a classical realist perspective, power is located in human nature. Hans Morgenthau in particular understood power as a psychogenic and inter-subjective condition of politics. See more at Hans J. Morgenthau, \u00E2\u0080\u0098\u00C3\u009Cber die Herkunft des Politischen aus dem Wesen des Menschen\u00E2\u0080\u0099, 1930 (Container 151, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC), 43. 2 Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, 4th ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967), 4-5. 3 Bj\u00C3\u00B6rn Hettne, \u00E2\u0080\u009CDevelopment and security,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Security Dialogue 41, no. 1 (2010): 33. 4 In his book \u00E2\u0080\u009CLeviathan\u00E2\u0080\u009D, Hobbes views human nature as the right of nature that allows each man to use his own power as his will to preserve his own life. This natural right of every man reveals that there is not security for any man despite its strength or wisdom. The condition of man is the condition of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwarre\u00E2\u0080\u009D where every man is against the other. Every man is governed by his own reason. See Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan (London: The Guernsey Press, 1973), 66-67. 9 concept of national security is particularly important for the national interests of the state such as Ecuador. National security is a part of government policy; its objective is the creation of national and international political conditions favorable to the protection or extension of vital national values against existing and potential adversaries.5 National security includes a traditional defense policy and also the non-military actions of a state designed to ensure its total capacity to survive as a political entity in order to exert influence and to carry out its internal and international objectives.6 Nevertheless, it has been claimed that national security is an ambiguous concept that remains a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cweakly conceptualized, ambiguously defined, but politically powerful concept\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 For practitioners of state policy, compelling reasons exist for maintaining its symbolic ambiguity\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 An undefined notion of national security offers scope for power-maximizing strategies to political and military elites, because of the considerable leverage over domestic affairs which can be obtained by invoking it.\u00E2\u0080\u009D7 The ambiguity of the concept of national security is related to its intrinsic subjectivity, particularly in defining threats to any nation\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security.8 A threat to national security can be defined as an action or sequence of events that threatens drastically to degrade the quality of life for the inhabitants of a state, or threatens significantly to narrow the range of policy choices available to a government of a state.9 Consequently, a state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s definition of threats to national security varies according to the national and international context, encouraging the construction of self-interested security agendas and strategies based on a state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s national interests. 5 Frank N. Trager and Frank L. Simonie, \u00E2\u0080\u009CAn Introduction to the study of national security,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in F. N. Trager and P.S Kronenberg, National Security and American Society Theory, Process and Policy (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1973), 36. 6 Michael Louw, National Security a modern approach: (papers presented at the Symposium on national security held at Pretoria, 31 March-1 April 1977), the quote is for the introductory note titled \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe purpose of the symposium.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Published 1978 by Institute for Strategic Studies, University of Pretoria. 7 Barry Buzan, People, States, and Fear: The National Security Problem in International Relations (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983), 4, 9. 8 Joseph J. Romm, Defining National Security The Non-Military Aspects (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1993), 3-4. 9 Richard H. Ullman, \u00E2\u0080\u009CRedefining Security,\u00E2\u0080\u009D International Security 8, no. 1 (Summer 1983): 133. 10 The pursuit of military and economic power has been the main motivation of a state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s national interests to protect its own national security. Military power specifically has become extremely relevant in a state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s relationship with others. Many traditional and non-traditional wars10 have been fought to increase military strength, to prevent another country from becoming stronger11 and to minimize threats to national security. A traditional understanding of security, as proposed by several feminist scholars, such as Caroline Thomas (1992), Ann Tickner (2005), and Spike Peterson (1992), emphasizes the defense of states\u00E2\u0080\u0099 territorial boundaries and the protection of their values, interests and resources.12 National security therefore accepts a permanent state of war in which a state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interests are seen as the main issue for national and international relations. Despite being the predominant school of thought in international relations, realism provides a limited approach to a state-centric analysis of power, international relations and security. \u00E2\u0080\u009CNaive realism\u00E2\u0080\u009D holds the view that the world is self-evident or that the facts simply \u00E2\u0080\u009Cspeak for themselves.\u00E2\u0080\u009D13 Realism remains fascinated with security-seeking reason, legitimizing the use of 10 Traditional wars are between states, while non-traditional wars can be led by one or several states against terrorism, transnational crime and other non-state actors considered as threats for those states\u00E2\u0080\u0099 national security. Traditionally, the concept of security has referred to the security of states. In this regard, governments have defined their respective agendas based on threats from abroad, as military interventions, or those of internal origin that put at risk government institutions, as was the case of the armed movements with revolutionary intentions. For further discussion on traditional threats and non-traditional threats to states\u00E2\u0080\u0099 national security see Gerardo Rodr\u00C3\u00ADguez S\u00C3\u00A1nchez Lara, Antiguas y Nuevas Amenazas a la Seguridad de Am\u00C3\u00A9rica Latina, Fundaci\u00C3\u00B3n Preciado. 15-18. http://www.fundacionpreciado.org.mx/biencomun/bc152/gerardo_rodriguez.pdf. Also refer to Lucia Dammert. Nuevas Amenazas para la Seguridad. (Octubre 2011) ANEPE-Chile. Power point presentation. http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CE0QFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.anepe.cl%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2FDammert_Anepe_Octubre2011.ppt&ei=GS5xUoHdCq_oiAKLp4GgBg&usg=AFQjCNFZl9eO4XdmMaJAr_v_ZiwnEiG31A (accessed September 13, 2013). 11 Edward Hallet Carr, Twenty Years\u00C2\u00B4 Crisis 1919-1939 (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2001), 111. 12 Caroline Thomas, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThird World Security,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in International Security in the Modern World, ed. Roger Carrey and Trevor C. Salmon (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992), 93; Ann Tickner, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGendering a Discipline: Some Feminist Methodological Contributions to International Relations,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30, no. 4 (2005): 2173-2188; and V. Spike Peterson, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSecurity and Sovereign States: What is at stake in taking feminism seriously?\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Gendered States. Feminist (Re) Visions of International Relations Theory, edited by. V. Spike Peterson (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992), 31-64. 13 Klaus-John Dodds and James Sidaway, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLocating Critical Geopolitics,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 12, no. 5 (1994): 518. 11 force according to states\u00E2\u0080\u0099 territorial ambitions and predatory agendas.14 It tells us very little about non-state actors, inter-state cooperation, levels of threat perception15 or how national security initiatives affect people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s everyday lives, thereby creating more insecurity. National security as a state-based security paradigm is failing to protect people in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones. A self-interested national security agenda does not pay enough attention to the well-being of citizens and their communities. Rather, national security involves a state-centric vision that is used to protect the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s political and economic interests and values, using a military approach to combat local, national and regional threats. For instance, the national security approach is useful when analyzing a border security discourse that criminalizes threats to national security, such as smuggling, which has been a traditional way of living in border zones. In the Ecuadorian context, the smuggling of subsidized fuel and propane cylinders for domestic use to Colombia and Peru has come to be perceived as a threat to national security and has been made the main target of border control security practices. As a result, national security practices criminalize individuals who become involved in smuggling activities. This section has addressed the national security approach that views the state as the referent of security. The following section examines the concept of human security understood as a paradigm shift in security studies that gives priority to the individual as the referent of security analysis. 14 Martin Griffiths, Rethinking International Relations Theory (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 4; See also Kanti Bajpai. Human Security: Concept and Measurement. Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. . http://www.ciaonet.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/wps/baj01/ (accessed July 20, 2012). 15 Griffiths, Ibid., 4. 12 1.2.2 Human Security and Critical Human Security In the post-Cold War 90s, multidimensional security challenges and threats were re-discovered. In fact, from the perspective of the states in general the debate over what issues constitute a threat to national security has been renewed and has mutated. The new threats to security do not come exclusively from an external enemy or from territorial conflicts; rather, they come from within the state in such form as underdevelopment, diseases, poverty, pollution, internal conflict or criminal violence. In addition, non- military problems such as economic, energy and environmental security, have become serious threats to security.16 Thus, the security discourse and agenda have widened their scope to include new actors and topics, such as gender, equity and the environment.17 This new security agenda requires preventive diplomacy and development18 and the equal participation of marginalized groups such as Indigenous peoples and women.19 New security threats occur when the state fails to protect the civilian population, 20 thereby creating human insecurity. Therefore, this shift in the security discourse recognizes that, for individuals and their communities, a feeling of insecurity arises from worries about daily life, such as food security, income security, health security or environmental security. The 1994 Human Development Report is considered the foundational document for the new security paradigm. It emphasizes human security rather than state security.21 Human security provides an alternative approach to security studies by locating security at the personal level (and 16 Joseph J. Romm, Defining National Security The Non-Military Aspects (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1993), 1-2. 17 William Bain, \u00E2\u0080\u009CAgainst Crusading: The Ethic of Human Security and Canadian Foreign Policy,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Canadian Foreign Policy 6, no.3 (1999): 86. 18 Kanti Bajpai, Human Security: Concept and Measurement. Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies (August, 2000). http://www.ciaonet.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/wps/baj01/ (accessed July 20, 2012). 19 Charlotte Bunch, \u00E2\u0080\u009CFeminism, Peace, Human Rights and Human Security,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Feminist Politics, Activism and Vision. Local and Global Challenges, ed. Luciana Ricciutelli, Angela Miles and Margaret H. McFadden. (London and New York: Zed Books, 2004), 79. 20 Pol Morillas Bassedas, \u00E2\u0080\u009CG\u00C3\u00A9nesis y evoluci\u00C3\u00B3n de la expresi\u00C3\u00B3n de la seguridad humana. Un repaso hist\u00C3\u00B3rico,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Revista CIDOB d'Afers Internacionals 76 (2006): 48. 21 Gary King and Christopher Murray, \u00E2\u0080\u009CRethinking Human Security,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Political Science Quarterly 116, no. 4 (2001): 589. 13 especially regarding the UN\u00E2\u0080\u0099s 2006 review of the human security approach at the community level). Traditionally, state sovereignty promotes national security practices and discourses that foster government\u00E2\u0080\u0099s control of territory and it recognition by other states. Human security, in contrast, challenges practices and institutions that give priority to \u00E2\u0080\u009Chigh politics\u00E2\u0080\u009D rather than to individual experiences of insecurity. By fostering the evolution of state sovereignty, it suggests that state sovereignty must serve the people from whom it draws its legitimacy.22 The human security approach argues that an exclusive emphasis on state security denies individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 wellbeing needs.23 Since human security challenges a state-centric approach to security based on the military defense of territory against external threats, it attempts to influence public policy to address individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security needs. The seven dimensions of human security (economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community, and political) cover a wide range of issues. Thus, the 1994 Human Development Report states that human security is concerned with human life and dignity.24 It addresses all the threats to human survival, daily life and dignity because the individual must be free from want (socioeconomic rights) and fear (political and civil rights). The idea of freedom is embedded in the human security approach of the UN Human Development Report of 1994. Development is a process of expanding individual freedoms.25 Hence, freedom involves processes of decision making and opportunities for achieving valued outcomes.26 For example, by escaping from poverty, which is as a source of un-freedom, individuals become free when they have access to social services, political participation and so on. Therefore, human security as a person-centric approach increases individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 freedom by 22 Newman, Edward. \u00E2\u0080\u009CCritical Human Security Studies,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Review of International Studies 36, no.1 (2010): 79. 23 Newman, Ibid. 24 United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 1994 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 22. 25 Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 3. 26 Sen, Ibid., 291. 14 improving their quality of life. Freedom, from a human security perspective, is achieved when the economic and political rights of individuals and communities are continuously respected and guaranteed through effective and decentralized public policies. Currently, there is no agreement about how broad the concept of human security should be; nor does it have a single definition. Some prefer a broad definition, but others suggest a narrow definition because they believe that this is easier to operationalize. The narrow definition of human security is more reactive in cases of human rights violations and post-conflict interventions, while the broader definition includes a preventive approach that addresses threats to human life, livelihood and the dignity of individuals, including poverty alleviation and environmental protection within an inter-sectorial policy framework. Since the 90s, Canada, Norway and Japan have become the pioneers in encouraging foreign policies based on human security. For Canadian foreign policy, both the Human Security Network27 and The Responsibility to Protect Report28 narrow the concept by requiring human security to put an emphasis on human rights. Canada\u00E2\u0080\u0099s perspective reflects a narrower focus, emphasizing antipersonnel landmines, small arms, children in armed conflict and international humanitarian and human rights law.29 Hence, it is important to be careful with the use of the narrow definition of human security, which has suffered from a tendency towards militarization in humanitarian international conflicts. This narrow definition links human security to a state-based approach that may not overcome the issues that motivated 27 The Lys\u00C3\u00B8en Declaration in Norway which took place in 1998 was the first step to the creation of the Human Security Network. This network is composed by 14 member countries (Austria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Greece, Ireland, Jordan, Mali, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, South Africa (observer), Switzerland, and Thailand) who believe that human security has become both a new measure of global security and a new agenda for global action. 28 The Report \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Responsibility to Protect\u00E2\u0080\u009D is a response of the Government of Canada to the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan who in his Millennium Report to the General Assembly in 2000 restated the dilemma that if humanitarian intervention is an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should the international community should respond to human rights violations. See International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty- ICISS. The Responsibility to Protect, (Ottawa: International Development Research Center, 2001), 2. Accessed July 29, 2012 http://responsibilitytoprotect.org/ICISS%20Report.pdf 29 Gary King and Christopher Murray, \u00E2\u0080\u009CRethinking Human Security,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Political Science Quarterly 116, no. 4 (2001): 590. 15 its creation when the concept emerged in the early 90s. In contrast, by focusing on development, Japan\u00E2\u0080\u0099s foreign policy, the Human Development Report (1994) and the Human Security Now Report (2003), foster a broader human security agenda that is more inclusive than Canada's and the above-mentioned reports. The Human Development Report of 1994, which is considered the origin of the human security approach, has been criticized for its lack of precision and its broad definition. Scholars such as Roland Paris (2001), Adri\u00C3\u00A1n Bonilla (2002), and Pol Morillas Bassedas (2008) claim that the seven components of human security30 examined in the Human Development Report of 1994 are too broad to be applied in practice.31 Therefore, the core task facing the human security agenda is how to delineate a narrower and more manageable approach.32 The efforts to sharpen the definition of human security encounter resistance from actors and institutions who believe that the concept's strength lies in its holism and inclusiveness.33 Attempts to narrow the concept of human security overlook the fact that a holistic approach fosters civil society participation. Furthermore, a holistic approach involves an interdisciplinary thinking34 that allows the construction of inter-sectorial policies to influence several problems simultaneously.35 Broadening securitisation will bring resources and attention to a wider range of security problems and actors, extending beyond 30 The seven dimensions of human security mentioned in the United Nation Human Development Report 1994 include: economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security, and political security. 31 Adri\u00C3\u00A1n Bonilla, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSeguridad Humana en la Regi\u00C3\u00B3n Andina,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Seguridad humana, prevenci\u00C3\u00B3n de conflictos y paz en Am\u00C3\u00A9rica Latina y el Caribe. eds. Aravena, Francisco y Goucha, Moufida (Santiago, Chile: FLACSO-Chile, 2002); Pol Morillas Bassedas, \u00E2\u0080\u009CG\u00C3\u00A9nesis y evoluci\u00C3\u00B3n de la expresi\u00C3\u00B3n de la seguridad humana. Un repaso hist\u00C3\u00B3rico,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Revista CIDOB d'Afers Internacionals 76 (2006): 47-58; Roland Paris, \u00E2\u0080\u009CHuman Security: Paradigm Shift or Hot Air?,\u00E2\u0080\u009D International Security 26, no. 2 (Autumn, 2001): 87-102. 32 Pauline Ewan, \u00E2\u0080\u009CDeepening the Human Security Debate: Beyond the Politics of Conceptual Clarification,\u00E2\u0080\u009D POLITICS 27, no. 3 (2007): 183. 33 Roland Paris, \u00E2\u0080\u009CHuman Security: Paradigm Shift or Hot Air?\u00E2\u0080\u009D International Security 26, no. 2 (2001): 102. 34 Donna Winslow, \u00E2\u0080\u009CA Broad Concept that Encourages Interdisciplinary Thinking,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Security Dialogue 35, no.3, (2004):362. 35 Francisco Rojas Aravena y Andrea \u00C3\u0081lvarez Mar\u00C3\u00ADn, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSeguridad Humana: un estado de arte,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Seguridad humana, nuevos enfoques, ed. Francisco Rojas Aravena, 1\u00C2\u00AA. ed. (San Jos\u00C3\u00A9, C.R.: FLACSO, 2012): 27. 16 the state.36 The new threats to security are not only multidimensional but interdependent. For this reason, the birth of the concept of human security appeared as a critique and a challenge to a monolithic understanding of security, since it recognizes several sources of insecurity and fosters multi-sectorial coordination and intervention between the state, civil society, communities and international donors. Human security encourages the generation of policies that include active civil society participation, because it focuses on the protection and empowerment of individuals. The recommendations of both the 2003 Human Security Now report and the 2006 United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security involve policies aimed at empowerment and protection. In particular, the 2006 United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security claims that the concept, as an interdisciplinary, people-centered, multi-sectorial, comprehensive, context-specific and prevention-oriented approach, introduces a dual focus on protection and empowerment to achieve the goal of human security.37 Moreover, this report links a protection/top -down or state-centered approach with an empowerment/bottom-up perspective that empowers the marginalized through participatory mechanisms.38 Human security emphasizes the capacities of individuals and communities to make autonomous and informed decisions. Moreover, a human security perspective in public policy design must include the demands and concerns arising from the citizens themselves and must recognize their own definitions and priorities for the risks and vulnerabilities that affect their everyday lives. In sum, the human security discourse is a progressive approach for conducting security issues. Human security shifts the focus from the security of borders to the lives of people and 36 Newman, Edward. \u00E2\u0080\u009CCritical Human Security Studies,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Review of International Studies 36, no.1 (2010): 86. 37 Human Security Unit, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations, Human Security in Theory and Practice (New York: United Nations, 2006): 7-8. 38 Human Security Unit, Ibid., 9. 17 communities inside and across those borders.39 The concept of human security, therefore, stresses that all people should have the opportunity to meet their most essential needs and to earn their own living.40 Thus, human security includes more than simply protecting people; it entails empowering people and communities to fend for themselves: empowering is equivalent to emancipation.41 The inhabitants of local communities can contribute directly to identifying and implementing solutions to the quagmire of insecurity.42 Certainly, a human security approach seeks to empower people to achieve their own development, but it is mainly the responsibility of the state to contribute to people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s wellbeing. However, states\u00E2\u0080\u0099 national security interests can jeopardize the security of individuals and their communities. Arguably, the human security agenda cannot be implemented without recognizing the particularities and needs of each region, state, or community. The seven dimensions of the human security approach, explained in the Human Development Report of 1994, include a comprehensive vision of development that can be applied in conflict regions. For instance, the Andes region has been considered by the United Nations as seriously insecure in human terms due to structural violence, chronic political instability, the exercise of violence to achieve political agendas43 and transnational crime. Implementing human security must take into account diverse and local realities, including public policy beneficiaries\u00E2\u0080\u0099 participation and their opinions about how and in which areas those policies might improve their quality of life. In my view, human security generates improvements in the quality of life of people by getting to the roots of social problems and reducing levels of violence, inequality and exclusion by breaking the patterns of domination 39 Human Security Commission. Human Security Now (New York: Commission on Human Security, 2003), 6. 40 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Report 1994 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 24. 41 Human Security Commission. Ibid., 4. 42 Human Security Commission. Ibid., 6. 43 Adri\u00C3\u00A1n Bonilla, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSeguridad Humana en la Regi\u00C3\u00B3n Andina,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Seguridad humana, prevenci\u00C3\u00B3n de conflictos y paz en Am\u00C3\u00A9rica Latina y el Caribe. eds. Rojas Aravena, Francisco y Goucha, Moufida (Santiago, Chile: FLACSO-Chile, 2002), 361. 18 (such as those based on race, class, gender and geographical location) upon which Andean societies in the region were built. For the reasons mentioned above, in this dissertation, I utilize human security from a critical perspective. The critical school of security has found weaknesses with the original concept of human security. Critics of human security argue that it is analytically weak and primarily a hegemonic discourse used by governments to include a problem-solving approach within public policies. From a critical security studies perspective, human security\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pragmatic tendency towards finding solutions encourages the belief that the state can effectively work on people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interests. In contrast, critical security approaches doubt state \u00E2\u0080\u009Ckindness\u00E2\u0080\u009D and believe that state elites are not truly interested in or committed to promoting human welfare, because structural injustices can be found within the state.44 Edward Newman (2010) explores why human security arguments, which emphasize the individual as the referent of security analysis and seek to influence policy, have been disregarded in critical security studies. Since human security scholars want to retain their access to policy circles, they have been hesitant to explore critical security studies.45 This policy orientation of human security has made critical security scholars suspicious of human security as a hegemonic discourse used by the state. Furthermore, human security problem-solving arguments do not engage in epistemological, ontological or methodological debates.46 Therefore, human security is considered as uncritical and unsophisticated by critical security scholars. Another weakness of the human security approach is its tendency to securitize any threat that could provoke a human impact and affect the physical integrity of the individual. Thus, nowadays almost everything is treated as a security issue, which impede good policy making and 44 Edward Newman, \u00E2\u0080\u009CCritical Human Security Studies,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Review of International Studies 36 (2010): 87. 45 Newman, Ibid., 77. 46 Newman, Ibid., 77. 19 implementation by confusing the sources and consequences of insecurity.47 Critical security studies show that the human security approach has demonstrated its lack of an analytical and critical framework. Despite these critiques, the richness and popularity of the human security approach within international organizations derives precisely from its problem-solving approach, securitizing issues that were excluded from the national security discourse and its initiatives. The birth of human security appeared as a critique and a challenge to one exclusive understanding of security. Human security does not confuse sources of insecurity; it recognizes multiple sources and fosters multi-sectorial coordination and intervention. Human security does not question the values and interests of its own initiatives. Human security scholars do not problematize the values and institutions that are currently related to human welfare and do not question the interests that are served by those institutions. Problem-solving theories are framed in previous social relationships and the institutions into which they are organized; these institutions and relationships are not questioned, because of their ability to resolve problems.48 In contrast, critical approaches question the interests that the state and institutions represent and do not unquestionably accept existing policy as legitimate.49 Therefore, from a critical security perspective, it is relevant to ask whose interests human security serves. Who benefits from it? There is a need for a more critical human security approach. There are a number of steps in which critical and human security studies might engage. First, it is relevant to consider that both human security and critical security studies challenge the state-centric approach of conventional security, which is based on the military defense of territory and national interests against external and internal threats.50 Second, critical security studies and 47 Newman, Ibid. 48 Robert Cox, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSocial Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Millennium 10, no.2 (1981): 126\u00E2\u0080\u0093155. 49 Newman, Ibid., 89. 50 Newman, Ibid., 77. 20 human security studies could learn more from each other; for instance, human security scholarship could be developed conceptually to overcome its analytical weaknesses, while critical security studies could become more practical, so as to have an impact upon policy.51 The normative strands of critical security studies, such as the optimistic perception of security by the Welsh School52 of critical security theorists, could engage human security as a bridge between critical security studies and policy.53 Third, exploring human agency in solutions to human security challenges is a necessary next step in the human security discourse.54 Although many threats to individual security emanate from weak or abusive states, human security scholarship still views the state as the main provider of individual security. Thus, the issue of agency requires further study. Furthermore, human security scholarship assumes that the individual-state relationship is the fundamental binary. In reality, the individual is a social animal in numerous contexts and communities, not just a member of a state.55 If these aspects are taken into consideration by critical security studies a more critical human security is possible. For this reason, I use the broader definition of the concept of human security derived from a critical human security perspective. Critical human security (CHS) is a concept under construction that can be adapted to a particular context.56 It remains policy-relevant and views the individual as a social subject immersed in various contexts and communities.57 The critical human security 51 Newman, Ibid., 91-92. 52 By using a critical approach, the Welsh School questions realist theories of security. This security theory, influenced by critical theory, is associated with the work of Ken Booth and Richard Wyn Jones, who view security as emancipation. See more at Ken Booth, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSecurity and Emancipation,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Review of International Studies 17 (1991): 314-315; Richard Wyn Jones, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMessage in a Bottle'? Theory and Praxis in Critical Security Studies,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Contemporary Security Policy 16, no.3 (1995): 310. 53 Newman, Ibid., 92. 54 Newman, Ibid., 93. 55 Newman, Ibid., 94. 56 James Rochlin and Gustavo Gall\u00C3\u00B3n, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIntroduction,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Profits, Security, and Human Rights in Developing Countries. Global Lessons from Canada\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Extractive Sector in Colombia (New York: Routledge, 2015), 6. 57 Newman, Ibid., 94. 21 perspective is influenced by post-development, as understood by Arturo Escobar,58 and celebrates local knowledge and a strong community participation in security planning.59 CHS embraces the concerns of the marginalized and those who lack political power60 in order to empower local women and their communities. This broader definition of human security serves as a practical guide for governmental policymaking and academic research. By integrating concern for the security of individuals and communities into public policy, a critical human security approach to security studies identifies, analyzes and addresses insecurities affecting individuals and groups in specific contexts. In the case of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders, this approach includes the voices of local women in the three provinces where my study was conducted. The goal is to identify the structural inequalities that create insecurity in the communities and to find alternatives to transform current conditions of insecurity. Human security policies must consider all the interconnected factors that create insecurity in the intervention zone. The human security agenda must find interdependent issues to be addressed, particularly in the border zones, leading to the formulation of effective policies to solve the inequalities that have provoked social, economic, cultural or environmental problems in critical contexts. For instance, gender equality must be seen as a component of human security without, however, excluding other intersecting factors of inequality such as class and race. I use critical human security and the feminist analysis of security and international relations to challenge the state-centric concept of national security. Thus, critical human security is analyzed as an emancipatory approach for women and their local communities. In the next section, I present feminist critiques of the notion of national security. These critiques take as their starting point that 58 Arturo Escobar, Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994). 59 James Rochlin and Gustavo Gall\u00C3\u00B3n. Ibid, 7. 60 James Rochlin and Gustavo Gall\u00C3\u00B3n. Ibid, 7. 22 the protection of the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s boundaries and interests is limited to military terms, denying women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security. 1.2.3 Feminist\u00E2\u0080\u0099s critiques of national security Traditionally, security studies are informed by theories that have used positivist methods rather than post-positivist orientations. Rational choice theory, as a positivist methodology, explains states\u00E2\u0080\u0099 international behavior as rational and scientific. Thus, cooperation among states is also explained as a result of a rational self-interest.61 In contrast, post-positivist methodologies employ theoretical frameworks such as critical social theory, historical sociology, discourse analysis and postmodernism. As a branch of critical social theory, feminist scholarship entered the study of security and international relations at the end of the 1980s, at about the same time as the third feminist wave.62 The feminist lens explores how we think, or do not think, about gender in international relations. In particular, it raises gender-sensitive critiques of security politics. Feminist security theories are concerned with the everyday politics of security.63 They emerged from ideological, trans-epistemological multi-voiced conversational debate among multiple feminisms, including liberal, empiricist, modified standpoint and qualified postmodern perspectives.64 Feminist security theories question the academic and political foundations of gendered insecurity, revealing gendered hierarchies in society and theory, and fostering alternative visions of security. Feminist understandings of security, then, seek to eliminate patriarchal structural violence. Furthermore, 61 Ann Tickner, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGendering a Discipline: Some Feminist Methodological Contributions to International Relations,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30, no 4 (2005): 2175. 62 Tickner, Ibid., 2176. 63 Erin Blanchard, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGender, International Relations, and the Development of Feminist Security Theory,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28, no. 4 (2003): 1294. 64Blanchard, Ibid., 1295. 23 they challenge realism by revealing its gender bias and androcentric framework,65 thereby seeking to reduce gendered global insecurities.66 The incursion of feminism into the field of security studies contests the restriction of security to \u00E2\u0080\u009Chigh politics\u00E2\u0080\u009D and fosters the widening of threats. In the early 1990s, first generation international relations feminists, such as Cynthia Enloe (1989), Ann Tickner (1992), V. Spike Peterson (1992), and Christine Sylvester (1994), challenged the masculinist biases of the core concepts in the field, such as, the omission of women in the masculine discourse on national security led by the military.67 This generation, questioned state-centricity and the dependence on positivist ways of knowing.68 Many of the feminist scholars who participated in the first generation of a feminist perspective on international relations have also contributed to a second generation of international relations feminist scholarship that is more empirical.69 The second generation of international relations feminists, such as Christine Chin (1998), Elisabeth Pr\u00C3\u00BCgl (1999), Charlotte Hooper (2001), Ann Tickner (2001) and V. Spike Peterson (2003),70 investigated a variety of empirical cases, making gender and women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lives visible in international relations and using gender as a central category of analysis.71 Moreover, 65 Blanchard, Ibid., 1305. 66 Blanchard, Ibid., 1307. 67 For further discussion, Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Relation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990); Ann J. Tickner, Gender in International. Relations. Feminist Perspectives on Achieving Global. Security (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992); Spike Peterson. \u00E2\u0080\u009CSecurity and Sovereign States: What is at stake in taking feminism seriously?\u00E2\u0080\u009D In Gendered States. Feminist (Re) Visions of International Relations Theory, ed. V. Spike Peterson, 31-64. (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992); Christine Sylvester, Feminist Theory and International Relations in a Postmodern Era. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1994). 68 Jacqui True, Engendering international relations: What difference does second-generation feminism make? May 2002. http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/02-1.pdf (accessed on March 8, 2016), 2. 69 True, Ibid., 3. 70 Christine Chin\u00E2\u0080\u0099s In Service and Servitude: Foreign Female Domestic Workers and the Malaysian \u00E2\u0080\u009CModernity\u00E2\u0080\u009D Project (1998) builds on Marxist/Gramscian critical theory introduced into International Relations by Robert Cox; Elisabeth Pr\u00C3\u00BCgl\u00E2\u0080\u0099s The Global Construction of Gender: Home-Based Work in the Political Economy of the 20th Century (1999) uses linguistic constructivism, associated with the work of Nicholas Greenwood Onuf (1989); and Charlotte Hooper\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Manly States: Masculinities, International Relations, and Gender Politics (2001) is based in political theory and textual analysis. 71 Tickner, J. Ann. \u00E2\u0080\u009CGendering a Discipline: Some Feminist Methodological Contributions to International Relations.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30, no. 4 (2005): 2176, 2178. In this article Tickner recognizes that the first and second generation of IR feminism does not coincide with first and second waves of feminism. 24 these feminists utilized sociological, identity-based, interpretive or linguistic methodologies.72 Thus, these international relations feminists rectify women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s traditional exclusion by adding them to the theoretical framework and studying women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s everyday life.73 Second-generation feminists understand that to encourage feminist perspectives in international relations theory, it is important to demonstrate how research that uses gender as an analytic category can be conducted and how that research transforms our understanding of global politics.74 For example, for these feminists it is important to consider how women are affected by war or by their inclusion in conventional development models; they argue that, since women reproduce future soldiers, citizens, and workers, their contributions must be recognized. However, the second-generation does not really involve a critical perspective. Third-generation scholars argue that women cannot simply be added to the study of global politics. Gender as the social meaning that shapes our bodies cannot be simply added to the study of international relations and to masculine constructions of world politics. According to Laura Shepherd (2010) gender is an integral part of and affects the practices of global politics.75 For this reason, third-generation scholars, such as V. Spike Peterson (2004), focus their efforts on deconstructing traditional theoretical understandings or, in more concrete terms, present a new form to interpret gender and international relations.76 72 Tickner, Ibid., 2178. 73 V. Spike Peterson, \u00E2\u0080\u009CFeminist Theories Within, Invisible to, and Beyond IR,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Brown Journal of World Affairs 10, no 2 (Winter/Spring 2004): 37-38. 74 Jacqui True, Engendering international relations: What difference does second-generation feminism make? May 2002. http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/02-1.pdf (accessed on March 8, 2016), 3. 75 Laura Shepherd, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSex or Gender? Bodies in World Politics and Why Gender Matters,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Gender Matters in Global Politics. A Feminist Introduction to International Relations, ed. Laura J. Shepherd (New York: Routledge, 2010), 4-5. 76 V. Spike Peterson, \u00E2\u0080\u009CFeminist Theories Within, Invisible to, and Beyond IR,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Brown Journal of World Affairs 10, no 2 (Winter/Spring 2004): 39. 25 The empirical case studied in this dissertation borrows ideas from these three generations. It starts from the premise that masculine national security discourses and practices are gendered, racialized and discriminatory towards women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s everyday life experiences of insecurity in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders. The influence of a feminist security analysis in this study not only attempts to make women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurities visible or to recognize the ways in which women challenge traditional gender roles at the border; but it also strives to encourage the state to include women in human security planning within a framework that is sensitive to the intersections of race, class, gender and geographical location. Thus, this analysis seeks to turn the state into a competent guarantor of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security. The relationship between gendered bodies and security is well documented by first generation international feminist scholars. The works of Ann Tickner (1992), Jill Steans (1998), Rebecca Grant (1991) and Christine Sylvester (1994) contribute to the understanding that national security suffers from gender blindness,77 meaning that it obscures and excludes women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity experiences. Gender matters in security studies because we theorize gender daily when we think about appropriate or inappropriate gendered behaviours at the global, national and local levels. Thus, security is studied and practiced by gendered bodies.78 Examples include masculinized bodies, such as security forces, and feminized bodies, such as women smugglers on the border. Regarding the exclusion of women in security, Cynthia Enloe (1989) argues that 77 Christine Sylvester, Feminist Theory and International Relations in a Postmodern Era (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994); Jill Steans, Gender and International Relations: An Introduction (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998); Rebecca Grant, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Sources of Gender Bias in International Relations Theory,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Gender and International Relations, eds. Rebecca Grant and Kathleen Newland (U.K.: Open University Press, 1991); J. Ann, Tickner, Gender in international relations: feminist perspectives on achieving global security (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992). 78For specific discussion of global politics implemented by gendered bodies refer to Laura Shepherd, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSex or Gender? Bodies in World Politics and Why Gender Matters,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 4, 6; Marysia Zalewski, \u00E2\u0080\u009CFeminist International Relations: Making Sense\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Gender Matters in Global Politics. A Feminist Introduction to International Relations, ed. Laura J. Shepherd (New York: Routledge, 2010), 34; and Ann Tickner, You Just Don't Understand: Troubled Engagements between Feminists and IR Theorists,\u00E2\u0080\u009D International Studies Quarterly 41, no. 4 (1997): 625. 26 women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s roles in security issues have been marginalized due to male control in the field.79 Hence, a feminist approach to security dismantles mainstream understanding of security and includes women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s explanations of how their governments control their labor, hopes and fears.80 Asking how women and their communities are secured or unsecured leads us to tell the story of security in a different way. Therefore, a feminist perspective to security includes the voices of women breaking the silencing of their everyday lived experiences of insecurity on the border. For first-generation international feminists, the traditional definition of security, which has been framed in state-centric terms, generates women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity. Military capability as an assurance against outside threats to the state frequently is antithetical to the interests of individuals, particularly to women.81 In fact, national security is a contradictory concept for women: it provokes structural gender violence and women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity as it involves unequal power relations between men and women. States implement a national security approach in order to centralize authority, to keep coercive power and to legitimize structural violence through the institutionalized patriarchal customs82 that implement national security practices. States appear as historical constructs that have been reproduced, defended, and re-legitimised socially as an episteme.83 Thus, they have become the absolute \u00E2\u0080\u009Cknower\u00E2\u0080\u009D of security issues to the exclusion of other understandings of security by non-state actors. V. Spike Peterson argues persuasively that the national security approach, as a masculine discourse, constructs security based on states\u00E2\u0080\u0099 national interest and sees 79Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Relation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 4. 80 Enloe, Ibid., 201. 81 Ann Tickner, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYou Just Don't Understand: Troubled Engagements between Feminists and IR Theorists,\u00E2\u0080\u009D International Studies Quarterly 41, no. 4 (Dec., 1997), 625. 82 V. Spike Peterson, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSecurity and Sovereign States: What is at stake in taking feminism seriously?,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Gendered States: Feminist (Re) Visions of International Relations Theory, ed. V. Spike Peterson (Bolder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992), 31-50. 83 R. B. J Walker, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGender and Critique in the Theory of International Relations,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Gendered States: Feminist (Re) Visions of International Relations Theory, ed. V. Spike Peterson (Bolder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992), 180. 27 males as the sole providers of protection and knowers of security issues while women are viewed as mere passive recipients of that protection84and completely ignorant of security. These masculine constructions of security are present within the security discourses and practices deployed along Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders, maintaining the discrimination of women, excluding them from a full exercise of their rights and impeding any improvement of their security conditions. For this reason, it is important to pay attention to the conceptions of security utilized in specific scenarios, because not all of them contribute to women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security. These masculine discourses and constructs of security create a system of hierarchy and domination in which masculinity as an ideology reproduces structural insecurities, including the centralization of political power in men and the exploitative gender division of labor and identities. Therefore, a different and new conception of gender relations and equality is required in order to transform traditional security constructs of masculinity and femininity. In this section, I have explained that the study of state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security, national security and border security have dominated the understanding of what security is, limiting more comprehensive understandings that view women and their communities as referents of security. National security, defined as the protection of the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s boundaries and interests, is limited to political and military terms. More particularly, the national security discourse is part of masculine high politics that renders women invisible.85 In contrast, feminist definitions of security and explanations of insecurity differ from the traditional understanding.86 Feminist critiques of national security are useful for my empirical case study, since they contribute to the understanding that state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security creates insecurities for non-state actors, such as local women involved in 84 Peterson, Ibid., 3-5, 34-36. 85 Erin Blanchard, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGender, International Relations, and the Development of Feminist Security Theory,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28, no. 4 (2003): 1289, 1292. 86 J. Ann Tickner, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYou Just Don't Understand: Troubled Engagements between Feminists and IR Theorists,\u00E2\u0080\u009D International Studies Quarterly 41, No. 4 (1997): 623. 28 smuggling activities in the Ecuadorian borders. Furthermore, security has to be defined in multidimensional and multilevel terms, involving the diminution/elimination of all forms of violence to women and their communities. Feminist perspectives of security are concerned, in particular, with women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security and the several forms of violence that women face in their everyday lives. Influenced by feminist security analysis, my study urges the state to include women within an intersectional framework in human security planning. I propose that a precondition for constituting a theoretical framework able to shed light on the question of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity and smuggling in border zones in Ecuador is that the concept of critical human security must be informed and enriched by an intersectional feminist lens of security that considers the intersections of gender, race, class and geographical location. Intersectional analyses of inequality understand that race captures social realities affected by gender and class differences. The category of class is also connected to gendered and racialized differences. For this reason, it is important to examine interlocked inequalities that undermine women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security. 1.2.4 Intersectionality and women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity The White feminist movement has been contested by currents of Black feminism and Third World feminism that respond to the invisibility of the particularities of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences of discrimination. The notion of \u00E2\u0080\u009Csisterhood\u00E2\u0080\u009D and the implicit feminist assumption of the existence of common interests amongst all women are, however, problematic. In feminist theory, the term intersectionality was introduced as a metaphor in 1989 and as a concept in 1991 by the Black feminist legal scholar Kimberl\u00C3\u00A9 Williams Crenshaw, one of the founders of Critical Race Theory in the U.S. legal academy.87 However, intersectionality has a long history in Black feminism. Its 87 For further discussion, see Kimberl\u00C3\u00A9 Crenshaw, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Stanford Law Review. 43, no. 6 (Jul., 1991): 1241-1299; and Kimberl\u00C3\u00A9 29 antecedents include the notion of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdouble jeopardy\u00E2\u0080\u009D88 or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmultiple jeopardy.\u00E2\u0080\u009D89 It also involves the concept of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinterlocking systems of oppression,\u00E2\u0080\u009D defined in a social movement context by the Combahee River Collective on \u00E2\u0080\u009CA Black Feminist Statement,\u00E2\u0080\u009D as the experience of simultaneous oppressions.90 Therefore, the idea of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cintersections\u00E2\u0080\u009D to understand multiple sources of discrimination had already been circulating in earlier antiracist feminist thought. Intersectionality emphasises the importance of including the perspectives of marginalized people. It is concerned with the experiences of discrimination of several social groups, especially women of color.91 Intersectionality also conceptualizes the relation between systems of oppression as they construct our multiple social locations in hierarchies of power and privilege.92 Because antiracism reproduces patriarchy and feminism reproduces racism, women of color cannot be limited to choosing between two inadequate analyses, because both constitute a denial of a fundamental dimension of subordination.93 Women of color are located within at least two subordinated groups that often pursue conflicting political agendas.94 In this sense, inequalities are reproduced and perpetuated within several systems of oppression. By examining gender in the Crenshaw, \u00E2\u0080\u009CDemarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,\u00E2\u0080\u009D University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 1989: Iss. 1, Article 8. Available at: http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8 88 Frances Beal. \u00E2\u0080\u009CDouble Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in The Black Woman. Ed. Toni Cade Bambara. (New York: Signet, 1970). 89 Deborah K. King, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMultiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Signs 14, no. 1 (Autumn, 1988). 90 Demita Frazier, Beverly Smith, and Barbara Smith were the primary authors of the Combahee River Collective Statement in 1977. They proposed the concept of multiple oppressions in order to critique both sexual oppression in the black community and racism within the feminist movement. This document was one of the earliest explorations of the intersection of multiple oppressions, including racism and heterosexism. See more at: The Combahee River Collective, The Combahee River Collective Statement: Black Feminist Organizing in the Seventies and Eighties (Albany, New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1986). 91 Hae Yeon Choo and Myra Marx Ferree, Practicing Intersectionality in Sociological Research: A critical analysis of inclusions, interactions and institutions in the study of inequalities. University of Wisconsin-Madison (September, 2009) http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~mferree/documents/choo_ferree_intersectionality_final0909.pdf (accessed on June 2016). 92 Anna Carastathis, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Concept of Intersectionality in Feminist Theory,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Philosophy Compass 9/5 (2014): 304\u00E2\u0080\u0093314. 93 Kimberl\u00C3\u00A9 Crenshaw, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Stanford Law Review 43, no.6 (1991): 1252. 94 Crenshaw, Ibid., 1251-1252. 30 context of other social divisions, it is possible to view women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s location in multiple hierarchies. For example, gender is fundamentally affected by class, race/ethnicity and other hierarchies such as geographical location (urban/rural). In an intersectional perspective, women may suffer at least a triple oppression based on race, gender and class. Gender, race and class cannot be analyzed separately, because they are entangled in each other, and the particular intersections produce specific effects. Thus, intersectionality studies the interaction between gender, race, class, and other categories of difference \u00E2\u0080\u009Cin individual lives, social practices, institutional arrangements, and cultural ideologies and the outcomes of these interactions in terms of power.\u00E2\u0080\u009D95 For instance, (racialized and gendered) bodies have been structured by the needs of capitalism for cheap labour or migrant labour. These systems of oppression prioritize different spheres of social relations and exist within the context of the others. Therefore, power relations and the material inequalities that constitute oppression must be taken into account in the conceptualization of racism, class exploitation and gender discrimination. Since every feminist struggle has a specific ethnic, as well as class context, the analysis of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security has to acknowledge these contexts, in which power relations take place. Despite its significant contribution, the concept of intersectionality has come under criticism in feminist theory. Marxist feminists were among the first to criticize intersectionality. Marxist approaches assert that class has priority over gender and race. Marxist feminists, therefore, disagree with intersectionality theorists\u00E2\u0080\u0099 claims that oppression is produced through the interaction of multiple and co-constitutive axes.96 In this vein, intersectionality has been criticized as nothing 95 Kathy Davis, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIntersectionality as buzzword: A sociology of science perspective on what makes a feminist theory successful,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Feminist Theory 9, no.1 (2008): 68. 96 Anna Carastathis, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Concept of Intersectionality in Feminist Theory,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Philosophy Compass 9/5 (2014): 308. 31 more than a sophisticated version of identity politics that merely undermines the class struggle. Nonetheless, the so-called oppressed working class is made up of diverse social groups such as women, Black and queer workers. When intersectionality theory was first formulated by Black feminists, it emerged as a critique of and an alternative to identity politics.97 Firstly, intersectionality questions the notion of particular aspects of identity as fixed and coherent. For instance, liberal feminism\u00E2\u0080\u0099s essentialist understandings of identity failed to address how a Black woman\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experience is inflected with a different gendered form of racism and a racialized form of sexism. Secondly, intersectionality theory is more about how systems of oppression are inseparably intertwined at a structural level rather than about the identity of the individual.98 Identity politics does not fail to recognize differences, but it frequently ignores intragroup differences.99 Controversies have emerged about whether intersectionality should be limited to studying of individual experiences, to theorizing identity, or should be understood as a property of social structures and discourses.100 In my view, if intersectionality is merely used to theorize identity it can be confused with identity politics. In contrast, intersectionality theory overcomes the limitations of identity politics by analysing systems of oppression that materially and discursively create difference and discrimination. Another alleged weakness of the concept of intersectionality is related to its ambiguity and open-endedness. The more incoherent a theory is, the more it is argued, it will require further 97 Feminist Fightback, Intersectionality another for of identity politics? January 11, 2015. http://www.feministfightback.org.uk/is-intersectionality-just-another-form-of-identity-politics/ (accessed on May 18, 2016. 98 Feminist Fightback, Ibid. 99 Kimberl\u00C3\u00A9 Crenshaw, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Stanford Law Review 43, no.6 (1991): 1242. 100 Kathy Davis, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIntersectionality as Buzzword: A Sociology of Science Perspective on What Makes a Feminist Theory Successful,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Feminist Theory 9, no.1 (2008): 68. 32 elaboration, combining unrelated ideas into a coherent whole that overcomes ambiguity.101 Paradoxically, its ambiguity and open-endedness make it a successful feminist theory.102 Intersectionality as broad, open-ended and inclusive is a remarkable conceptual tool for feminist analysis.103 It stimulates a process of discovery, encouraging creativity in looking for new forms of doing feminist analysis.104 Therefore, each research project allows us to adapt intersectionality to diverse contexts and to different intersections of discrimination, such as those based on gender, class, race, sexuality, age, etc. Intersectionality is a critical feminist concept that became popular, unavoidably creating a black-boxing effect. \u00E2\u0080\u009CBlack-boxing\u00E2\u0080\u009D means that concepts turn into rhetorical tools used in a decontextualized manner. Intersectionality is not an explanation in itself, so it is necessary to analyse how social categories (gender, race, class, sexuality, etc.) intra-act105 at the micro and macro social levels; otherwise these categories are reduced to a black box. If intra-acting power differentials and identity formations are not analysed in a specific context, the concept of intersectionality merely reflects a group of meaningless social categorizations (gender, race, class).106 Therefore, it is important to approach the concept of intersectionality as a nodal point and to avoid black-boxing it by always contextualizing it.107 The concept of intersectionality viewed as a nodal point does not encourage a fixed definition; rather, intersectionality must be viewed as a discursive site where different feminist positions are in critical dialogue with each 101 Murray S. Davis, \u00E2\u0080\u009C\u00E2\u0080\u009CThat \u00E2\u0080\u0098s Classic!\u00E2\u0080\u009D The Phenomenology and Rhetoric of Successful Social Theories,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Philosophy of the Social Sciences 16, no. 3 (1986), 296-297. 102 Kathy Davis, Ibid., 67; Murray S. Davis, 296-297. 103 Nina Lykke, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIntersectional Analysis Black box or useful critical feminist thinking technology,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Framing Intersectionality, edited by Supik, Linda, Ms, Herrera Vivar, Maria Teresa, Ms, Lutz, Helma, Professor (Ashgate, December 2012), 208. 104 Kathy Davis, Ibid., 79. 105 According to Nina Lykke by replacing \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinteract\u00E2\u0080\u009D with the term \u00E2\u0080\u009Cintra-act\u00E2\u0080\u009D it is possible to analyse how categorizations are interwoven. The notion of intra-action refers to the interplay between non-bounded phenomena that mutually transform each other while interplaying. In contrast, interaction does not generate transformations. 106 Nina Lykke, Ibid., 210. 107 Nina Lykke, Ibid., 207-208. 33 other.108 Thus, a nodal point permits a shared framework for the negotiation of conceptualizations, thereby becoming a productive concept.109 In this sense, a conceptual nodal point provides enough analytical sophistication to foster political action and solidarity. The use of the concept of intersectionality needs to be celebrated but it also needs to be critically evaluated. By creating segmented representation in unequal societies, a misunderstanding of the achievement of equality through an intersectional perspective may obscure, and therefore reproduce, the phenomena that intersectionality seeks to illuminate and overcome. Through the study of two wildly different parties, Chile's right-wing Uni\u00C3\u00B3n Dem\u00C3\u00B3crata Independiente (UDI) and Uruguay's left-wing Frente Amplio, Juan Pablo Luna (2014) analyses the extent to which, in representative democracies, the success of a political party rests on its ability in order to engage voters in highly unequal and individualized societies. Parties simultaneously segment and strategically harmonize their linkages to appeal to different electoral bases. Electoral segmentation is structured in terms of socioeconomic categories, territorial dimensions or both. In ethnically diverse societies, this type of segmentation can also be implemented along ethnic or religious lines.110 In this vein, the massive incorporation of previously excluded groups into electoral democracy has become a relevant strategy, especially when competing in unequal social settings. Once inequality becomes politicized, it becomes feasible to shape partisan mobilization strategies. For instance, powerful non-state actors finance party\u00E2\u0080\u0093voter linkages so as to provide material patronage to supporters from other social groups or geographical areas. Representational differences have consequentially affected public policy outcomes. However, the political inclusion of the masses has not produced consistent results in reducing the 108 Nina Lykke, Ibid., 208. 109 Nina Lykke, Ibid., 209. 110 Juan Pablo Luna, Segmented Representation: Political Party Strategies in Unequal Democracies. Oxford Scholarship Online: June 2014. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199642649.001.0001 34 inequalities that characterize the social, political and economic landscapes of the so-called developing democratic world.111 Juan Pablo Luna\u00E2\u0080\u0099s understanding of the relation between social inequality and electoral-institutional factors in a political democracy demonstrates that, if the inclusion of social categories and territorial dimensions is used to segment representation for political gain, inequality will be perpetuated. Hence, any attempt to design and implement public policy aware of the intersections of race, gender, class, and geographical location will lose its richness. Such a segmented representation will not empower excluded populations; rather it will keep them oppressed and marginalized. In the context of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity, systems of inequality based on women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s identity play a significant role. The insecurities experienced by women are often shaped by other dimensions of their identities, such as race and class. Race, gender, class and other identity categories are often treated as frameworks of domination in which social power excludes and marginalizes those who are different. For this reason, the concepts of intersectionality and matrix of domination offer a theoretical basis for understanding how different types of interconnected discriminations interact. For instance, classism, racism and sexism intersect in the lives of people. In this sense, the intersection of these identities is incorporated within systems of power, such as national and border security practices, that reproduce race, class, and gender hierarchies affecting women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security. A matrix of domination reconceptualises race, class and gender as interlocking systems of oppression. For Patricia Hill Collins (2000) gender is not the most important category within these systems; she assigns the same level of importance to race and class. Indeed, she argues that it is important to view the power structures organized in the intersecting relations of race, class and 111 Juan Pablo Luna, Ibid., 8. 35 gender that frame the social position of individuals. This matrix explains the interlocking inequalities experienced by women as gendered, raced, classed and sexualized bodies.112 An analysis of an interlocking system of inequalities, for instance, can challenge the idea that the overrepresentation of Black (or Indigenous) women in poverty statistics is due to their poor work ethic. Black women have always worked, but they have been actively restricted to jobs that kept them in poverty. In fact, employers see Black women as secondary and undesirable workers. Certainly, race limits Black women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s occupational opportunities, but it is not the only source of Black women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s struggle. In order to understand the devalued work assigned to Black women, it is necessary to analyze the racism and sexism imbricated in the occupations available to them. Thus, an approach that focuses only on the race or the gender of Black women fails to take into account intersecting systems of power. Hill-Collins matrix of domination is useful to examine the interlocking inequalities based on race, gender and class that affect the security of local Black women, Indigenous women and mestizo women in border zones. In the Ecuadorian context, Indigenous and Black women experience racism in ways not always the same as those experienced by Indigenous and Black men, and sexism in ways not always similar to the experiences of sexism of mestizo women. The diversity of women, which depends on their particular social class, racial/ethnic and geographical identities, influences the treatment that they receive from security authorities. When race, class, gender and geographical location (urban-rural) are considered in the context of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity and smuggling at the borders in Ecuador, intersectionality can map the ways in which racism, 112 Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment. (Routledge, 2000). 36 sexism and classism have shaped conceptualizations of women smugglers as criminals within the national security discourse, ignoring the unique characteristic of their interlocked inequalities. 1.2.5 Feminist critical human security Drawing on a critical human security perspective, feminist critiques of national security, the idea of intersectionality advanced by Black feminist Kimberl\u00C3\u00A9 Williams Crenshaw113 and the concept of the matrix of domination of Patricia Hill Collins, the concept of feminist critical human security is proposed in this study. A feminist critical human security approach attentive to power relations understands how insecurity is related to people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s daily lives in sexist, racist, classist and geographical ways in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders. The significance and originality of this dissertation lie in part in the application of this adapted approach to an under\u00E2\u0080\u0093researched case study. By explaining the differences, similarities and complementarities of feminism and human security, the proposed concept of feminist critical human security serves to analyze the experiences of insecurity of women, specially those involved in smuggling, in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders. First, I shall mention the differences. Feminism and human security differ substantially when viewed in terms of methodology. Unlike liberal feminism, which is based on positivistic assumptions, critical and post-modern feminist scholars reject the problem-solving approach that human security entails. On the contrary, the practical implementation of human security by development institutions and non-governmental organizations worldwide is reminiscent of the problem-solving positivist approach of neorealism.114 According to realist and neorealist security politics, the state and international system reign in security studies. Since the human security 113 The term intersectionality was coined by American professor Kimberl\u00C3\u00A9 Crenshaw in 1989. The concept already existed but she put a name to it. For instance, in 1892 Anna Julia Cooper\u00E2\u0080\u0099s A Voice from the South discusses the intersections of race, class and gender of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s discrimination. 114 Mohammed Nuruzzaman, \u00E2\u0080\u009CParadigms in Conflict The Contested Claims of Human Security, Critical Theory and Feminism,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cooperation and Conflict Journal of the Nordic International Studies Association 41, no. 3 (2006): 298-299. 37 paradigm stands closer to Waltzian neorealism in terms of methodological issues, it is difficult for this paradigm to survive independently. In perfect harmony with the realist security perspective and in the name of policy recommendations, human security attempts to reform the existing system and supports the prevailing social order and the socially powerful rather than challenges them.115 The narrow definition of the human security approach has been usually practiced at the policy level in the form of military and humanitarian interventions.116 In contrast, my view is that a contextualized feminist critical human security approach is able to challenge the power relations intrinsic to universal \u00E2\u0080\u009Crecipes\u00E2\u0080\u009D designed to solve security issues with socio-economic roots. Another main disagreement between feminism and human security involves the critique by the former of the term \u00E2\u0080\u009Chuman.\u00E2\u0080\u009D A critical feminist perspective on the study of human security emphasizes the idea that the term \u00E2\u0080\u009Chuman\u00E2\u0080\u009D has been constructed as an exclusionary and gendered category that obscures the matrices of power that differentiate individuals socially.117 Human security, therefore, reinforces the reproduction of dominant norms and power relations118 within its liberal humanist normative intellectual heritage.119 Human security discourse humanizes security, setting fully human life conditions from a liberal point of view.120 In addition, the liberal tradition views a universal human who shares common rights and innate capabilities. The human security discourse is rooted in the capabilities approach developed by Amartya Sen.121 In that approach, the individual is constructed as an autonomous chooser that is concerned about securing 115 Nuruzzaman, Ibid., 299 116 For further discussion, refer to International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty- ICISS\u00E2\u0080\u0099 The Responsibility to protect report. 117 Natasha Marhia, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSome humans are more Human than Others: Troubling the \u00E2\u0080\u0098human\u00E2\u0080\u0099 in human security from a critical feminist perspective,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Security Dialogue 44, no 1 (2013): 19. 118 Fiona Robinson, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe importance of care in the theory and practice of human security,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Journal of International Political Theory 4, no 2 (2008): 168. 119 Natasha Marhia, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSome humans are more Human than Others: Troubling the \u00E2\u0080\u0098human\u00E2\u0080\u0099 in human security from a critical feminist perspective,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Security Dialogue 44, no 1 (2013): 20. 120 Marhia, Ibid., 21. 121 Marhia, Ibid., 21. 38 his/her own life and dignity. Nevertheless, this construction fails to acknowledge that an individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security, well-being and capability to choose depend on its social location and its web of social relations.122 For instance, the term \u00E2\u0080\u009Chuman\u00E2\u0080\u009D does not overcome certain gender silences.123 Despite the inclusive nature of the human security approach, the gender dimension is overlooked, which results in only a partial understanding of security issues. Moreover, the term \u00E2\u0080\u009Chuman\u00E2\u0080\u009D may camouflage the gendered foundations of security practices.124 By highlighting the need for identity politics, the ambivalence of human security as both a political project of emancipation and an analytical framework might be clarified.125 For instance, the inclusion of women as a category of identity within security studies also needs to integrate gender as a unit of analysis in order to prevent silences.126 Since gender is intertwined with other identities such as race, class and nationality, a critical feminist perspective connects individual experiences in a particular location.127 Therefore, context-based interpretations of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security need to recognize how their different identities affect their human security conditions. It is necessary to rethink human security in ways that assign more importance to context than to the abstract individual. In my view, this type of interpretation leads to the inclusion, protection, and empowerment of women in border zones. This study assumes that human security and feminist security, viewed from a critical perspective, are not irreconcilable standpoints. Indeed, these two approaches to security studies have similarities and complementarities. Although human security appeared as the main paradigm shift from the traditional realist security approach after 1994, mainly because of the changed nature 122 Marhia, Ibid., 22. 123 Heidi Hudson, \u00E2\u0080\u009CDoing\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Security as Though Humans Matter: A Feminist Perspective on Gender and the Politics of Human Security,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Security Dialogue 36, no. 2 (June 2005): 155-156. 124 Hudson, Ibid., 157. 125 Hudson, Ibid., 155. 126 Hudson, Ibid., 158. 127 Hudson, Ibid., 158. 39 of threats at the end of the Cold War, feminism had previously propagated similar concepts and referents of security beginning in the 1980s.128 Feminist analysis of security also pays attention to the individual and community rather than to the state or the international system.129 From this, it can be concluded that both human security and feminism experience a deep dissatisfaction with the realist security paradigm, which interprets security through the restrictive lens of the security of the state. Such a paradigm distracts attention from the insecurities that individuals, groups and communities face in their everyday lives. Moreover, both feminism and human security encourage a multidimensional approach, broadening the threats to security. In this sense, security involves the absence of the threat of violence, discrimination, unemployment, lack of food, housing and other social and economic provisions that provide individuals and communities with decent living conditions. Therefore, from a critical viewpoint, human security and feminist security can complement each other by simultaneously being policy-relevant and normatively rich. Both approaches have their own strengths. If these strengths are combined, it is possible to increase the normative weight of human security and the relevance of feminist security perspectives in policy.130 Feminists have made a particular contribution to gendering the human security approach. By gendering human security, it is feasible to expand the understanding of what security can and does mean131 beyond a local/civilian/bottom-up perspective. A gender-based human security analysis reveals what human security means when understood through power and practices of domination and marginalization.132 Therefore, gendering human security introduces 128 Mohammed Nuruzzaman, \u00E2\u0080\u009CParadigms in Conflict the Contested Claims of Human Security, Critical Theory and Feminism,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cooperation and Conflict 41, no. 3. 286, 298. 129 Ann Tickner, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYou Just Don't Understand: Troubled Engagements between Feminists and IR Theorists,\u00E2\u0080\u009D International Studies Quarterly 41, no. 4 (Dec., 1997), 624. 130 Gunhild Hoogensen Gj\u00C3\u00B8rv, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGendering Human Security: how gender theory is reflected and challenged in civil-military cooperation,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 1 http://www.academia.edu/4473317/Gendering_Human_Security_how_gender_theory_is_reflected_and_challenged_in_civil-_military_cooperation (accessed on February 4, 2015). 131 A. T. R. Wibben, \u00E2\u0080\u009CHuman Security: Toward an Opening,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Security Dialogue 39, no.4 (2008): 455-462. 132 Gunhild Hoogensen Gj\u00C3\u00B8rv, Ibid., 3. 40 perspectives that make explicit the role of the various actors in creating security and the power relations between them. By doing so, it offers analytical and empirical insights that release human security discourses from the influence of a state-centric perspective.133 Since human security cannot be based on state-based military measures, it needs to understand the roles and interactions of multiple actors and fronts. This understanding has become a powerful analytical tool when analyzing non-state actors within security dynamics, as well as recommendations for practices on the ground.134 Gendering human security thus contributes to policy-making and normative developments, which is vital for moving debates and practice forward.135 Since gendering human security includes a feminist position on security, it is concerned with gender inequality and the inclusion of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences in security analysis.136 If human security seeks to achieve social justice, it must reduce not only gender inequality but the multiple social inequalities experienced by women based on their race, class, gender and geographical location. In this sense, women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s multiple experiences of inequality must be taken into consideration when formulating human security policies. Expanding the state-centric approach to security to one that includes human security inclusive of the intersections of gender, race, class and geographical location will help overcome the structural violence contained in systems of domination that naturalize inequalities and limit the achievement of justice. An intersectional perspective of the human security approach revitalizes the need of women to move from being the subjects of discussion to being agents of a transformative change. Such a human security perspective emphasizes the protection and empowerment of people through their active participation and, of course, of human agency and particularly women's agency. Human security cannot view women 133 Gunhild Hoogensen Gj\u00C3\u00B8rv, Ibid., 2. 134 Gunhild Hoogensen Gj\u00C3\u00B8rv, Ibid., 4. 135 Ann Tickner, \u00E2\u0080\u009CResponsible Scholarship in International Relations: A Symposium,\u00E2\u0080\u009D International Studies Review 10 (2008): 661-666. 136 Mohammed Nuruzaman, \u00E2\u0080\u009CParadigms in Conflict the Contested Claims of Human Security, Critical Theory and Feminism,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cooperation and Conflict September 41 (2006): 296. 41 as passive beneficiaries of state or patriarchal benevolence, in scenarios of critical insecurity. Rather it has to see them as participants with policy inputs, knowledge, experience and other resources.137 Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s knowledge of development, security and equality within their daily experiences, as well as their understanding of how these issues should be conducted by themselves, the state and non-state actors, needs to be taken into account. By moving the state security agenda in the direction of people's security, human security enables women sharing multiple identities to move from the margins to the center of this agenda. To make the most of the advantages of the variety of perspectives, a feminist critical human security approach is influenced by critical human security, feminist critiques of national security, the idea of intersectionality and the concept of matrix of domination of Black feminism. A feminist critical human security approach is sensitive to power relations within systems of oppression, acknowledging that insecurity is related to people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s daily lives on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders based on their gender, race, class and geographical location. The empirical case analyzed in this dissertation reveals that neither Ecuadorian security authorities nor women as an identity group living at the border represents a monolithic category of analysis. For instance, the experiences of Black women in Carchi Province differ from the experiences of Mestizo women in El Oro province or of Indigenous women in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Province. A feminist critical human security perspective that takes into account these intersecting conditions of inequality is useful for understanding the particularities of these women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences and for influencing the design of public policy, encouraging contextualized responses to women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security conditions to be implemented on Ecuadorian borders. Discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender and class impedes the complete fulfilment of social, political and economic opportunities, affecting deeply human security conditions. In the case of women on the 137 Viviene Taylor, \u00E2\u0080\u009CFrom State Security to Human Security and Gender Justice,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Agenda 59 (2004): 67. 42 borders of Ecuador, these intersecting experiences of inequality have provoked unequal access to education, healthcare and have hindered their political and economic participation, thereby undermining their security. Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security is assured only when they can live free of interlocked violence, exploitation and discrimination in their everyday lives. By tackling interlocking inequalities, a feminist critical human security approach challenges an exclusive state-centric understanding of security. This approach is especially concerned with women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s daily life experiences of insecurity; it views women as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cknowers\u00E2\u0080\u009D and argues that, through their local knowledge of security and development, women can achieve emancipation because they know best what is needed to improve their security conditions. Moreover, feminist critical human security is useful in approaching and analyzing the differences and similarities between local women in each of the three border provinces where this study was carried out. The feminist critical human security perspective employs a multidimensional approach to threats to security that can affect women. Furthermore, feminist critical human security views insecurity as structural violence, involves fewer military values and adds more recognition of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s contributions to society. It understands that a national security approach, through repressive border control, escalates complex security problems when security forces abuse the use of force to combat issues categorized as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthreat\u00E2\u0080\u009D or \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccrime.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Moreover, traditional security approaches to smuggling, such as national security, view this activity as a crime and a threat to the state, demanding and emphasizing border security. In contrast, a feminist critical human security analysis of smuggling prioritizes the security of the individuals and establishes as referents of security those women who smuggle or who help a family or a community member to do so. Border security treats women smugglers as criminals, overlooking the circumstances that have motivated smuggling in a specific context. Therefore, the state and its border security practices neglect the voices and agency of women smugglers, whose access to alternative sources of income is limited 43 in the three provinces where this study was conducted. Moreover, the treatment that women on the border receive from the security authorities depends on their particular racial/ethnic, socio-economic and geographical identities. The feminist critical human security approach, therefore, aims to decrease women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity and to achieve equality by encouraging the elimination of power relations based on domination and subordination within state-centric perspectives of security by identifying potential feminist policy initiatives that are aware of intersectional issues within a development planning framework. This approach must pay attention at least to the intersections of race, gender, class and urban-rural dichotomy. 1.2.6 Border In order to understand that women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security can be undermined by national security practices that take place in border zones, it is relevant to examine several concepts of the border. The term border can refer to the physical-territorial limit or to the cultural, social or ideological boundaries that serve to highlight the differences between \u00E2\u0080\u009Cus\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe others.\u00E2\u0080\u009D A traditional understanding, or a state-centric perspective, of the border is based on the categories of state and territory and views the border as an instrument of exclusion constructed between two or more states.138 Thus, the territorial delimitation and demarcation between states become matters of broad interest, allowing the exercise of power wherever borders have been marked. Since its territory is the space where the state exercises its sovereignty,139 states protect their borders from a standpoint of military defense. Therefore, the border, as understood by the state, is the territorial marker of the 138 Chris Rumford, \u00E2\u0080\u009CTowards a Multiperspectival Study of Borders,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Geopolitics 17, no. 4 (2012): 888. 139 Juan Carlos Arriaga-Rodr\u00C3\u00ADguez, \u00E2\u0080\u009CConcepto jur\u00C3\u00ADdico de frontera,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Caribe: Econom\u00C3\u00ADa, Pol\u00C3\u00ADtica y Sociedad. Disputas, conflictos y cooperaci\u00C3\u00B3n transfronteriza, in Juan Carlos Arriaga-Rodr\u00C3\u00ADguez and Tania Camal-Cheluja compiladores, XII Seminario Internacional de Verano, 7 al 9 de septiembre 2011. Universidad de Quintana Roo. Divisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Ciencias Pol\u00C3\u00ADticas y Humanidades. http://www.academia.edu/3840238/Concepto_juridico_de_frontera (accessed January 5, 2015). 44 limits of the sovereign political power.140 The state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s understanding of the border permits security practices that ensure the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s survival in an anarchical self-help system,141 promoting a national security approach that identifies what, who and where the threat to the state is. In addition, the border, as understood from a national security perspective, views human border crossings as highly selective. However, the border cannot be properly understood from a single masculinized and privileged point of view; it must be interpreted and constructed from diverse perspectives. The border viewed solely as a dividing line serves to establish a state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s domain and sovereignty. This understanding of the border (generally by governments) offers little help to interpret the border phenomena in all theirs complexity.142 Unlike state-centric border perspectives, multiperspective border studies are critical of the idea that borders are physical dividing lines that belong to states.143 This perspective treats the border as an object of study rather than as a mere dimension of national security.144 The statist perspective of the border is contested when different interpretations of the border are presented.145 Multiperspective border studies challenge the core assumptions associated with the study of borders; these assumptions refer to the fact that states\u00E2\u0080\u0099 borders require consensus and mutual recognition in order to exist and that for a border to function properly it must be visible to all.146 However, if borders are viewed as cultural encounters, it becomes easier to study them as constructed by diverse non-state actors. By re-framing borders as cultural encounters rather than simply as mechanisms of division, the fundamental assumption of consensus is challenged.147 Borders do not always need to be visible 140 Nick Vaughan-Williams, Border Politics: The Limits of Sovereign Power (Edinburgh: University Press, 2009), 14. 141Vaughan-Williams, Ibid., 3. 142 Nilo Meza Monge, Espacios Regionales Fronterizos. Teor\u00C3\u00ADa, pol\u00C3\u00ADtica y pr\u00C3\u00A1ctica del desarrollo y la integraci\u00C3\u00B3n fronteriza (2008) http://www.eumed.net/libros-gratis/2008b/400/index., 19-20. 143 Chris Rumford, \u00E2\u0080\u009CTowards a Multiperspectival Study of Borders,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Geopolitics 17, no. 4 (2012): 887-888. 144 Rumford, Ibid., 900. 145 Rumford, Ibid., 894. 146 Rumford, Ibid., 888. 147 Rumford, Ibid., 889. 45 or constituted through consensus.148 Therefore, the assumption that consensus and visibility must exist needs to be discarded.149 Since borders do not refer only to state borders, it is relevant to take alternative conceptions of borders seriously. The concept of the border has also been understood as the intersection of identities and the formation of the self. For example, Gloria Anzald\u00C3\u00BAa and Ruth Behar developed feminist analyses of the border and identity in Latin America. Ruth Behar\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Translated Women (1993) portrays the story of Esperanza, a Mexican Indigenous woman from Mexquitic who became the author\u00E2\u0080\u0099s comadre. By identifying the structural inequalities of race, class and nationality that separate Esperanza and the author as women located on opposite sides of the border between the United States and Mexico, Behar frames the construction of her own identity as an academic, Cuban immigrant in New York City and victim of patriarchy like her comadre.150 At the same time, Behar recounts Esperanza\u00E2\u0080\u0099s struggles at the other side of the physical border that separates them. In the same sense, the concept of border explored by Gloria Anzald\u00C3\u00BAa (2007) is imbued with a postcolonial feminism framework, showing the author\u00E2\u0080\u0099s inner struggle as Chicana, Latina, feminist and lesbian. Borderlands are viewed as a place simultaneously defined as safe and unsafe, distinguishing us from them.151 In Borderlands/La Frontera The New Mestiza, Anzald\u00C3\u00BAa views the border as a cultural dividing line in the sense of identity. In addition, the psychological, sexual and spiritual borderlands are seen as the space where different cultures meet each other, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwhere people of different races occupy the same territory, where under, lower, middle, and upper classes touch, where the space between two individuals shrinks with intimacy.\u00E2\u0080\u009D152 Specifically, women 148 Rumford, Ibid., 895. 149 Rumford, Ibid., 891-892. 150 Ruth Behar, Translated Woman. Crossing the Border with Esperanza\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Story (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993), 320-342. 151 Gloria Anzald\u00C3\u00BAa, Borderlands/La Frontera. The New Mestiza. Third Edition (San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books, 2007), 25. 152 Anzald\u00C3\u00BAa, Ibid., 19. 46 who live on the margins of the border permanently shift their multiple identities, because the border not only distinguishes their multiplicity of identities, it also unites and enriches the intersecting identities of the individual. Another aspect to take into account when discussing the concept of border is the idea that distance contributes to the creation of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cotherness.\u00E2\u0080\u009D The distance and isolation from the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s center of power and the sustained interactions with foreigners encourage the population of the border to think of themselves as different from the people in the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interior zones. Hence, borderlanders better understand racial, ethnic and cultural differences.153Many traders, furthermore, view themselves as members of a self-directed border economic community rather than as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpure\u00E2\u0080\u009D citizens of the state whose behaviour must conform strictly to national norms.154 For this reason, the population living on the border tends to ignore national laws that are unrealistic and insensitive to the cross-border reality.155 Locals do not necessarily see borders in the same way as do governments. Only border dwellers who interact with the everyday life of the border fully understand such a complex scenario. In their logic, the border is no longer just a physical line; economic and social relations are responsible for erasing this line that separates territories with common features. The border is a point of convergence of territories and populations, which include geographical, economic and social processes. The border is no longer the point of separation, it has become a place, a space and, especially, a way of life156 where migration, tourism, trade and smuggling take place as modes of interaction among the borderlanders. Therefore, the 153 Jos\u00C3\u00A9 Luis G\u00C3\u00B3mez-Mart\u00C3\u00ADnez, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMestizaje y frontera como categor\u00C3\u00ADas culturales iberoamericanas,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Estudios Interdisciplinarios de Am\u00C3\u00A9rica Latina y el Caribe- EIAL (Tel Aviv) 5, no 1 (1994), 12. http://www.tau.ac.il/eial/V_1/martinez.htm 154 Mart\u00C3\u00ADnez, Ibid., 13. 155 Mart\u00C3\u00ADnez, Ibid., 12. 156 Mart\u00C3\u00ADnez, Ibid., 5-19. 47 border cannot be seen as a merely physical dividing line that guards against the strange, the unknown and the dangerous. The interaction among borderland populations through trans-boundary trade, migration, and social-cultural relationships also invites us to rethink the official understanding of the border; the border cannot serve only to limit and block. Nowadays, the border\u00E2\u0080\u0099s role should be reversed: the border is a place to unite and integrate states and the borderland populations. Understanding the border as a space of integration and social interaction recognizes its multidimensional dynamic. The idiosyncrasies of the people inhabiting the border do not view it as a dividing line; unlike the discourse of sovereignty they see it as a common history157 and as a space where multiethnic groups interact. Among the main ethnic groups who cross the border between Ecuador and Colombia or Peru are Awa, Pastos, Cof\u00C3\u00A1n, Siona, Otavalos, Afro-Ecuadorians, and Mestizos. The population living on the border is hybrid because it has multiple identities and flexible identities,158 such as Ecuadorian, Colombian, Peruvian, bi-national, regional and even transnational. The borderland society becomes transnational when it maintains significant ties with the neighboring nation. Through a bi-national system Ecuadorians, Peruvians, and Colombians take advantage of every opportunity to visit, shop, work, study or live on the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cother side\u00E2\u0080\u009D of the border. Transnationalism is seen as the location at the edges of states where borders dissipate, mutual antagonisms are overcome and substantive social and economic interchanges begin to emerge at the common border.159The degree of transnationalism in an interdependent borderland 157 Ricardo Montenegro Coral, \u00E2\u0080\u009CFrontera Colombo-Ecuatoriana: Historia y Destino Com\u00C3\u00BAn,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Aldea Mundo Revista sobre Fronteras e Integraci\u00C3\u00B3n A\u00C3\u00B1o 10, no. 18 (2005): 21-22. 158 Chainarong Sretthachau, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLiving Across Border: The Tactics of Everyday Life Practice of Cambodian-Lao Migrant Worker in Thailand in the Context of Mekong Regionalization of Development,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 4th Asian Rural Sociology Association (ARSA) International Conference (2010): 72; Gloria Anzald\u00C3\u00BAa, Borderlands/La Frontera. The New Mestiza. Third Edition (San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books, 2007), 19-25. 159 Oscar Martinez, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe dynamics of border interaction. New Approaches to Border Analysis,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Global Boundaries: World Boundaries volume 1, ed. Clive H. Schofield (London: Routledge, 1994), 6, 9. 48 demonstrates that stability prevails most of the time, increasing economic and social cross-border interaction and allowing significant convergence of cultures to take place. Borderlanders, moreover, carry on friendly and cooperative relationships.160 The flow of economic resources and people across the border allows the economies involved to be structurally bonded to each other. In contrast, concerns over immigration, trade competition, smuggling and ethnic nationalism compel the central governments to carefully monitor an interdependent borderland,161 mainly through patrolling, immigration control and customs. In response to excessive border security controls, bi-national human security initiatives must be carried out in interdependent borders, such as those between Ecuador and Peru or Ecuador and Colombia. In sum, what really matters is not only how the border should be conceptualized but also where boundary-producing practices are actually located. Power relations are embedded in the making of borders and in their use as ideological tools in governance and security agendas.162 Borders are not only policed lines, but also processes, social institutions and symbols. As social processes, borders are located in a number of institutionalized practices, discourses, and symbols throughout the state territory.163 According to this viewpoint, borders are an exercise of power and can be constructed as a way to protect a privileged position of security. Since borders are socially constructed through foreign policy and security discourses, they serve particular purposes and motivation that reflect power relations.164 Borders, therefore, can be labeled as discursive landscapes of social power and technical landscapes of social control. The former resonates more clearly with such notions as a nation, national identity, nationalism and memory, and the latter 160 Mart\u00C3\u00ADnez, Ibid., 3, 5. 161 Mart\u00C3\u00ADnez, Ibid., 4-5. 162 Anssi Paasi, \u00E2\u0080\u009CBorders and Border-Crossing,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Nuala Johnson, Richard Schein and Jamie Winders eds. Wiley Blackwell Companion to Cultural Geography (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), 2,4. 163 Paasi, Ibid., 6, 15. 164 Paasi, Ibid., 8,10. 49 with state, sovereignty, citizenship, governance, security and control.165 Both landscapes have often been maintained in the name of national security. In this dissertation, I critically analyze the state-centric understanding of the border while discussing the border security discourses and practices of Ecuadorian security forces to tackle smuggling activities. I use a multidimensional approach when referring to the locals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 understanding of the border. Such an approach views the border as a space of integration, self-directed economy, social interaction, a cultural encounter and a way of living. One way to approach intersectionality is to analyze how border security authorities and their power dynamics frame and interpret the stories of the Indigenous, Mestizo, and Black women who cross the border. Smuggling at the border creates a closer contact between the intersecting identities of local women and security forces within a national security discourse. The concepts of national security, critical human security, feminists\u00E2\u0080\u0099 critiques of national security, feminist critical human security and border contribute to developing an analytical framework that seeks to support the main argument of this research, which is the fact that a web of power relationships on the border has increased the intersectional inequalities that lead women to become smugglers. 1.2.7 Power I have argued broadly that power relations are present in the daily interactions on the border, in conceptions of security and development and in systems of inequality base on gender, class and race. For this reason, it is important to elaborate on the understanding of how power is going to be understood in this study and how this concept is going to influence the research question, namely what led women to become smugglers and if smuggling shows the empowerment or 165 Paasi, Ibid., 15. 50 domination of women. Thus, in this section, I analyze power as domination, power as empowerment and the feminist critical human security conception of power. 1.2.7.1 Power as domination In this section, the model of power as domination will be linked to power-knowledge regimes and to the Foucauldian early disciplinary power/docile bodies thesis. Power-knowledge regimes create dominant discourses around practices of national security deployed on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders. These knowledge regimes are sustained by a disciplinary power that is essential to maintaining the status quo and monitoring women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s bodies and their practices of femininity. I shall argue briefly, that within power-knowledge regimes, the understanding of power as domination is most commonly recognized as a relationship of domination and subordination or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpower over.\u00E2\u0080\u009D From a Foucauldian perspective, relations of power are \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmeans by which individuals try to conduct, to determine the behaviours of others.\u00E2\u0080\u009D166 The model of power as domination, which is influenced by violence, repression and discrimination, is imbued in knowledge regimes. Consequently, this model of power produces reality and rituals of truth, creates objects of analysis, forms discourses and constructs knowledge.167 Power is located in the episteme manifested in the everyday social relations or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmicro-practices\u00E2\u0080\u009D that have created the politics of everyday life. This type of power is exercised in personal, social, economic and political relations between individuals and groups. Hence, power is everywhere and it is expressed through a multiplicity of force relations that are crystallized in the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s apparatus. Power thus acts on human beings through institutions such as prisons, schools or border controls. Knowledge as 166 Michael Foucault, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEthic of Care for the Self as Practice of Freedom,\u00E2\u0080\u009D an interview translated by J Gaultier, in James Beranuer and David Rasmussen, eds., The Final Foucault (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1988): 18. 167 Amy Allen, The Power of Feminist Theory (Boulder: Westview, 1999), 31-34. 51 power represents what has been decided to be true by a specific epistemic community or interest group. Thus, holistic epistemic communities perpetuate certain beliefs through social discourses.168 The role of the epistemic communities at the discursive level exerts a dominant control of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe recognized knowledge.\u00E2\u0080\u009D This ability to control gives these communities the power to impose a discourse that influences people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s understandings, desires and interests.169 In the empirical case under analysis, a power-knowledge regime creates dominant discourses around the ideas of border security and the practices of national security deployed at the borders. These discourses and practices are good ways to illustrate the powerful role of border security authorities in protecting the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interests. Power-knowledge regimes are also present in discourses and interactions based on gender, race and class. Since differences between gender, race and class are defined by power knowledge regimes they are the reified effects of dominance in which a disciplinary power excludes and marginalizes those who are different and who act differently. This type of power maintains systems of dominance based on racism, sexism, and classism. These systems of dominance have many negative associations for women, such as repression, force, coercion, discrimination, and abuse. Depending on women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social locations, power-knowledge regimes deploy different disciplinary practices, such as the kind of job or education that a woman can obtain. When, due to their different social locations, women are denied access to important rights, such as land, education, healthcare, and employment, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpower over\u00E2\u0080\u009D perpetuates inequality, injustice and poverty. Since they have little knowledge of alternative models of power, individuals repeat the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpower over\u00E2\u0080\u009D pattern in their personal, institutional and community relationships. Thus, different degrees of power are sustained 168 Andreas Antoniades, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEpistemic Communities, Epistemes and the Construction of (World) Politics,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Global Society 17, no 1 (2003): 28. 169 Antoniades, Ibid., 29. 52 and perpetuated through social divisions such as gender, age, class, ethnicity, race and the urban-rural and north-south dichotomies. As a result, power is unequally distributed, with some individuals and social groups having greater control over the sources of power and others having little or no control. The disciplinary model of power as domination is connected to the notion of docility. The \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdocile bodies\u00E2\u0080\u009D thesis is helpful in understanding the transition from sovereign/monarchical power to a modern power that involves disciplinary regimes and systems of surveillance.170 From a Foucauldian perspective, the disciplinary power centers on the body and manipulates it so that it can become useful and docile.171 Once the docile body is manipulated and trained to obey and respond172 to commands, discipline adjusts power through surveillance exercised by institutions.173 A \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgentle\u00E2\u0080\u009D power is deployed with just a gaze through the Foucauldian metaphor of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe panopticon\u00E2\u0080\u009D as it produces self-monitoring subjects174 and individuals who have learned to police themselves, thus becoming their own overseers. The model of the panopticon is a compelling explanatory paradigm for women's acceptance of patriarchal standards of femininity.175 Thus, the body is under the control of a constant coercive power that imposes prohibitions and obligations on it, but that also supervises the body\u00E2\u0080\u0099s activities.176 Furthermore, a well-disciplined body makes correct use of its time, becoming useful for the system.177 This micro- 170 Monique Deveaux, \u00E2\u0080\u009CFeminism and Empowerment: A Critical Reading of Foucault,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Feminist Studies 20, no. 2, Women's Agency: Empowerment and the Limits of Resistance (Summer, 1994): 224. 171 Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Coll\u00C3\u00A8ge de France 1975\u00E2\u0080\u00931976 (New York: Picador, 2003), 249. 172 Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (New York: Vintage Books edition, 1979), 136. 173 Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Coll\u00C3\u00A8ge de France 1975\u00E2\u0080\u00931976 (New York: Picador, 2003), 246-250 174 Davina Cooper, \u00E2\u0080\u009CProductive, Relational and Everywhere? Conceptualizing Power and Resistance within Foucauldian Feminism,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Sociology 28, no 2 (1994): 437. 175 Monique Deveaux, \u00E2\u0080\u009CFeminism and Empowerment: A Critical Reading of Foucault,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Feminist Studies 20, no. 2, Women's Agency: Empowerment and the Limits of Resistance (Summer, 1994): 225. 176 Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (New York: Vintage Books edition, 1979), 136-137. 177 Foucault, Ibid., 152. 53 physic of power understands the relation of docility-utility as one that brings a discipline that becomes a formula of domination of the docile bodies,178 such as, women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s bodies crossing the border. Thus, disciplinary power has a coercive link with the control apparatus of the state, constantly monitoring women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s existence. Disciplinary power coerces by means of observation. Power needs to see without being seen.179 Consequently, the observatories, such as schools, hospitals, prisons or customs follow the model of a military camp, where power has a hierarchized surveillance in order to control an individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conduct.180 Disciplinary power prevents confusion and disorder and triggers projects of exclusion181 for the disobedient bodies. Thus, power does not only involve force; it is also a set of soft and invisible surveillance relations that operate through disciplinary practices. The disciplinary power is located at the center of a system of dividing practices that isolate those who challenge the status quo,182 such as those smugglers considered delinquents by the border security authorities. Therefore, power creates a knowledge regime materialized as a belief, a discourse, a way to know and a way to do things in a particular individual or community. The disciplined body is a believer in the truth that has been constructed by the disciplinary power. In the case of this study, this belief is related to the idea that \u00E2\u0080\u009Csmugglers are criminals.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Once disciplined, the social body cannot become a threat to societal, economic or political orders. Thus, this disciplinary power is essential to maintaining the status quo. For instance, a female body that performs an emphasized femininity has become docile through the exercise of a disciplinary power. But a female body that challenges the disciplinary power embedded in border security practices and discourses is excluded, punished and discriminated against. 178 Foucault, Ibid., 136-139. 179 Foucault, Ibid., 171. 180 Foucault, Ibid., 171-172. 181 Foucault, Ibid., 199. 182 Monique Deveaux, \u00E2\u0080\u009CFeminism and Empowerment: A Critical Reading of Foucault,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Feminist Studies 20, no. 2, Women's Agency: Empowerment and the Limits of Resistance (Summer, 1994): 224. 54 At this point, I would like to emphasize the fact that someone can be subordinated in one context, for instance by being a woman, and yet be dominant in another context, such as by being a white, upper-middle class and heterosexual woman. If we combine the Foucauldian idea of docile bodies subjected by discipline with Crenshaw\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conception of intersectionality and Hill Collins\u00E2\u0080\u0099 matrix of domination within systems of power such as patriarchy, capitalism and racism, it becomes easier to comprehend that, within border security discourses and practices, the social location of women influences the disciplinary treatment that they receive when crossing the border. For instance, due to her intersected social position, a poor Afro-Ecuadorian woman should not dare to challenge border security practices. 1.2.7.2 Power as empowerment An alternative to overcome the conception of power as domination is to view power as empowerment. This type of power is associated with positive ways of expressing power, such as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpower with,\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpower to\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpower within.\u00E2\u0080\u009D For instance, by building collective strength, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpower with\u00E2\u0080\u009D transforms and reduces social conflict and promotes equitable relations. \u00E2\u0080\u009CPower to\u00E2\u0080\u009D refers to the potential of every person to shape his or her life. Finally, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpower within\u00E2\u0080\u009D has to do with a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s sense of self-worth, recognizing individual differences while respecting others. It affirms the common human search for dignity and fulfillment.183Power understood as empowerment can, therefore, be a product of consent and can foster feminist solidarity.184 This type of power unveils realities and creates new ones.185 In this sense, power cannot always be 183 Lisa Vene Klasen and Valerie Miller, \u00E2\u0080\u009CPower and empowerment,\u00E2\u0080\u009D PLA Notes 43 (2002): 39-41. 184 Amy Allen, The Power of Feminist Theory Domination, Resistance, Solidarity (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999), 56. 185 Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958), 200. 55 understood within the dominator/dominated relationship; it is also based on relations of solidarity, dignity, collaboration and agreement among actors. Empowerment as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpower with\u00E2\u0080\u009D can be perceived as a collective force within solidarity networks. I would like to refer to Arendt\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conception of power, because it involves a different orientation from the conception of power as domination, defined as the ability to get one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s commands obeyed. In particular, she identifies the type of power that humans use in the fulfillment of their distinctively human potential. According to Hannah Arendt (1970), power is not just the human ability to act, but the ability to act in concert.186 Therefore, power is not exclusively the property of an individual, but also that of a group. Power in that sense exists as long as the group remains together.187 Thus, Arendt\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of power understands that power appears when people act together. When people live together as an organized unit, they produce power through action.188 From an Arendtian perspective, empowerment occurs within a network of human relationships and is, therefore, a collective phenomenon. Certainly, a focus on individual capacity-building fails to recognize the extent to which the development of the individual occurs within a context of social and political relationships as well as within discourses.189An individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s act becomes empowering as long it turns into an action that occurs within the web of human relationships.190 This Arendtian formulation of empowerment as collective power is associated with the concept of solidarity articulated by Amy Allen\u00E2\u0080\u0099s power of feminist theory. Allen defines solidarity as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe ability of a collectivity to act together for the agreed-upon end of challenging, subverting, and, ultimately, 186 Hannah Arendt, On Violence (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970), 44. 187 Arendt, Ibid., 44. 188 Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958), 200-201. 189 Shari McDaid, \u00E2\u0080\u009CRedefining empowerment in mental health: an analysis using Hannah Arendt's power concept,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Journal of Power 3, no. 2 (2010): 212, DOI: 10.1080/17540291.2010.493701. 190 Arendt, The Human Condition, 181-184. 56 overturning a system of domination.\u00E2\u0080\u009D191 Since solidarity is a collective empowerment, it represents power with. Collective power rejects the assumption that power is always exercised in strategic ways,192 or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpower over.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Power also emerges from the relationship between individuals that share a common goal,193 such as economic survival through smuggling activities that are considered illegal by border security authorities. Power as action has no physical limits in human nature; its only limitation is the existence of other people who divide power.194 Arendt\u00E2\u0080\u0099s analysis recognizes that, when power as action is fragmented, the force of collective power that can transform reality by fostering solidarity or resistance within a social group is difficult to achieve. Security practices at the border divide the power and solidarity that smugglers have as a group while crossing from one side to the other. To prevent the division of this power, in the case under study some women are able to mobilize and organize themselves in order to work together with their male counterparts. Therefore, against the common belief of submissive and helpless women, there is a strong female agency within the smuggling networks. The concept of power as empowerment is useful to understand women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s emerging power as agents of knowledge. Some women have internalized the values of the dominant culture. Their guilt when they deviate from the norm and their need to avoid conflict in order to accommodate and please, have prevented them from empowering themselves. Nevertheless, women cannot be genuinely empowered until we understand our own need for power and, of course, our fear of it. It is only by having power, by using it and by misusing it that we learn to know ourselves195 and to seek empowerment within the domination framework of security practices in the border and intersectional inequalities in society. In this sense, Black feminism reveals the role that knowledge 191 Amy Allen, The Power of Feminist Theory Domination, Resistance, Solidarity (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999), 127. 192 Allen, Ibid., 82. 193 Allen, Ibid., 100. 194 Arendt, On Violence, 201. 195 Helene Moglen, \u00E2\u0080\u009CPower and Empowerment,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Studies hr. Forum, 6, no. 2 (1983): 131-134. 57 and consciousness play in empowering oppressed individuals and groups. New knowledge from subjugated groups is important for both the change of consciousness of individuals and the social transformation of the institutions that perpetuate oppression and inequality.196The conceptualization of power as empowerment is also viewed as the power of the powerless. This perspective acknowledges that empowering practices of women are still shaped by relations of domination.197 In patriarchal societies, men are in a position of dominance over women; but women choose to understand power as the ability to empower oneself, others and the world.198 Women may want to be powerful in order to simultaneously enhance rather than diminish the power of others.199 In concrete terms, power, as empowerment, is a creative ability that women have in order to pursue certain life projects.200 Therefore, this approach has a transformative component that can be understood as a process that fosters power in women for use in their own lives and in their communities. Nevertheless, power viewed as empowerment has to be aware of the social locations where relations of domination and subordination take place. Empowerment is not a universal location: some women can subordinate others201 or be more empowered than others depending on their different social locations based on their race, class, gender or location (urban-rural). An intersecting perspective recognizes that local women in border zones are a heterogeneous group who might share experiences of racist, classist and gendered oppression. Based on women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socially constructed identities, border security discourses and practices reduce women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lives to 196 Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990), 221\u00E2\u0080\u0093238. 197 Amy Allen, The Power of Feminist Theory: Domination, Resistance, Solidarity (Boulder, Colorado: Westview press, 1999), 24. 198 Allen, Ibid., 18. 199 Jean Baker Miller, Women and Power (Wellesley, Mass.: Stone Center for Developmental Services and Studies, Wellesley College, 1982), 247-248. 200 Allen, Ibid., 21. 201 Allen, Ibid., 25. 58 negative stereotypes that deny their agency. By understanding power as a negotiation between domination and empowerment, it is possible to visualize how women move from one context of power to the other depending on their social location. Feminist critical human security acknowledges the interplay between these two understandings of power. 1.2.7.3 Feminist critical human security\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conception of power To effectively influence the power structures within border control and inequality systems in Ecuador, feminist critical human security acknowledges other sources and understandings of power such as resistance or empowerment. Power, as both dynamic and multidimensional, changes its expressions according to context and interests. Hence, its expressions can range from domination and resistance to collaboration and transformation.202 Despite the predominance of power as domination, feminist critical human security does not encourage women to believe that we are powerless. Women exercise power daily to resist and challenge the patriarchal, racist and classist system in border zones. In this sense, a feminist critical human security\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conception of power reveals the unequal power relations that exist in every social relation, thereby showing that subordinate forces can also exercise power.203 Thus, the viewpoint of power as an unchanging relation of domination can be overcome if power is seen as empowerment. Feminist critical human security displays a deep dissatisfaction with views of power as domination and as the punishment of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cundisciplined\u00E2\u0080\u009D bodies, because these views do not take into account women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s agency and empowerment. Feminist critical human security is aware of the role of power as domination, both at the structural and discursive levels, and of the challenge of confronting power because it does not always operate in visible ways, but it nevertheless, 202 Lisa Vene Klasen and Valerie Miller, \u00E2\u0080\u009CPower and empowerment,\u00E2\u0080\u009D PLA Notes 43 (2002): 39-41. 203 Davina Cooper, \u00E2\u0080\u009CProductive, Relational and Everywhere? Conceptualizing Power and Resistance within Foucauldian Feminism,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 442. 59 encourages us to view empowerment as an alternative model of power that creates more equitable relationships. Feminist critical human security rejects the conception of power as domination/punishment imbued in the national security paradigm which interprets security through the restrictive lens of the security of the state, thereby distracting attention from the insecurities that individuals, groups and communities face in their everyday lives. Border security treats smugglers as criminals, overlooking the circumstances that have motivated smuggling in a gendered, racist, classist and geographical context of inequality. The state and its border security practices neglect the voices and agency of women smugglers, whose access to alternative sources of income is limited in the three provinces where my study was conducted. Feminist critical human security incorporates a multidimensional approach to threats to security that can affect women, but it does not involve military principles. Moreover, it prioritizes the security of the individual and establishes women smugglers as referents of security. It acknowledges the emancipatory alternatives for them, in order to ameliorate their security conditions. By tackling the interlocked inequalities that undermine women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security, feminist critical human security contributes to giving women the tools of survival, dignity and sustainable livelihoods. In this sense, feminist critical human security emphasizes not only the protection of women but also their empowerment through their active participation in policy inputs, knowledge and experience to achieve their own development and security. The feminist critical human security approach, therefore, aims to decrease women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity and to achieve equality through feminist policy initiatives that are sensitive to intersectional issues in development planning. This section serves to explain how the concept of power is understood in the empirical case under study. Arendt\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of collective power contributes to the understanding that, when women are organized, they produce power through their daily activities. In the context of women 60 on the borders, smuggling networks allow women to be powerful as a clandestine group on both sides of the border. However, the security forces\u00E2\u0080\u0099 border control practices fragment this power. In this sense, the Foucauldian conception of disciplinary power is useful to understand the discourse and practice of border security. Such a conception prevents disorder at the border by means of observation, excluding and punishing disobedient female bodies involved in smuggling. In the discourse of national security, smugglers are disempowered by the border control authorities. Women continuously move from one context of power relations to another, so they can be dominated and empowered at the same time. The understanding of power in the case under study demonstrates that smuggling can involve the empowerment or the domination of women, depending on the context in which the smuggling takes place and the social location of women who get involved in it. For this reason, from a feminist critical human security perspective, a conception of power applied to the case of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity and smuggling on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders recognizes the interplay between domination and empowerment. Such a conception recognizes domination, empowerment, resistance, and solidarity. The interest in domination focuses on the type of power consciously or unconsciously exercised over women by border control and systems of oppression based on race, class, nationality and gender, while the interest in empowerment and resistance focuses on the power that women have to act despite or in response to the particular circumstances of domination in the border provinces. Finally, the interest in solidarity focuses on the power that women exercise with each other and with men during smuggling activities in border zones as they strive to improve their economic security. It is important to recognize that, if Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s development initiatives truly want to encourage the security of local women on the border, they need to be sensitive to the diversity of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences deriving from their social location. 61 1.2.8 Summary of the theoretical approach This chapter has provided the theoretical framework that informs the analysis of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security and smuggling on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders. The conceptual framework that I use to analyze the empirical case recognizes that national security is a state-centric security paradigm whose main concern is to protect the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s political and economic interests and values using a military approach to tackling threats at the local, national, regional and global levels. Nonetheless, national security\u00E2\u0080\u0099s self-interested agenda has failed to protect people, since it pays inadequate attention to the well-being of citizens and their communities. National security discourses and practices on the border criminalize women involved in smuggling activities, whereas the inhabitants of the border view smuggling as a way of life. In contrast, I use feminist critical human security as a progressive approach for understanding security issues. In order to ensure the implementation of effective policies in solving social, economic, cultural or environmental problems in critical contexts, feminist critical human security policies must consider all the interconnected factors that create insecurity in the area in question. For instance, intersecting factors of inequality, such as sexism, racism and classism, provoke women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity. Equality based on race, gender, class and geographical location must be seen as the main components of a feminist critical human security approach. For this reason, this dissertation is informed by a feminist critical human security perspective that questions the intersectional relations of domination and subordination embodied in state-centric perspectives of security. That perspective holds that an unequal access to education, healthcare and political and economic participation, combined with a traditional social construction of gender roles undermines women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security. The achievement of material needs clearly matters, but it is not enough. It is necessary to transform the socially constructed power relations that have fostered structural inequalities and exclusion on allegedly undisciplined bodies. Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security, within a feminist critical human security approach, is assured only through 62 feminist policy initiatives within a context of development planning, so as to decrease the intersecting factors of inequality. The combination of critical human security and feminist security applied in the empirical case studied in this dissertation analyzes human security as an emancipatory approach for women and their local communities in the three border provinces where the study was carried out. By using a feminist critical human security approach, the border is not viewed as a dividing line between states; rather it is understood as a space of integration, social interaction, cultural encounter and a way of life where the intersecting identities of women and security forces interconnect. The vision of development also needs to foster the inclusion of local voices of women as a precondition for successfully planning and implementing policies to improve their security. My analysis of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (in) security on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders posits development as a pre-condition for achieving the security of women. Feminist critical human security is an emancipatory conception that fosters strong community participation and engagement while repositioning women and their potentialities at the center of development objectives. A feminist critical human security approach can be enriched by post-development, because this understanding contributes to the construction of people-centered development and security models that appreciate local knowledge and culture. Such a conception encourages the agency of communities rooted in local identities to address their own problems. It also recognizes local women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s knowledge development in the provinces where this research was conducted. Finally, it emphasizes the idea of group solidarity as a social process that fosters women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s efforts and joint work for the benefit of 63 themselves, their families and their communities in the seven dimensions204 of the human security approach. 1.3 Methodology Doing feminist critical human security research in women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity and smuggling in border zones involves an intersectional analysis of power relations that uncovers the hidden relationships of oppression and inequality. Acknowledging the importance of intersectionality, in the case of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity, requires analyzing the intersection of multiple forms of discrimination based on gender, race, class, ethnicity, nationality, geography and so on. On one hand, this research is interdisciplinary and critical of the traditional understanding of security, since it implies a challenge to dominant constructions of security as predominantly masculine. On the other hand, feminist critical human security acknowledges that women within local communities must become involved when development and security plans are designed in order to identify the issues that create insecurity in specific contexts. The methodology utilized in this dissertation is influenced and informed by a feminist critical human security approach, which focuses on the security of women and their communities on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones, specifically in El Oro, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and Carchi provinces. A feminist critical human security viewpoint allows this study to arrive at a different, silenced and marginalized notion of security that rejects the dominant discourses and practices on the topic. Thus, the study addresses the following primary research question: \u00EF\u0082\u00B7 What comprises the web of power relations that have led to women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border provinces of El Oro, Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos? 204 According to the 1994 UN Human Development Report, the human security approach involves seven dimensions: personal security, economic security, community security, political security, environmental security, food security and health security. 64 The study also addresses the following secondary research questions: \u00EF\u0082\u00B7 How is women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s involvement in smuggling related to the conditions of insecurity at the border? \u00EF\u0082\u00B7 To what extent do public policies related to human security on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s northern and southern borders include a focus on women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security and well-being that take into account the intersections of gender, race, class and geographical location? 1.3.1 Methods The study utilizes methods for research shaped by a feminist critical human security framework that is guided by two sets of methodological approaches: a critical human security perspective and feminist approaches to the methodology for international relations and political sciences.205 These methodological approaches affect the methods chosen for this study. Thus, the study relies on the following methods for gathering information: (a) analyzing documents; (b) interviews and (c) workshops. a) Analyzing documents At the macro level, this research reviewed a broad array of relevant secondary sources, official documents and relevant statistics in Ecuador, as well as newspaper articles. The study analyzes several publications of experts on national security, human security, international relations feminism, gender studies, intersectionality and development theory. The 205 Brooke Ackerly and Jacqui True, Doing Feminist Research in Political and Social Science (Palgrave Macmillan: New York, 2010); Carol Cohn, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMotives and methods: using muti-sited ethnography to study US National Security discourses,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Feminist methodologies for International Relations. Brooke Ackerly, Maria Stern and Jacqui True editors. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2006), 91-107; Maria Stern. \u00E2\u0080\u009CRacism, sexism, classism, and much more: reading security-identity in marginalized sites,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Feminist methodologies for International Relations. Brooke Ackerly, Maria Stern and Jacqui True editors. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2006), 174-198; Kleinman, Sherryl. Feminist Fieldwork Analysis. (Sage Publications: Los Angeles, 2007). 65 research also examined and analysed government documents and official sources of information given to me by governmental officials or included in web pages such as the National Agenda for Women and Gender Equality 2014-2017 (translated as Agenda Nacional de Mujeres y Equidad de G\u00C3\u00A9nero 2014-2017), development plans such as the National Plan for Buen Vivir 2009-2013 and the National Plan for Buen Vivir 2013-2017, and security plans such as Plan Ecuador 2007 and Comprehensive Security Plan 2011. Finally, the study systematically analyzed five daily Ecuadorian newspapers Hoy, El Comercio, El Tel\u00C3\u00A9grafo, El Universo and La Hora. The criteria of selection of these newspapers involved the need to analyze the content of articles in national and local newspapers (El Comercio is a national newspaper, and La Hora is a local newspaper). Over the one-year period 2013-2014, I collected and studied online newspaper articles corresponding to the period 2007-2014. The articles reviewed were retrieved using the terms \u00E2\u0080\u009Csecurity plans at Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border\u00E2\u0080\u009D, \u00E2\u0080\u009Csmuggling of fuel and propane cylinders at the border\u00E2\u0080\u009D, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdevelopment planning at the border\u00E2\u0080\u009D, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdevelopment at the border\u00E2\u0080\u009D, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cequality in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgender equality in Ecuador.\u00E2\u0080\u009D This selection yielded useful information about these topics of public concern in the country as a whole and established a background for understanding the local concerns in the areas where I was working in. Thus, I was able to collect data regarding national and local authorities\u00E2\u0080\u0099 attitudes, perceptions and discourses towards particular issues, such as smuggling in the three provinces, border control and government policies on gender issues, security and development, all of which are relevant to the issue of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security on the border. Overall, the analysis of these articles yielded a broader understanding of smuggling as a border security concern for the Ecuadorian authorities and of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity conditions in the Ecuadorian society. 66 b) Interviewing At the micro level, this study involved a process of selecting participants for interviews that included those who could best address the research questions and enhance the understanding of the phenomenon under study. The criteria were based on 1) perspective (those who approved or disapproved governmental policies regarding border security, development and gender equality) and 2) diversity (middle/low class, rural/urban and Black/Indigenous/Mestizo women). Thus, this research analyzes the contents of individual semi-structured interviews, including open-ended questions, followed by a short informal discussion at the end of the interview with academics, government functionaries and leaders of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations. The research also analyzes unstructured groups interviews with local women conducted during the fieldwork. Group interviews were particularly useful with shy women. Those interviews were more social, and they resulted in collective responses and the discussion of minorities\u00E2\u0080\u0099 viewpoints about the intersecting factors of inequality in the everyday life of local women in the border provinces where this study was carried out. As I became more involved in the course of my field research, I changed some of the original questions and added new questions for my interviewees. The first stage of my fieldwork took place in Ecuador, partly in 2013. Between June and August 2013, I conducted interviews with leaders of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations and local authorities in the three selected border provinces.206 Additional interviews were conducted in Imbabura (Ibarra) and Pichincha (Quito) provinces with feminist scholars and the representatives of the Ecuadorian government working on gender, security and development planning. The second stage of the field work of this research was conducted in Quito on May 26, 2014 when I attended a meeting with a representative of the Transition Commission to the Council 206 The three selected provinces were Carchi (La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n) and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos (Lago Agrio) at the Northern border, and El Oro (Machala, Chacras, and Huaquillas) at the Southern border. 67 of Gender Equality of Ecuador in order to discuss the process of creation and the content of the National Agenda for Women and Gender Equality 2014-2017. Overall, the fieldwork involved 22 interviews, all done in person. Each individual interview lasted between 45 and 60 minutes. The group interviews lasted between 45 and 90 minutes. All the interviews were taped, transcribed and translated from Spanish into English. The transcribed interviews were read several times, and their content was classified by themes (gender equality, border security, development planning, inequality based on race, inequality based on class) and by location. I shared the transcripts with the interviewees who wanted a copy of the interview. In two cases,207 I was able to do follow-up interviews after studying the transcripts. In the interviews with border security authorities and leaders of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations in the three provinces and in the group interviews with local women in Huaquillas-El Oro and La Concepcion-Carchi, I learned that border security institutions in Ecuador are racialized organizations dominated by Mestizo men, and that their predominant practices of border security are affected by the gender and race of the smugglers. For instance, Black women are more often stopped by border security officers. The gendering and racialization of interactions at the border show the inequality of power in border security practices. I also learned from the interviews with the Ecuadorian authorities that there is a persistent lack of political will and budget to promote projects for women in the border. 207 The follow-up interviews were with an Ecuadorian functionary working on gender equality and with a Customs officer. 68 c) Conducting workshops This research analyzes the contents of two workshops conducted with local women in two border provinces, El Oro (Huaquillas) on July 13, 2013, and Carchi (La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n) on August 31, 2013. Workshops were chosen as the method of data collection because they are an effective technique for achieving public participation and setting up a plan of action. Methods such as focus groups and workshops are consultative in nature. Focus groups, as a research method based on group interaction, can be viewed as a controlled discussion in which the participants collectively produce interpretations of proposed topics.208 Focus groups tend to be homogeneous in terms of demographics, typically involving between 6-10 people;209 smaller groups with four to six participants can be useful to discuss sensitive topics. A typical focus group lasts less than two hours. Workshops, on the other hand, are extended group discussions (from three hours to one day), often with more participants than in a focus group. Generally, workshops allow more in-depth exploration of an issue than is in a focus group.210 There is the potential, as with any type of facilitated discussion, for particular interests or voices to dominate,211 but workshops offer the possibility for achieving a consensus or decision.212 They may also encourage the participants to 208 Janeth Smithson, \u00E2\u0080\u009CUsing and analysing focus groups: limitations and possibilities,\u00E2\u0080\u009D INT. J. SOCIAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3, no. 2 (2000): 104-105. http://www.sfu.ca/~palys/Smithson-2000-Using&AnalysingFocusGroups.pdf (accessed in June 2016). 209 Janeth Smithson, Ibid., 106. 210The National Social Marketing Centre, Qualitative research methodologies. http://www.thensmc.com.temporarywebsiteaddress.com/oss/node/129 (accessed in June 2016). 211Collaboration and Participation. Focus groups and workshops. http://www.tba.co.nz/kete/PDF_files/ITP206_focus_groups_and_workshops.pdf (accessed in June 2016). 212University College London-UCL, Evaluation Methods for Public Engagement Projects. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/public-engagement/documents/evaluationtoolkits/evaluationmethods/100831_Methods_for_evaluation.pdf (accessed in June 2016). 69 generate creative or new ideas,213 often ending with an action plan.214 In this study, workshops were chosen as one method of data collection because they allow the generation of information on collective views and generate a rich understanding of women's experiences of insecurity and inequality on the border as well as recommendations to improve the security conditions of women and their communities. A total of 32 women participated in the workshops. 24 participated in the workshop in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n, Carchi Province, and eight in the workshop in Huaquillas, El Oro Province. Two local women organizations, El Oro Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Movement (MMO) in Huaquillas and the National Confederation of Black Women (CONAMUNE) in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n, actively contributed to the success of the workshops. The themes to be discussed during the workshops (border security, employment and gender equality) were selected by the representatives of the women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations and myself. Local women were invited by the representative of the local women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations in their community. The invitation to participate in the workshops explained that the study would like to know about the participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 security experiences as inhabitants of the border and the major problems of development and equity in their province in order to articulate a proposal for human security in the area. Each workshop lasted four hours, including 30 minutes for a lunch break. My role was to moderate the discussion and to prevent the discussion from being dominated by few participants in order to hear a range of views and to allow different opinions to be discussed fairly. The results of the workshops were taped, transcribed and translated from Spanish into English. A total of 63 individuals participated either in the workshops or as interviewees. The invitation to the interviews and the workshops explained the objective of the research. Consent 213The National Social Marketing Centre, Qualitative research methodologies. http://www.thensmc.com.temporarywebsiteaddress.com/oss/node/129 (accessed in June 2016). 214 Collaboration and Participation. Focus groups and workshops. http://www.tba.co.nz/kete/PDF_files/ITP206_focus_groups_and_workshops.pdf (accessed in June 2016). 70 forms were submitted and explained to the participants. For further detailed information about the interviews and the workshops refer to Appendix E: List of Key Informants Contacted, Appendix F: Interview Guides for Key Informants, and Appendix G: Interview Guide for Participants. 1.3.2 Quantitative and Qualitative Data The research utilizes quantitative data, such as national statistics, census data and confiscations data. The analysis relies on statistical data about employment rates, labor force participation rates by sex, female population, female households, single mothers, and domestic violence by province obtained from the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Ecuador (INEC). The quantitative data used in this research gave me general information about the following: a) gallons of fuel and gas cylinders for domestic use confiscated from trans-border smugglers; b) losses to the Ecuadorian economy in millions of dollars due to fuel smuggling across the border in 2013; c) the number of women arrested for smuggling at the border in 2012-2013; d) the employment situation and access to education of women by ethnicity in Ecuador; and e) women victims of domestic violence. The qualitative data obtained from the analysis of newspapers, interviews and workshops with local women gave me the details about: a) local women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences of discrimination due to domestic violence, economic insecurity and intersecting identities based on race, class and geographical location; b) understandings of the border by local women and the leaders of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations; c) perceptions of development and security by local women and the Ecuadorian authorities; 71 d) perceptions of smuggling as a crime by the local authorities and as a way of life by local women and Ecuadorian academics; e) gender relations within smuggling activities. 1.3.3 Successes and problems encountered in data collection activities I introduced myself as a researcher interested in women, smuggling and human security policies. Initially, given my age and gender, I looked unthreatening. But my social position as a young Mestizo middle-class woman affected my interactions with my interviewees. At the beginning of my interviews, my gender and age probably served as an icebreaker with many male government functionaries. In contrast, my status as \u00E2\u0080\u009CPh.D. student and researcher from a Canadian university,\u00E2\u0080\u009D which enhanced my interaction with academics and experts in the fields that I was researching, did not have such a positive effect with some developing planning and border security officials. Once you put those identities together, they translate into an educated middle-class Mestizo woman who might criticize the current policies of the government. The result was varying degrees of openness in the interviews. A high percentage of the Mestizo female professional interviewees were extremely open, often revealing things that clearly would cause difficulties for them if exposed. In contrast, the government officials were unforthcoming clearly following the official position on security and development planning. One success encountered during the fieldwork and, indeed the whole data collection process was the interest of many Ecuadorian authorities in this study, especially those working on gender equality and security, as shown by their availability to participate in interviews and their willingness to offer additional useful information. Once trust was built, \u00E2\u0080\u009Csnowball sampling\u00E2\u0080\u009D became crucial, giving me more access to interviews. When a particular Customs officer, an academic on gender or woman leader of an organisation got to know me over a period of time, 72 they asked others to let me interview them. Nevertheless, the interview with two development planning officials in Ibarra involved an unexpected event, but it ended up being informative. The interview was planned for 45 minutes, but one of the (male) officials left only 15 minutes after the interview started. Specifically, he left when I started to ask why Plan Ecuador failed and whether that failure was the main reason why Plan Ecuador is now merging with SENPLADES (Secretary for National Planning and Development)? He explained that he had to leave because he had a meeting with the General Secretary for Development Planning of the northern area. The lady who stayed for the rest of the interview offered significant information regarding development planning. She also recognised that there is not currently enough of a gender focus in development planning on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders. Another success was the active involvement of the members of the two women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organisations, who participated with me in the organisation of the workshops and the group interviews. For instance, for the workshop in Huaquillas, the lawyer of the Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Movement El Oro (Movimiento de Mujeres de El Oro) went with her daughter door to door inviting local women to participate. While collecting data during my fieldwork, I encountered several problems and limitations. Principally, I was not able to conduct direct individual interviews with women smugglers. The Board of Ethics at UBC considered such interviews too risky for myself and the women smugglers. Some of the women who participated in the workshops and group interviews had been involved at least once in smuggling activities, but I did not ask direct questions about smuggling at particular persons. The discussion of smuggling was introduced by the participants themselves as a way of life for locals on the border. The participants complained about the security practices deployed on the border to tackle smuggling on the grounds that they tend to use excessive force and constitute 73 an abuse of power. An additional limitation of my study was that women who did not live in Huaquillas or in the Chota Valley were excluded from this research. Another problem that I encountered during my fieldwork was the impossibility of conducting a workshop planned in Lago Agrio, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Province, with members of the Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Federation of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. When I arrived at Lago Agrio to conduct interviews with two leaders of the Federation, I was told that it was not possible to conduct the workshop either in July or in August 2013, because many members were on holiday. These two leaders shared the results of a study conducted by the Federation such as the Agenda of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos in 2006, which includes the history of the province and a discussion of previous workshops. The two leaders of the Federation explained that the living conditions of many women in the area have not changed since the 2006 Agenda was created. Another limitation was the lack of feedback on the transcripts of the interviews. I interviewed not only leaders of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organisation but also local women who were not in leadership positions. The women in leadership positions seek to represent the needs of local women in their provinces and communities. These women reviewed the transcripts of their interviews. However, the local women in non-leadership positions, hardly wrote down their comments. This provided the main limitation to my method, given the fact that the study wanted to include the silent voices of local women unable to speak about their security experiences on a daily basis. However, this limitation was, to some extent, overcome by the discussions in the workshops and by the group interviews. My study used mainly a qualitative approach to analyzing the content of the literature, the interviews, the mass media and the workshops, gaining a rich and complex understanding of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experience of insecurity and experts\u00E2\u0080\u0099 perceptions of security and inequality. 74 My research studied a marginalized social group, namely women living in three border provinces. If I were to conduct future work in this area, I would like to use a more participatory approach to try to give the group studied a voice through the collaborative design of a project for the benefit of the community to be presented to the provincial government. My study was conducted as research about women and their security problems, rather than with these women. In more concrete terms, the local women need to be viewed as sources of information and ideas rather than merely as objects of research. I acknowledge my duty as a researcher to learn how to conduct this type of participatory research because it is important to involve the group being studied in the research, preferably at all stages, so as to avoid further marginalising its members. Overall, the goal of my field research was to observe, read, listen and learn more about security, border dynamics, development and inequality based on the intersections of gender, race, class and location. By doing so, I was able to acquire data that demonstrate inequality within power relations in the three border provinces. By using a feminist critical human security lens, my study recommends the achievement of equality aware of the intersections of race, gender, class and geographical location as a precondition for the security of women living at the border. 75 Chapter 2. Ecuadorian Policy on Security By analyzing two Ecuadorian policies on security, namely national security and human security, this chapter seeks to understand how national security dynamics under Rafael Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s government has not successfully tackled smuggling as a new threat in border zones. Thus, a self-interested national security agenda has failed to protect people. First, I examine how the national security approach has been implemented by the Ecuadorian state since the 1920s. I then analyze how biopolitics, governmentality and other methods of internal control affecting conceptions of state security are implemented under Correa. I argue that national security discourses and practices at the border criminalize the individuals involved in smuggling activities, whereas the inhabitants of the border view smuggling as a way of life. Finally, this chapter suggests that a human security approach cannot be implemented as a mere complement to national security initiatives; rather, it has to empower individuals and their communities. 2.1 National Security as viewed by the Ecuadorian state In this section, I utilize the concept of national security. This concept, as a state-centric approach, explicates the traditional view of security in Ecuador. I will analyse the historical relationship between security and development in the Ecuadorian security agenda. I shall also examine how the Ecuadorian security policy has been influenced by a National Security Doctrine led by the US. Finally, through the analysis of the national security approach, which is based on states\u00E2\u0080\u0099 national interests and values, I explain how Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s national security policy during the late 1990s and early 2000s has been affected by the Colombian army conflict and how this policy is currently implemented to control smuggling in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones. 76 The process of national security decision-making has developed doctrines that assume that states traditionally accept a permanent state of war where their national interests are seen as the main issue for international and national affairs. A National Security Doctrine started to be developed during the Cold War. Its formulation was led by the United States in the framework of its policy of containment of the Communism of the Soviet Union. That doctrine was imposed on the majority of Latin American countries, through such instruments as the American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, the Inter-American Defense College, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the School of the Americas. From the perspective of classical realism, the United States considered that the purpose of the National Security Doctrine was to fight the Communist threat, which was the primary cause of political instability and the main threat to the security of \u00E2\u0080\u009Call\u00E2\u0080\u009D countries in the hemisphere. Therefore, the U.S. developed several mechanisms and strategies to counter the subversion and insurgency that were brewing in Latin American countries, such as aid programs, supporting military leaders and training troops through the United States Agency for Development (USAID), and the Alliance for Progress.215 With the fall of the Berlin Wall, in November 1989, the spread of Communism ceased to be a threat to American interests. In what follows, I discuss the ways in which Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security policies were influenced by the national security discourse of the Cold War. From a realist perspective, the National Security Doctrine during the Cold War emphasized the containment of threats to states\u00E2\u0080\u0099 national interests. Ecuador became immersed in this process by designing its National Security Doctrine embodied in the National Security Law of 1979, and by the creation of the National Security Council (COSENA), the National Directorate of 215 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Plan de Seguridad Integral (2011), 12-13. 77 Intelligence (DNI), and the National Institute of Advanced Studies (IAEN),216 which served as instruments for the application of the doctrine, especially during the years of military dictatorships (Junta Militar, 1963-1966, and Gobierno Nacionalista y Revolucionario de las Fuerzas Armadas, 1972-1979) and the anti-subversive struggle that occurred in the country. Before and during the Cold War, notions of external and internal security were influenced by the Ecuadorian Armed Forces\u00E2\u0080\u0099 participation in national political life as guarantors of economic and social development. Since the 1920s, the military has been influential in Ecuadorian politics due to weak civil leaderships. The relationship between internal security and politics began before the Cold War; it responded to the social and political components of an agro-export oriented economy led by an oligarchy with multiple economic and political interests. This oligarchy had little capacity to integrate politically a heterogeneous and marginalized population.217 Indeed, the military and the populist regime of Velasco Ibarra were, from the 1920s to early 1970s, perhaps the only modernizing and politically inclusive force, proposing alternatives to the economic crisis created by the oligarchic groups.218 The influence of the armed forces in Ecuadorian political affairs became even greater when the 1945 Constitution, promoted by the military and by socialist militants, stated that the army forces do not obey orders that go against the law and the Constitution.219 During the Cold War, therefore, the Ecuadorian armed forces were already extremely influential in the political realm, being able to adapt the concept of national security according to their own perspectives on possible threats to the internal order and national 216 IAEN was created in 1972 during the dictatorship of General Guillermo Rodr\u00C3\u00ADguez (1972-1976) to prepare civil and military authorities in decision-making. Today it is a political school that prepare public servants according to ideological vision of the regime. 217 Bertha Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Gallegos, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEl Concepto de \u00E2\u0080\u009CSeguridad Interna\u00E2\u0080\u009D en el Marco de las Relaciones Sociedad-Fuerzas Armadas en el Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Revista Paraguaya de Sociolog\u00C3\u00ADa no 98 (enero-abril de 1997): 192. 218 Bertha Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Gallegos, Ibid., 190-192. 219 Bertha Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Gallegos, Ibid., 193. 78 sovereignty.220 The Junta Militar dictatorship was strongly influenced by the ideology of the National Security Doctrine led by the US, identifying as an \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinternal enemy\u00E2\u0080\u009D the pro-Cuba politics promoted by President Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy and other left-wing groups.221 Throughout the Cold War era, the Ecuadorian armed forces directly engaged in the management of social and economic development through coups d'\u00C3\u00A9tat that they justified by the inability of civilian leaders to propose alternatives to the crisis of the agro-export oriented economy and to boost industrial progress in Ecuador.222 Among these alternatives led by the military were the promotion of the import substitution model, industrial protectionism, land reform and technological development in rural areas. The doctrine of the internal enemy was combined with the rhetoric of development. In the 1967 Constitution, the dictatorship of the Military Junta defined development tasks as the new role of the armed forces;223 this constitutional mandate linked internal security to a national development doctrine.224 It is conceivable that the military\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interpretation of that constitutional mandate encouraged the 1973 coup d\u00E2\u0080\u0099\u00C3\u00A9tat that overthrew the fifth Velasquismo. The military justified the coup by arguing that the Velasco government lacked a political project to effectively utilize new oil resources in order to overcome social injustice, to improve a poor health system and to combat illiteracy.225 This dictatorship was strongly opposed to transnational oil companies, a position strongly supported by unions and other left-wing groups. The rapid modernization of the rural-agricultural sector and the industrial momentum fostered an alliance between military, popular sectors and reformers. This alliance was, however, diluted in the second period of the 220 Bertha Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Gallegos, Ibid., 190. 221 Bertha Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Gallegos, Ibid., 194. 222 Bertha Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Gallegos, Ibid., 194. 223 Bertha Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Gallegos, Ibid., 194-195. 224 Bertha Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Gallegos, Ibid., 195. 225 Bertha Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Gallegos, Ibid., 195. 79 military regime (1976-1979), when military factions repressed the social and political forces that demanded the return of civil power as a safe alternative to military authoritarianism.226 The return to democracy, in 1979, was essentially promoted by the so-called oligarchy, because it served the interests of the elites. Jaime Rold\u00C3\u00B3s Aguilera was the first democratically-elected president of Ecuador after the military dictatorship ended in 1979. This transition to democracy was, however, tightly monitored by the armed forces. The return to democracy faced several challenges, including the end of the oil boom, the external debt crisis, the emergence of subversive groups and the resurgence of the territorial conflict with Peru. In particular, the negative effects of the external debt crisis caused the collapse of the Ecuadorian economy, severely impoverishing the middle and lower segments of society. This crisis allowed the emergence of subversive groups with greater military organization and ostensible links with guerrilla groups in the region, especially the Colombian M-19.227 Thus, in the 1980s, following the transition to democracy, Ecuador's national security efforts were oriented internally towards the \u00E2\u0080\u009Csubversive\u00E2\u0080\u009D threat of groups such as the left-wing Alfaro Vive Carajo (translated as Alfaro Lives, Dammit!) founded in 1982 and externally towards the resurgence of the territorial dispute with Peru. According to Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s 2011 Comprehensive Security Plan (translated as Plan de Seguridad Integral) in the war against subversion, intelligence activities were privileged, legitimizing the persecution, harassment, arbitrary detention, torture and disappearance of people.228 Thus, the state deployed the monopoly of legitimate violence over the governed.229 In sum, in the 1980s a national security policy permitted Ecuadorian security forces 226 Bertha Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Gallegos, Ibid., 195. 227 Bertha Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Gallegos, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEl Concepto de \u00E2\u0080\u009CSeguridad Interna\u00E2\u0080\u009D en el Marco de las Relaciones Sociedad-Fuerzas Armadas en el Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 196. 228 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Plan de Seguridad Integral, 13. 229 Pablo Andrade \u00E2\u0080\u009CLa seguridad en las relaciones Ecuador-Colombia,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Comentario Internacional: Revista del Centro Andino de Estudios Internacionales 4 (II semestre, 2002): 81. 80 to deploy their power, understood as control and domination, to tackle both internal and external threats, negatively affecting the human rights of civilians. The end of the Cold War dismantled ideological structures, redefining the armed forces\u00E2\u0080\u0099 future tasks. From the military point of view, it was necessary to overcome the repressive behavior that emerged to control subversive groups during the Le\u00C3\u00B3n Febres Cordero administration (1984-1988).230 It was essential to find other ways of coping with potential conflicts without destroying the solidarity of civil society, which was considered as a necessary support in the event of an escalation of the conflict with Peru.231 The new military approach needed to be based on conflict prevention as a doctrine of internal security. Support for development initiatives as conflict prevention involved a set of actions in the fields of health, forestry, protection of the environment, distribution of food and medicines, construction of schools and, especially, in the field of education.232 The role of the military in development activities linked security with governance.233 Through development initiatives, the Ecuadorian Armed Forces linked security with development and strengthened their role in other realms of the public sphere. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, shifts in international and national politics redefined Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s national security agenda. In the post-Cold War period, it is clear that issues of defense and security are no longer strictly military. The security needs of society are multiple.234 The Miami Summit of December 1994 led by Democratic President Bill Clinton (1993-2001) served to define the new issues that would govern the hemispheric security agenda. These issues are drug 230 Bertha Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Gallegos, Ibid., 196-197. 231 Bertha Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Gallegos: \u00E2\u0080\u009CSoberan\u00C3\u00ADa, Defensa y Seguridad\u00E2\u0080\u009D, en Tiwintza, Quito, CEDEP Fundaci\u00C3\u00B3n Jos\u00C3\u00A9 Peralta, 1995. 232 Bertha Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Gallegos, Ibid., 197. 233 Bertha Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Gallegos, Ibid., 203. 234 Bertha Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Gallegos, Ibid.,189. 81 trafficking and the fight against terrorism.235 In this context, at the beginning of 2000, the northern border with Colombia started to receive more attention from the Ecuadorian government, due to the resolution of the territorial dispute on the southern border with Peru in 1998 through the peace accords of Itamaraty-Brasilia. Moreover, Plan Colombia was launched in 2000 by the Colombian government of Andr\u00C3\u00A9s Pastrana with the support of the United States in an effort to combat drug trafficking and guerrilla movements such as Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) (translated as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and Ej\u00C3\u00A9rcito de Liberaci\u00C3\u00B3n Nacional (ELN) (translated as the National Liberation Army). The initial two-year phase of Plan Colombia focused on Colombia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s southern border, provoking the spillover of the internal Colombian conflict to Ecuador.236 Andr\u00C3\u00A9s Pastrana\u00E2\u0080\u0099s government made a serious mistake, not only with neighboring countries, but also with Colombia, by allowing the Plan Colombia to evolve from a plan that supported peace and the negotiation process to a plan that had US rather than Colombian priorities. Moreover, the plan was going to be applied at the borders and Pastrana\u00E2\u0080\u0099s government did not considered its neighbors\u00E2\u0080\u0099 opinion.237 The fact that Ecuador shares the northern border with Colombia brought about a series of sequels related to Plan Colombia, and the conflict itself. The geographical position of Ecuador, especially its proximity to Colombia, was seen as strategic to the United States\u00E2\u0080\u0099 counternarcotic war. In 1999, the U.S. signed a 10-year agreement with then Ecuadorian President Jamil Mahuad, that allowed the U.S to deploy its national security strategy through military surveillance in Ecuador by using Manta\u00E2\u0080\u0099s airport in the coastal Manab\u00C3\u00AD province. This airport, formally known as Forward Operating Location (FOL), was used by the 235US. Department of State, Declaration of Miami: First Summit of the Americas, December 11, 1994. http://www.state.gov/p/wha/rls/59673.htm (accessed December 26, 2014). 236 Claudia Donoso, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLa interdependencia en el \u00C3\u00A1rea de seguridad en la frontera colombo-ecuatoriana a ra\u00C3\u00ADz de la implementaci\u00C3\u00B3n del Plan Colombia: propuesta de pol\u00C3\u00ADtica p\u00C3\u00BAblica de seguridad fronteriza\u00E2\u0080\u009D (master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s thesis FLACSO-Ecuador, 2004), 82. 237 Claudia Donoso, Ibid., 77. 82 Air Forces of the United States Southern Command for operations against illegal cocaine trafficking in northwestern South America, including Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. Based on Article 5 of the 2008 Constitution, which states that no foreign military bases are allowed in Ecuador, the government of Rafael Correa decided in 2009 not to renew this agreement. The above-mentioned security strategy, initially shared by the US and Ecuadorian governments, encouraged Ecuador to follow the tendency to overemphasize national self-interests to tackle drug trafficking and smuggling. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in New York and Washington, DC, terrorism came to be perceived as a global threat under Republican President George W. Bush (2001-2009). Consequently, the US government changed its non-interventionist foreign policy in the Andean countries; in particular, it merged counternarcotic and counterterrorism strategies. The debates in the US Congress prior to the approval of this combined strategy lasted about four months and suggested that drug trafficking and terrorism were two sides of the same coin, because terrorist groups finance their activities through drug trafficking. As a result, in late July 2002 the US Congress decided that the financial aid to Plan Colombia, previously restricted to the fight against drugs, must also be used in the fight against Colombian armed groups outside the law.238 The interest of the White House in strengthening cooperation between intelligence systems extended to Colombia, because Colombia had many hectares of coca, and little control over insurgent groups, such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), all of which were considered to be terrorists groups by the White House .239 In sum, the attacks on the twin 238 Yamile Le\u00C3\u00B3n Vargas, La pol\u00C3\u00ADtica exterior de Estados Unidos hacia Colombia luego del 11 de septiembre. Universidad Andina Sim\u00C3\u00B3n Bol\u00C3\u00ADvar Sede Ecuador \u00C3\u0081rea de Estudios Sociales y Globales, Tesis Programa de Maestr\u00C3\u00ADa en Relaciones Internacionales Menci\u00C3\u00B3n en Comercio e Integraci\u00C3\u00B3n. (2002): 33-38. 239 Yamile Le\u00C3\u00B3n Vargas, Ibid., 36-38. 83 towers in New York in 2001 led the U.S. Congress in 2002 to conclude that terrorism and the illicit narcotics trade in Colombia were intimately linked. Consequently, U.S. assistance to Colombia began to support Colombian President Uribe's unified campaign against narcotics and terrorism.240 Uribe administration\u00E2\u0080\u0099s democratic security policy (translated as Seguridad Democr\u00C3\u00A1tica) was understood as the military strengthening of the Colombian state and not as the lack of socio-economic investment and social justice, which was what had created Colombia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s internal conflict, extending it to border countries.241 Thus, the armed conflict in Colombia and the implementation of Plan Colombia under the US security agenda represented serious threats to Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s national security, with the emergence of an interdependent security relationship between Ecuador and Colombia.242 Therefore, the new phase of Plan Colombia will definitely cause the northeastern sector of Ecuador's northern border to experience the consequences of military operations aimed at eradicating drug trafficking and terrorism in Colombia. As a result, the common border between Colombia and Ecuador shares security issues related to drug trafficking, fumigations and the presence of guerrillas, paramilitaries, and displaced Colombians seeking the refugee status in Ecuador. The Ecuadorian security forces viewed Plan Colombia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s battle against terrorism and subversive groups as the main cause of the overflow of violence and insecurity to Ecuador. The border zone with Colombia began to be seen as a problematic and vulnerable area. As a result, the Ecuadorian government strengthened the presence and capacity of the operations of the armed 240 During 2000, the United States responded to the Colombian government's request of the Pastrana administration for international support for Plan Colombia by providing assistance to increase Colombia's counternarcotic capabilities. See more at the Embassy of the United States in Bogota, Colombia, http://bogota.usembassy.gov/plancolombia.html (accessed on July, 2014). 241 Interview conducted by the author on September 12, 2003 in Bogota-Colombia for her master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s thesis at FLACSO-Ecuador. 242 Claudia Donoso, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLa interdependencia en el \u00C3\u00A1rea de seguridad en la frontera colombo-ecuatoriana a ra\u00C3\u00ADz de la implementaci\u00C3\u00B3n del Plan Colombia: propuesta de pol\u00C3\u00ADtica p\u00C3\u00BAblica de seguridad fronteriza\u00E2\u0080\u009D (master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s thesis, FLACSO-Ecuador, 2004), 83. 84 forces in the area, as well as the number of police to control drug trafficking and mixed criminal gangs (Ecuadorian-Colombian). It is clear that the Ecuadorian security forces seek to maintain the Colombia conflict outside Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders.243 Thus, the Colombian conflict turned into a threat to Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s national security244 because of the presence of irregular groups that came from the Colombian conflict and the proliferation of organized crime in Ecuador. The weak presence of the state in the border zones has merely advanced military reinforcement. The failed attempt of the (current and previous) governments to generate non-military answers to the problems in the border through strategies such as UDENOR and Plan Ecuador has resulted in a slight strengthening of the presence of some state bureaucracy, especially in the health, education, and development sectors, but with minimal results.245 In particular, at the beginning of the first term of Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s administration, Plan Ecuador was launched in 2007 as a peace initiative based on human rights, as opposed to Plan Colombia. Once it failed, however, the government decided to strengthen the military presence at the border, especially after the attack in Angostura-Ecuador on March 1, 2008. Consequently, the protection of Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s sovereignty became public policy.246 This meant security and intelligence reforms.247 The commitment to the militarization of the border aimed to gain state presence and thereby to avert a potential danger arising from the violence that came from the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cother side\u00E2\u0080\u009D of the border.248 This alleged presence of the state has resulted mainly in an increased number of troops to combat insecurity in the border 243 Pablo Andrade, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLa seguridad en las relaciones Ecuador-Colombia.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Comentario Internacional: Revista del Centro Andino de Estudios Internacionales (2002): 77-78 244 Pablo Andrade, Ibid., 77. 245 Roque Espinosa, \u00E2\u0080\u009CCiudadan\u00C3\u00ADas de frontera o fronteras de la ciudadan\u00C3\u00ADa,\u00E2\u0080\u009D en Fernando Carri\u00C3\u00B3n M. Johanna Esp\u00C3\u00ADn M. Coordinadores. Relaciones fronterizas: Encuentros y Conflictos (Quito, FLACSO-Ecuador: 2011), 42. 246 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 47. 247 Saudia Levoyer, \u00E2\u0080\u009CHurac\u00C3\u00A1n de la Frontera: narcotr\u00C3\u00A1fico, guerrilla e inteligencia\u00E2\u0080\u009D (master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s thesis, Universidad Andina Sim\u00C3\u00B3n Bol\u00C3\u00ADvar, 2014), 13. http://repositorio.uasb.edu.ec/bitstream/10644/4249/1/T1520-MELA-Levoyer-Huracan.pdf 248 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 37-38, 42. 85 provinces.249 The presence of the state through a military reinforcement appears to be an exercise of sovereignty, but it fosters exclusionary tendencies in public policy. These tendencies marginalize even more border populations and restrict cross-border relations.250 In this context, the promotion of the political, economic and social inclusion of the border populations is not considered a priority. The militarization of the border zone contributes to regional segregation.251 As a result, the militarization of the border region has forced small traders to rely on established networks controlled by local powers that have turned into articulators of \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccontacts\u00E2\u0080\u009D on both sides of the border, such as wholesale suppliers of certain goods or simply property owners of storages facilities strategically located close to the border crossing. Cross-border trade is no longer merely considered contraband; rather, it has been labelled by the security authorities as support to drug traffickers and terrorist networks.252 Despite this militarization of the border, the locals have found ways to continue with their cross-border activities. The inhabitants and border communities have fostered the strategy of going unnoticed in the eyes of the state in order to avoid the panoptic gaze of public institutions. This very invisibility has been a condition to ensure the survival of local dynamics and relations.253 In this sense, the border region is characterized by the presence of a web of relationships that the populations living there have established with the inhabitants of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cother side.\u00E2\u0080\u009D254 For example, it is not feasible to understand the border realities of the provinces of Carchi, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and El Oro, if the social relations with the peoples of Putumayo and Nari\u00C3\u00B1o in Colombia and of Aguas Verdes in Peru are not taken into account. Commercial exchanges of food, clothing and products for resale - such as 249 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 37-38, 42. 250 Roque Espinosa, \u00E2\u0080\u009CCiudadan\u00C3\u00ADas de frontera o fronteras de la ciudadan\u00C3\u00ADa,\u00E2\u0080\u009D en Fernando Carri\u00C3\u00B3n M. Johanna Esp\u00C3\u00ADn M. Coordinadores. Relaciones fronterizas: Encuentros y Conflictos (Quito, FLACSO-Ecuador: 2011), 49. 251 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 49. 252 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 38. 253 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 22. 254 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 24. 86 propane cylinders, gasoline, milk, fruits, potatoes and cattle- that pass daily one side of the border to the other are a way of life for the people living in the border zones. In the provinces of the northern border, this micro-trade, especially since the implementation of Plan Colombia, is part of a regional social network that has defined the economic and political reality of the border provinces.255 This means that you can hardly understand the emergence of coca production in Colombia's Putumayo region if you do not consider the network of cross-border relations at the Ecuador-Colombia border. These regional relationships have made possible the emergence of what Roque Espinosa has called \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe coca enclave.\u00E2\u0080\u009D256 The government of Ecuador has sought to deny the obvious inclusion of Ecuadorians in the coca economy, but extensive fieldwork has shown that the coca enclave exists because forces in both sides of the border have created the conditions for its emergence and development. For example, if there had been no support from the Ecuadorian side for the provision of fertilizers for growing and processing base and cocaine paste, it would not have been possible to develop the plantation and industrialization of coca in Putumayo.257 In this context, the emergence of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe coca enclave\u00E2\u0080\u009D has worsened cross-border relations that have been part of the daily life at the border. Since national interests and national security became its exclusive preoccupation, Ecuador has ignored the multidimensional features of security issues. Indeed, national interests redefined the national security agenda. Ecuador increased its military power in order to protect its sovereignty, its border security, its key natural resources and its population. From a realist point of view, increasing the military budget and the military presence on the borders or in areas considered strategic for Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s national interests are viewed as totally genuine. In 2013, 255 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 26. 256 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 26. 257 Roque Espinosa, Ibid., 27. 87 Ecuador deployed to the border with Colombia more than 10,000 personnel, including police and military forces, to guard and control it.258The presence of security forces on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border to prevent drug trafficking or the smuggling of fuel, propane cylinders and other commodities demonstrates, from a realist point of view, how a national security policy applied in a concrete scenario can contribute to the achievement of national order. International and national order can be achieved by using a balance of power259 and cooperative security260 as security mechanisms based on the shared interests of neighboring states. In his book The Anarchical Society, Hedley Bull\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1977) definition of international society advances the idea that shared interests, moral rules and common values contribute to the achievement of international order. When Bull explains the concept of order further, he describes it as a behavioral pattern including goals and values such as democracy and human rights (or border security). Bull also argues that every society needs order to achieve security, to be free of violence, to ensure agreements are implemented and to maintain a certain status quo.261 Thus, order between states is defined in terms of being obedient to rules of conduct. According to Bull, achieving common goals and shared interests, requires that rules of coexistence must be respected. They include reciprocity and respect of sovereignty, but also 258 El Tel\u00C3\u00A9grafo, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEcuador exige otra vez a Colombia que aumente presencia militar en frontera,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Agosto 9, 2013. http://www.telegrafo.com.ec/noticias/informacion-general/item/ecuador-exige-otra-vez-a-colombia-que-aumente-presencia-militar-en-frontera.html (accesed November 26, 2013). 259 Hedley Bull argues that one function of the balance of power is to prevent imperial initiatives in a State\u00E2\u0080\u0099s international system; another function is to be protected from hegemony and to remain sovereign. See more in Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society a Study of Order in World Politics, 2nd ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977), 102-105. 260 Cooperative security seeks to achieve an institutionalized security through consent among international actors involved in the international system, rather than between them using threat or use of coercive force to overcome their differences. It assumes that security objectives of the partners have been identified as common and compatible, encouraging cooperative relationships between them to achieve. See more at Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Plan de Seguridad Integral, 15. 261 Bull, Ibid., 102-105. 88 consensus and cooperation among states.262 For instance, a stronger border security policy may include confidence-building measures through simultaneous strategic alliances at the military, political, economic, and social levels. Demining operations and the joint border demarcation, under the so-called Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n Mixta Permanente de Fronteras Per\u00C3\u00BA-Ecuador (COMPEFEP) led by the Ecuadorian and Peruvian governments, illustrates the extent to which confidence building measures contribute to maintaining the peace accord of Itamaraty-Brasilia, signed in 1998. The joint proposal of Ecuador and Colombia within the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)263 also illustrates how shared interests increased cooperation between these two states in order to create the South American Council for Citizen Security, Justice and Coordination of Actions against Transnational Organized Delinquency approved in the framework of the Summit of UNASUR, held in Lima on November 30, 2012.264 Evidently, these cooperative security measures illustrate how national security is the dominant approach to deal with security issues among and within states. In Ecuador, a national security approach has constructed national borders as vulnerable areas affected by insecurity issues that come from \u00E2\u0080\u009Coutside\u00E2\u0080\u009D the state. The Ecuadorian security forces justify their national security policy and their intervention in the border with Peru, but mainly in the border with Colombia, as previously mentioned, due to the spillover of its internal conflict in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones. The Presidential Declaration between Ecuador and Colombia, Vecindad para la Prosperidad y El Buen Vivir (translated as Neighborhood for Prosperity and Good Living), 262 Bull, Ibid., 102-105. 263 The process of formation of the South American Community of Nations began in order to bring together two great associations such as the Andean Community (CAN) and the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR). This significant initiative was carried out in the Third Meeting of South American Presidents in Cuzco-Peru in November 2004. This community was transformed into the South American Union of Nations in April 2007 in Margarita Island-Venezuela; it has a Technical Secretariat, a Secretary General, and its own headquarters in the city of Quito-Ecuador. 264 Presidencia de la Rep\u00C3\u00BAblica de Colombia, Declaraci\u00C3\u00B3n Presidencial Ecuador-Colombia \u00E2\u0080\u009CVecindad para la Prosperidad y el Buen Vivir\u00E2\u0080\u009D Tulc\u00C3\u00A1n, Carchi Diciembre 11, 2012. http://wsp.presidencia.gov.co/Prensa/2012/Diciembre/Paginas/20121211_11.aspx 89 in Tulc\u00C3\u00A1n, Carchi Province, on December 11, 2012, demonstrates the importance of strengthening bilateral relations through cooperation and reciprocity in order to tackle threats to security. This declaration encourages the commitment to the common border and the support of the security forces (police and military) for border control activities265 in order to protect the national interests of both states. This declaration was followed by the Meeting of Senior Officials (Ministers and Deputy Ministers) of the security and defense ministries of Ecuador and Colombia on 26-27 September 2013 in Cali, Colombia. The then Ecuadorian Minister of Defense, Mar\u00C3\u00ADa Fernanda Espinosa, declared: \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Armed Forces of Ecuador maintain a permanent presence at the northern border to ensure Ecuador's national sovereignty, but it is important that Colombia also invigorates its military presence in the area.\u00E2\u0080\u009D266 The main goal of the meeting was to strengthen and increase the presence of the security forces at 11 border crossings used for illegal activities such as smuggling fuels and commodities, and for drug trafficking. The Ministry of Defense\u00E2\u0080\u0099s statement appeals to a cooperative security based on a shared interest in order to protect both states\u00E2\u0080\u0099 national interests, suggesting the need for the Colombian and Ecuadorian governments to work together in order to increase their ability to battle illicit trafficking and to improve citizen security at the common border. In sum, realism has served to understand the concept of national security and to explain how states act according to their own national interests, deploying such security strategies as those used in the war against terrorism, drugs and smuggling. Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security policy, which is still influenced by the Cold War security discourse, demonstrates how the joint presence of a state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s 265 Presidencia de la Rep\u00C3\u00BAblica de Colombia. Ibid. 266 Ministerio de Defensa del Ecuador, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEcuador promueve presencia militar activa y permanente en control de frontera norte\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Septiembre 26, 2013) http://www.defensa.gob.ec/ecuador-promueve-presencia-militar-activa-y-permanente-en-control-de-frontera-norte/ 90 security and national interest has fostered a national security approach that utilizes cooperative security and links the national and global levels. Such a policy, which is a product of masculinized security institutions, is currently used to control new threats to national security such as smuggling in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones. 2.1.1 The State under Rafael Correa and Methods of Security Control In this section, I consider it relevant to analyse the state under Rafael Correa, with particular reference to how biopolitics, governmentality and other methods of internal control affect conceptions of the state and of border security. The Correa government has been concerned with political conspiracy, weakening civil society and creating a war on free speech. Since 2009, the Government of Ecuador has reformed its military and security institutions, such as the intelligence agency. It has also \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmodified\u00E2\u0080\u009D the security agenda and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cincluded\u00E2\u0080\u009D the human security approach. Rafael Correa gained his legitimacy by winning elections that allow him to consolidate his political project. He was elected in 2006, and re-elected in 2009 and, again, in 2013. Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s administration has enjoyed great popularity since 2007 in spite of the authoritarian model that guides it.267 In particular, in 2006, Correa ran as the self-proclaimed leader of a \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccitizens\u00E2\u0080\u0099 revolution\u00E2\u0080\u009D against the partyarchy, on an anti-neoliberal stand. In 2008, Correa successfully campaigned for a referendum to approve the new constitution.268 By arguing that there is a danger of a return of the right, Correa changed the Constitution enacted by his movement in the National Assembly to allow for his re-election.269 Correa wants to consolidate his permanence in office after 2017 even though his government is characterized by a significant public investment but minimal 267 Santiago Basabe and Juli\u00C3\u00A1n Mart\u00C3\u00ADnez, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEcuador: cada vez menos democracia, cada vez m\u00C3\u00A1s autoritarismo. . . con elecciones\u00E2\u0080\u009D Revista de Ciencia Pol\u00C3\u00ADtica 34, no 1 (2014): 152. 268 Carlos de La Torre, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe People, Democracy, and Authoritarianism in Rafael Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Constellations 21, no 4, 2014. file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Torre-2014-Constellations.pdf, 459. 269 Carlos de La Torre, Ibid., 459. 91 freedom of speech. Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s intention is to extend his rule until at least 2021.270 In general, his policies have expanded central planning, the bureaucracy and the regulation of economic, cultural, and social activities. Higher social spending and policies targeted at poverty reduction have been carried out in the midst of an oil boom: the price of oil increased from $52 per barrel in 2006 to $98 in 2013.271 In the short term, the oil and mining sectors have funded social assistance for the poor, increasing the consumption level of the middle class. Nevertheless, Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s tendency to favor aggressive natural-resource extraction could lead to resource exhaustion and a new rise in poverty.272 The administration has used oil revenues to encourage patronage as a reward for the constituents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 loyalty. This strategy permits the government to sustain its political power even under conditions in which the civil society has minimal participation. Ecuador under Rafael Correa guarantees neither participation nor contestation by social actors. Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s administration is in conflict with social movements, so participation is reduced to voting in elections, giving the populist leader the responsibility to design policies as if he embodies the will of the people but without seeking their engagement.273 For a populist regime, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe people\u00E2\u0080\u009D is viewed as a homogeneous social group sharing the interests and identities that are embodied in a leader whose mission is to save the nation.274 The extreme concentration of power in the presidency does not permit the populist government to view citizens as a group with a plurality of opinions who deliberate in the public sphere. Furthermore, Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s administration is made up of experts who claim to design policies on behalf of the nation as a whole, particularly the marginalized groups, but who do not involve the citizens in the discussion and planning of the new 270 Santiago Basabe and Juli\u00C3\u00A1n Mart\u00C3\u00ADnez, Ibid., 145-146. 271 Carlos de La Torre, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe People, Democracy, and Authoritarianism in Rafael Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Constellations 21, no 4 (2014): 458. file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Torre-2014-Constellations.pdf 272 Carlos de La Torre, \u00E2\u0080\u009CTechnocratic populism in Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Journal of Democracy 24, no 3 (2013): 46. 273 Carlos de La Torre, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe People, Democracy, and Authoritarianism in Rafael Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Constellations 21, no 4 (2014): 457. file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Torre-2014-Constellations.pdf 274 Carlos de La Torre, \u00E2\u0080\u009CTechnocratic populism in Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Journal of Democracy 24, no 3 (2013): 34. 92 nation.275 By assuming that the leader represents all the interests of the people, Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s government denies the differences among social groups and the diversity of public opinion. Since 2007, the government of Rafael Correa has developed a substantial institutional apparatus to promote the regulation and bureaucratization of citizen participation. It has used plebiscitary strategies to discipline the sources of critical opinion and has counteracted the activism of social movements through disciplinary guidelines designed at the government level,276 facilitating a process of weakening civil society. Basically, civil society is composed of associations, organizations and movements that have emerged spontaneously. It exists when these groups can discuss issues of public interest and can operate critically. In Ecuador, an autonomous civil society has played an important democratizing role, being critical during complex political and economic scenarios. For instance, in the 1990\u00E2\u0080\u0099s, the Indigenous movement was critical to neoliberalism from an ethnic perspective, demanding a plurinational state.277 However, under Correa, all civil society organizations are forbidden to engage in politics, an activity reserved to political parties.278 To implement a policy of persecution and political intimidation Correa has relied on the criminal prosecution of those considered his \u00E2\u0080\u009Cenemies.\u00E2\u0080\u009D For instance, one of the emblematic cases of persecution by the courts was that of Assemblyman Cl\u00C3\u00A9ver Jimenez and his adviser, Fernando Villavicencio. For the alleged crime of defamation, they were sentenced to 18 months in prison, fined 140,000 US dollars, and required to make a public apology to President Correa.279 This is just one case that shows the government strategy of persecution and intimidation 275 Carlos de La Torre, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe People, Democracy, and Authoritarianism in Rafael Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Constellations 21, no 4 (2014): 463. file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Torre-2014-Constellations.pdf 276 Andr\u00C3\u00A9s Ortiz Lemos. \u00E2\u0080\u009CSociedad civil y Revoluci\u00C3\u00B3n Ciudadana en Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Revista Mexicana de Sociolog\u00C3\u00ADa 76, no. 4 (octubre-diciembre, 2014): 583-612. 277 Ortiz Lemos, Ibid. 278 Carlos de La Torre, Ibid., 461. 279 Santiago Basabe and Juli\u00C3\u00A1n Mart\u00C3\u00ADnez, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEcuador: cada vez menos democracia, cada vez m\u00C3\u00A1s autoritarismo. . . con elecciones,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 146, 155-156. 93 of public opinion. Under Correa, such mechanisms of social control have limited civil society\u00E2\u0080\u0099s participation and criticism, decreasing political dialogue between the regime and the opposition. The 2008 Constitution established the transparency and social control functions of the Ecuadorian state. These new roles permitted the creation of institutions such as the Citizen Participation and Social Control Council (Consejo de Participaci\u00C3\u00B3n Ciudadana y Control Social \u00E2\u0080\u0093CPCCS).280 In this context, the Law of Citizen Participation was created. Both regulations were drafted using public workshops to present them as part of a consensus with citizens; but only Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s supporters were invited to these workshops to the exclusion of any social organization from the opposition.281 The development of these laws was configured from a particular notion of citizenship advanced by the official discourse282 that is essentially subject to the bureaucratic structure of the state.283 Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s self-proclaimed leftist government has taken an active stance against most organized groups of civil society: teachers, students, public employees and Indigenous organizations. The government does not consider these groups to be \u00E2\u0080\u009Creal\u00E2\u0080\u009D social movements or representative of civil society. Instead, they are portrayed as privileged groups that obstruct the administration\u00E2\u0080\u0099s project to strengthen the state.284 For instance, the government\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conflicts with the main Indigenous organization, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), are rooted in strong disagreements over mineral extraction. Correa considers mining to be the country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s future and proposes to use natural resources to alleviate poverty.285 Over 200 peasant Indigenous activists face accusations of terrorism for resisting mineral resource 280 Ortiz Lemos, Ibid. 281 Andr\u00C3\u00A9s Ortiz, La sociedad civil ecuatoriana en el laberinto de la Revoluci\u00C3\u00B3n Ciudadana. Quito: Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, 2013. 282 Ortiz Lemos, Ibid. 283 Ortiz Lemos, Ibid. 284 Carlos de La Torre, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe People, Democracy, and Authoritarianism in Rafael Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Constellations 21, no 4, (2014): 460. See also Carlos de La Torre, \u00E2\u0080\u009CTechnocratic Populism in Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Journal of Democracy 24, no. 3 (2013): 40. 285 Carlos de La Torre, Ibid., 460. 94 extraction.286 Certainly, by calling Indigenous activists terrorists, the regime has misunderstood that critical dialogue is a necessary component to advance an inclusive political agenda. In contrast, to advance their agendas some social movements led by Afro-Ecuadorians and smaller Indigenous organizations are supporting Correa. The regime\u00E2\u0080\u0099s regulation of media content has promoted the elimination of racist representations. To consolidate the power of their smaller organizations and to get resources from the state, some Indigenous leaders are supporting Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s confrontation with CONAIE. In this vein, Correa still sees Indigenous persons as beneficiaries of state distribution, but not as autonomous actors. For instance, when Indigenous organizations articulate their own views of development or democracy, they are stigmatized as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinfantile\u00E2\u0080\u009D leftists or as being manipulated by foreign NGOs.287 Correa has completely denied the agency of civil society, ridiculing social protest. The Correa government has even confused protest with conspiracy. Using conspiracy theories has been a common strategy to consolidate and maintain power. For instance, Correa has continuously manufactured enemies. The main political rivals include traditional politicians, bankers, the privately owned media and those who lead corporatist social movements of teachers, students, Indigenous peoples, journalists and public employees.288 In this context, the government of the Citizen Revolution has mastered the art of influencing public opinion through the mass media289 to attack and delegitimize the regime\u00E2\u0080\u0099s opponents. In 2010, for instance, the government used the public media as a propaganda tool to show that a police strike was the result of a political conspiracy to overthrow Correa.290 During this strike, the National Police denounced a new law 286 Carlos de La Torre, Ibid., 461. 287 Carlos de La Torre, Ibid., 461. 288 Carlos de La Torre, \u00E2\u0080\u009CTechnocratic populism in Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 37; Santiago Basabe and Juli\u00C3\u00A1n Mart\u00C3\u00ADnez, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEcuador: cada vez menos democracia, cada vez m\u00C3\u00A1s autoritarismo. . . con elecciones,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 146. 289 Catherine Conaghan, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEcuador: Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s plebiscitary presidency,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Journal of Democracy 19, no.2 (2008): 47. 290 Carlos de La Torre, Ibid., 43. 95 that would have cut some benefits, such as Christmas bonuses and wage increases.291 The \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconspirators\u00E2\u0080\u009D included former president Lucio Guti\u00C3\u00A9rrez and his Patriotic Society political party, whose members include many former military and police officers, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador, the Indigenous party Pachakutik, petty bourgeois intellectuals and the privately owned media.292 In sum, Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s administration mobilizes the state-owned media to divide and disrupt political opponents and to control public opinion. Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s control over the media has impoverished the democratic dialogue. He uses the state-owned media to publicize his administration\u00E2\u0080\u0099s accomplishments, to attack the opposition and to respond to accusations of corruption and abuse. In this vein, journalists working in the private media are viewed with suspicion. The government uses its tax-collecting agency (SRI) to monitor the private media. For instance, Revista Vanguardia, a political magazine critical of Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s administration, was temporarily closed for not complying with labor laws.293 The regime does not value the freedom of the press or the independence of civil society. Consequently, the media and civil society are becoming weaker social actors. Correa has sought to consolidate his power in the foregoing way. Despite the radical opposition of various social and political sectors, by claiming that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinformation is a public good,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in June 2013 the National Assembly controlled by Correa approved a communication law to monitor and regulate the contents of the privately owned media294 in order to intimidate and silence critical journalists. One of the first consequences of this law was the sanctioning of the cartoonist Xavier Bonilla and the newspaper El Universo, the latter 291 Carlos de La Torre, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe People, Democracy, and Authoritarianism in Rafael Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 461. 292 Carlos de La Torre, Ibid., 461. 293 Carlos de La Torre, \u00E2\u0080\u009CTechnocratic populism in Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 43-44. 294 Carlos de La Torre, Ibid., 42; Santiago Basabe y Juli\u00C3\u00A1n Mart\u00C3\u00ADnez, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEcuador: cada vez menos democracia, cada vez m\u00C3\u00A1s autoritarismo. . . con elecciones,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 157-158. 96 being fined 2% of its turnover of the last three months.295 This law has become a method of internal control to delegitimize fundamental critical opinions that stimulate political debate. The Government of Ecuador under Correa has also reformed its military and security institutions, such as the Intelligence agency, so as to tackle emergent multidimensional threats to the security of the state. Since the 1970s, the Ecuadorian Intelligence service has functioned without being questioned or fully reformed. The few reforms were limited to simple operative changes rather than to doctrinaire modifications.296 The bombing of the camp of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Angostura, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, on March 1, 2008, by the Colombian Army was the reason why the Ecuadorian government of Rafael Correa ordered the reform of the Intelligence service. The commission that investigated this event presented in November 2008 a report claiming the participation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in that bombing.297 In this vein, on June 8, 2008, by Executive Decree No. 1768, the National Intelligence Secretariat was created and on July 10, 2008, by Executive Decree No. 1828, a civil servant was appointed as Secretary of Intelligence, namely Francisco Jij\u00C3\u00B3n, a former adviser to the Ministry of Coordination of Internal and External Security who had actively participated in discussions of the contents of the new State and Public Safety Act (translated as Ley de Seguridad P\u00C3\u00BAblica y el Estado).298 The Executive submitted the draft of the State and Public Safety Act in June 3, 2009. Three months later, on September 2009, the National Assembly passed the law.299 The creation of this Act was justified by the need to renew the security doctrine of the Cold War 295 Santiago Basabe y Juli\u00C3\u00A1n Mart\u00C3\u00ADnez, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEcuador: cada vez menos democracia, cada vez m\u00C3\u00A1s autoritarismo. . . con elecciones,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 157-158. 296 Fredy Rivera V\u00C3\u00A9lez, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLa Inteligencia ecuatoriana: tradiciones, cambios y perspectivas,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Inteligencia estrat\u00C3\u00A9gica y Prospectiva, edited by Fredy Rivera V\u00C3\u00A9lez (Quito, FLACSO-Ecuador y Secretaria Nacional de Inteligencia-SENAIN: 2011), 47-48. 297 Saudia Levoyer, \u00E2\u0080\u009CHurac\u00C3\u00A1n de la Frontera: narcotr\u00C3\u00A1fico, guerrilla e inteligencia\u00E2\u0080\u009D (master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s thesis, Universidad Andina Sim\u00C3\u00B3n Bol\u00C3\u00ADvar, 2014), 13. http://repositorio.uasb.edu.ec/bitstream/10644/4249/1/T1520-MELA-Levoyer-Huracan.pdf13. 298 Fredy Rivera V\u00C3\u00A9lez, Ibid., 66. 299 Fredy Rivera V\u00C3\u00A9lez, Ibid., 66. 97 to suit the demands of the contemporary international geopolitical environment and the 2008 constitutional framework, which necessitated a new Comprehensive Security System (translated as Sistema de Seguridad Integral).300 This need was fulfilled two years later, in 2011, when the Ministry of Security presented the National Comprehensive Security Plan, which includes the National Intelligence Agenda. In these documents, the government explains what is understood as a comprehensive security approach and how, in its view, it replaces the National Security Doctrine.301 By including the human being as a lead actor of the processes of individual and collective security,302 the government thought that it was changing the security paradigm to deal with multidimensional security issues. The State and Public Safety Act was created to protect citizens and the sovereign interests of the nation. Following this logic, the National Intelligence Plan was developed.303 The fourth chapter of this Act sets out the duties, expenses, operations, document classification and prohibitions of the National Secretariat of Intelligence (SENAIN). The Act also specifies that the head of the Secretariat should be a civilian, not a member of the security forces as it had been traditionally.304 Having a civilian as the head of the Intelligence agency was viewed by the government as a significant step to improve civil-military relations and to transform a conventional security paradigm. Thus, the National Intelligence Secretariat became a political institution that establishes policies for national intelligence, plans, objectives and activities. The Secretariat coordinates with the government.305 For this Secretariat, security is perceived as a non-threatening 300 Asamblea Nacional, Ley de Seguridad P\u00C3\u00BAblica y del Estado. Quito: Registro Oficial Suplemento 35 de 28 de Septiembre del 2009. 301 Saudia Levoyer, \u00E2\u0080\u009CHurac\u00C3\u00A1n de la Frontera: narcotr\u00C3\u00A1fico, guerrilla e inteligencia,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 20. 302 Ministerio de Coordinaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Seguridad, Plan Nacional de Seguridad Integral, Quito (2011), 14. 303 Francisco Jij\u00C3\u00B3n Calder\u00C3\u00B3n, El Nuevo Ecuador y la Secretar\u00C3\u00ADa Nacional de Inteligencia,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Inteligencia estrat\u00C3\u00A9gica y Prospectiva, edited by Fredy Rivera V\u00C3\u00A9lez (Quito, FLACSO-Ecuador y Secretaria Nacional de Inteligencia-SENAIN: 2011), 17. 304 Fredy Rivera V\u00C3\u00A9lez, Ibid., 66. 305 Francisco Jij\u00C3\u00B3n Calder\u00C3\u00B3n, Ibid., 19. 98 situation or as the possibility of carrying out security policies to efficiently anticipate and control threats and conflicting factors through safety measures. Therefore, the Intelligence service sets up guidelines, policies and measures undertaken by the state to protect its internal and external security.306 Nevertheless, even now, when important transformations have been undertaken at the legal and institutional levels, there is still uncertainty if the simple fact of having a new Act can modify behaviors and the institutional culture of the people who are part of the Intelligence system,307 such as the police and the armed forces, who maintained the state-centric national security to deal with multidimensional threats at border zones such as fuel smuggling considered as a crime linked to drug trafficking. The police revolt that occurred on September 30, 2010, called by the regime an attempted coup d\u00E2\u0080\u0099\u00C3\u00A9tat, uncovered weaknesses in the Intelligence system. Such an event brought into question the viability and relevance of the reforms, locating the Intelligence system in the center of the political debate as it failed to alert President Rafael Correa.308 This serious internal crisis prompted a rethinking of the role of the new Intelligence Secretariat and highlighted the lack of communication between the Intelligence subsystems (police and military) as sources that could alert the political authority to the discontent of the National Police.309 This crisis was followed by the resignation of the civilian head appointed in September 2009. As a result, a military retiree was appointed as head of the SENAIN.310 While the decision appears to be supported by the criterion of the alleged military efficiency and prestige enjoyed by the Ecuadorian armed forces, it shows a return to the recent past that contrasts with the reformist intentions discursively broadcast by President Rafael Correa. 306 Francisco Jij\u00C3\u00B3n Calder\u00C3\u00B3n, Ibid., 18. 307 Fredy Rivera V\u00C3\u00A9lez, Ibid., 48. 308 Fredy Rivera V\u00C3\u00A9lez, Ibid., 48. 309 Fredy Rivera V\u00C3\u00A9lez, Ibid., 71. 310 Fredy Rivera V\u00C3\u00A9lez, Ibid., 49. 99 Security and Intelligence reforms did little to change the state-centric approach to security in Ecuador. For the former civilian head of the National Intelligence Secretariat, before the reforms, the Intelligence service was implemented within a National Security Doctrine that favored the state as the exclusive referent of security. The main threats to state security came from members of Ecuadorian society such as social organizations, trade unions and political associations, potentially challenging the status quo through threatening ideologies and behaviors.311 Nonetheless, as I have previously explained in this section, under Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s current policy of conspiracy, civil society organizations are still viewed as potential threats to the state and especially to the political agenda of the Correismo. Thus, the state is still the exclusive referent of security and intelligence under Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s administration. A human security perspective is mentioned in the 2011 National Agenda of Intelligence, but none of its five policies and 13 strategies312 addresses how are they going to improve the security of individuals and their communities. Moreover, these institutional reforms have not modified how a national security approach is deployed at the borders to deal with human security issues, turning local smugglers into new enemies of the state. 2.1.2 New threats to Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border security under Rafael Correa The concept of security in international relations has been redefined since the end of the Cold War,313 provoking, a radical rethinking of approaches to security.314 During the Cold War period, the state in Ecuador approached security in military terms that focused on defending the state against external military threats from Peru and internal threats from subversive groups. In the post- 311 Francisco Jij\u00C3\u00B3n Calder\u00C3\u00B3n, Ibid., 18. 312 Secretar\u00C3\u00ADa Nacional de Inteligencia-SENAIN, Agenda Nacional de Inteligencia (2011), 11, 32. https://issuu.com/micsecuador/docs/agenda_nacional_de_inteligencia (accessed on August 2016). 313 Matt McDonald, \u00E2\u0080\u009CHuman Security and the Construction of Security,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Global Society 16, no. 3 (2002): 277. 314Jill Steans, Gender and International Relations an Introduction (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998), 108. 100 Cold War period, international discourses about what threatens states have transformed, creating an apparently new security scenario. In Ecuador, this scenario recognizes that many conflicts are provoked by non-traditional threats within nations rather than between nations. The non-traditional security threats included in a new security agenda cannot be dealt with nuclear and conventional weapons, alliances, balances of power and military power. Nonetheless, under this scenario, national security is still limited in military terms, but it has become a multi-sectorial sphere, that includes activities considered as crimes by the Ecuadorian security forces, such as drug trafficking, attacks on pipelines and smuggling. The demilitarization of the concept of security involves a multi-sectorial agenda. As outlined in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s 2011 Comprehensive Security Plan, the Special Conference on Security held in Mexico in October 2003 encouraged Ecuador to discuss and adopt a new concept of state security adapted to Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s own reality and to the new international context. This new approach to national security included principles of conflict prevention, transparency in military spending, confidence-building measures between countries, no offensive military doctrines, respect for human rights, civilian control of the security forces and respect for the Constitution. In sum, the Conference of Mexico 2003 highlighted the demilitarization of the concept of security on the grounds that the threats to states are not only military but multidimensional.315 Inspired by the recommendations discussed in this conference and the new security scenario, Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security policymakers have avoided the tendency to confuse national defense with a multi-sectorial security. Buzan, Waever, and De Wilde\u00E2\u0080\u0099s terms (1998) argue that threats distinguish multiple sectors in security analysis. First, military security is concerned with armed defensive and offensive capabilities of states. Second, political security refers to the achievement of stability within states through legitimate ideologies and systems of government. Third, economic security 315 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Plan de Seguridad Integral (2011), 43. 101 is concerned with access to resources, finance and markets that sustain acceptable levels of welfare and state power. Fourth, environmental security takes into account the importance of maintaining the local and the global biosphere. And fifth, societal security refers to traditional patterns of language, culture, religion, customs and national identity.316 Despite being multi-sectorial, all these dimensions of security are still state-centric or, in more concrete terms, the state is the referent object of security. Opposing those who want to widen the security agenda beyond a strictly military domain, Stephen Walt (1991) argues that doing so would eliminate security studies\u00E2\u0080\u0099 intellectual coherence, making it difficult to come up with solutions to important problems such as pollution, diseases or economic recessions.317 Walt\u00E2\u0080\u0099s point of view denies that threats can arise in diverse areas due to security\u00E2\u0080\u0099s multidimensionality. Rather, he encourages an exclusive state-centric military approach that provides a limited understanding of security issues. There is an acknowledgment of the existence of multidimensional threats, but they are still dealt with a military approach. In the Ecuadorian case, security discourses and practices require a broader framework of analysis that does not view the state as the exclusive referent of security. The inclusion of additional sectors in security studies also involves other non-state actors with empowerment abilities in the local and national agenda, such as environmentalists, human rights advocates and women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s movements. Currently, from a national security perspective, threats originating from conflicts between states are less relevant than those provoked by non-state actors. The threats to Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s national interests do not come exclusively from an enemy that is another state: Ecuadorian security authorities believe that threats come also from non-state actors, such as transnational criminals, 316 Barry Buzan, Ole Waever, and Jaap De Wilde, Security a New Framework for Analysis (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998), 7-8. 317 Stephen Walt, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Renaissance of Security Studies,\u00E2\u0080\u009D International Studies Quarterly 35, no 2 (1991): 212-213. 102 drug traffickers, terrorists and smugglers in border zones. Since the security agenda has become multidimensional, Ecuador has identified a significant number of new and emerging threats that include: extreme poverty; inequality; social exclusion; natural disasters; environmental problems; infectious diseases; ethnic, religious, cultural, and regional identity conflicts; trade and transportation of hazardous materials; the negative effects of the Colombian conflict; uncontrolled migration; lack of resources; the possibility of interstate conflict; transnational organized crime; and the political conspiracy to destabilize and/ or overthrow a legitimate government.318 As outlined in the 2011 Comprehensive Security Plan, particular interest is devoted to criminal threats from transnational organized crime. These threats are numerous and include: drug trafficking and related crimes; money laundering; smuggling of arms, ammunition, explosives and other materials; human trafficking for different purposes; kidnapping and extortion; traffic of cultural and natural heritage; and smuggling of fuels and propane cylinders.319 Thus, smuggling gasoline, diesel and propane cylinders for domestic use to Colombia and Peru, as a new threat to Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s national security, creates an underground economy at Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders. Margaret Niger-Thomas (2001) defines smuggling \u00E2\u0080\u009Cas the illegal transport of goods and/or persons in or out of a country to avoid taxation.\u00E2\u0080\u009D320 Despite government efforts, smuggling has not been completely eradicated. Given the multidimensional characteristics of this new security \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthreat,\u00E2\u0080\u009D it is being addressed by a national security approach that is insufficient to solve the roots of a complex security scenario. A military approach is still considered appropriate: Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security forces employ such tactics as border patrolling, capture of the people involved in these activities and the confiscation of the goods that 318 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Plan de Seguridad Integral, 44-45. 319 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Ibid., 44-45. 320 Margaret Niger-Thomas, \u00E2\u0080\u009CWomen and the Arts of Smuggling,\u00E2\u0080\u009D African Studies Review 44, no. 2, Ways of Seeing: Beyond the New Nativism (Sep., 2001): 44. 103 were supposed to be smuggled. Since the Ecuadorian security policy views smuggling fuels and propane cylinders as a criminal activity and a threat to the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s national security, the men and women involved in this activity are also viewed as criminals. 2.1.3 Smuggling of fuels and propane cylinders on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s northern and southern borders Smuggling as an informal cross-border activity has become an underground economy on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders. The border economy integrates two or more asymmetric economies based on the fact that what is expensive in Ecuador is cheaper in the neighboring countries and vice-versa. Buying a product for a lower price has been part of the Ecuadorian strategy of maximizing the value of inadequate family budgets. Ecuadorians mainly buy clothing, electronics and alcoholic beverages in Peru and Colombia,321 while goods that are subsidized in Ecuador, such as fuel and propane cylinders, are bought across the Colombian and Peruvian borders. Porous borders have led smuggling to reach higher levels. Macroeconomic policies such as the dollarization of the Ecuadorian economy since 2000 have aggravated the rise in production costs, encouraging the smuggling of agricultural products and textiles from the other side of the border322 with profound effects on the commercial, industrial and agricultural sectors.323 Additionally, smuggling affects macroeconomic factors such as the balance of payments and national production. The entry of smuggled goods into the Ecuadorian borders has directly impacted formal trade, industry and tax revenues, provoking, in Pablo D\u00C3\u00A1vila\u00E2\u0080\u0099s terms (2006), unfair competition for the national productive sector. Local producers who are affected by 321 Pablo D\u00C3\u00A1vila Pinto, Repercusiones del Comercio Ilegal frente a la Econom\u00C3\u00ADa Nacional. Sector Industrial y Agropecuario. Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales. Tesis presentada como requisito para optar al T\u00C3\u00ADtulo de Mag\u00C3\u00ADster en Seguridad y Desarrollo con menci\u00C3\u00B3n en Gesti\u00C3\u00B3n P\u00C3\u00BAblica y Gerencia Empresarial (2006), 14. http://repositorio.iaen.edu.ec/bitstream/24000/33/1/IAEN-008-2006.pdf (accessed in June 2016). 322 Ministerio de Comercio Exterior, Industrializaci\u00C3\u00B3n, Pesca y Competitividad-MICIP, Competitividad industrial en el Ecuador (julio 2004), 68. 323 Pablo D\u00C3\u00A1vila Pinto, Ibid., 11-12. 104 smuggling have stopped production, laying off workers and increasing unemployment in the border region. A higher rate of unemployment reduces local\u00E2\u0080\u0099s consumption levels. Moreover, producers must compete with cheaper smuggled products on which taxes have not been paid.324 Smuggling has a greater impact on the national economy. There are several reasons why people became involved in smuggling. First, the poor tax culture of citizens. Second, the lack of formal jobs since local and national governments have ignored the existing problems. Third, smuggling is a very ancient practice, being a way to trade between two border towns.325 Fourth, due to the proximity of the towns on the other side of the border, many Ecuadorians have married Colombians or Peruvians, forming binational families. The children of such marriages have dual nationality and rights in the two countries. Once they reach adulthood, they carry out bi-national business. Fifth, due to the exchange rate, Ecuadorians buy in Colombia when the peso is pushed up, and Colombians buy in Ecuador when the value of the peso is depressed. Sixth, tax evasion is attractive as a way to obtain higher profits. Seventh, the fact that petroleum products are subsidized provides a source of sustenance and survival to many Colombian-Ecuadorian families. Eighth, the lack of cooperation among the customs authorities in providing quick and timely services to users of foreign trade creates numerous obstacles and impediments to expediting imports and exports.326 According to a survey administered to 50 men and women merchants in the city of Tulc\u00C3\u00A1n, 60% of the respondents believed that the goods marketed in the northern border are acquired by smuggling, while 40% consider that the goods were acquired legally.327 Seventy percent of the interviewees did not 324 Pablo D\u00C3\u00A1vila Pinto, Ibid., 14. 325 Brenda \u00C3\u0081lvarez, El contrabando aduanero como una de las causas de da\u00C3\u00B1o efectivo al patrimonio p\u00C3\u00BAblico (Tesis de grado previa a la obtenci\u00C3\u00B3n del T\u00C3\u00ADtulo de Abogada. Universidad Central del Ecuador Facultad de Jurisprudencia, Ciencias Pol\u00C3\u00ADticas y Sociales, 2014), 94. 326 Brenda \u00C3\u0081lvarez, Ibid., 94-95. 327 Brenda \u00C3\u0081lvarez, Ibid., 113-114. 105 consider it a crime to buy or sell smuggled goods, while 30% of the participants considered it to be an offense.328 Eighty percent of the respondents considered that smuggling was practiced for profit, while 20% believed that it was practiced out of ignorance of the law.329 The Ecuadorian border provinces have become a space in which to smuggle subsidized goods such as fuel and propane cylinders. According to a report by the Ecuadorian Attorney General, 685 complaints of smuggling of hydrocarbons at the provincial level were received between 2010 and 2014.330 El Oro, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and Carchi reported the highest rates of complaints. In the Northern border area in 2012, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos was the province that ranked first in the smuggling of hydrocarbons. However, in August 2012 Carchi occupied the first position. In the Southern border area, between July 2013 and May 2014, the province of El Oro also reported smuggling of hydrocarbons.331 The main incentive for smuggling fuel332 and propane cylinders for domestic use is the price difference between the countries. Fernando Carri\u00C3\u00B3n (2011) states that Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border economy is promoting a regional development and generating trade flow in the border zones based on the phenomenon that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwhat is expensive here is cheap there.\u00E2\u0080\u009D This fact encourages smuggling.333 In Ecuador, the official price of a cylinder of gas weighting 15 kilograms (kg) is $1.60 (US). In Colombia, the same cylinder costs $20 (US). According to the Ecuadorian National Police in Carchi the smugglers use 37 routes, and around 500 families in the city of Tulc\u00C3\u00A1n in Carchi 328 Brenda \u00C3\u0081lvarez, Ibid., 115. 329 Brenda \u00C3\u0081lvarez, Ibid., 118. 330 Fiscal\u00C3\u00ADa General del Estado y FLACSO-Ecuador, \u00E2\u0080\u009CContrabando. Los Rostros del Contrabando, Rutas Fronterizas.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Perfil Criminol\u00C3\u00B3gico, n\u00C2\u00BA 15 (Junio 2015), 15. http://repositorio.flacsoandes.edu.ec/bitstream/10469/7512/2/BFLACSO-PC15.pdf (accessed June 2016). 331 Fiscal\u00C3\u00ADa General del Estado. Los Delitos en Ecuador Una Mirada en Cifras. Delitoscopio Informe Estad\u00C3\u00ADstico (Diciembre 2014), 19, 25. https://issuu.com/fiscaliaecuador/docs/libro_fiscalia_horizontal_publicado (accessed in June 2016). 332 White fuel is a component of cocaine production process. 333 Fernando Carri\u00C3\u00B3n M., \u00E2\u0080\u009CEconom\u00C3\u00ADa de Frontera: una atracci\u00C3\u00B3n fatal,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Fronteras 7, FLACSO Sede Ecuador Programa de Estudios de la Ciudad (2011):1. 106 Province334 who belong to the smugglers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 association called \u00E2\u0080\u009CFenix\u00E2\u0080\u009D are involved.335 The Colombian Customs Police Office argues that smugglers make three to four daily trips between Tulc\u00C3\u00A1n in Ecuador and Ipiales in Colombia through the Rumichaca Bridge.336 They repeatedly transport a propane cylinder in each direction. The cylinders are carried on bicycles or motorcycles, automobile trunks and even on the back of donkeys.337 When caught, the smugglers argue that the cylinders are for family use. The Ecuadorian government has reacted to smuggling on its borders with Colombia and Peru by using national security initiatives such as the deployment of the military, customs surveillance and police patrols in the urban and rural areas located in border zones. An official document entitled the \u00E2\u0080\u009CRequirements for entry into Ecuador border. People, vehicles, and goods\u00E2\u0080\u009D states that Border Customs will seize prohibited goods, objects and publications that threaten state security, health and public morals. It states those goods will be subject to the provisions of the Customs Law on customs offenses.338 Thus, Ecuadorian national security institutions, such as the military, police, customs and the Investigation Unit for Energy and Hydrocarbon Crimes, are present at gas stations in the provinces located on the borders, trying to avoid the smuggling of white fuel, a component of cocaine, or liquefied petroleum gas intended for home use. By increasing the number of confiscations, the Energy Sovereignty Plan seeks to decrease the losses generated by fuel smuggling. In particular, these national security institutions seek to demonstrate the \u00E2\u0080\u009Csuccess\u00E2\u0080\u009D of 334 El Comercio.com, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGas: entre escasez y contrabando,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Abril 26, 2012. http://www.elcomercio.com/negocios/Gas-escasez-contrabando_0_688731319.html (accessed March 14, 2013). 335 El Tel\u00C3\u00A9grafo.com, \u00E2\u0080\u009CComercio reemplaza al contrabando en Carchi,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Noviembre 2, 2012. http://www.telegrafo.com.ec/actualidad/item/el-comercio-reemplaza-al-contrabando-en-carchi.html (accessed March 14, 2013). 336 The border control office between Ecuador and Colombia is located on the Rumichaca Bridge. 337 El Comercio.com, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGas: entre escasez y contrabando,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Abril 26, 2012. http://www.elcomercio.com/negocios/Gas-escasez-contrabando_0_688731319.html (accessed March 14, 2013). 338 Aduana del Ecuador, Requisitos para el ingreso al Ecuador por frontera. Personas, veh\u00C3\u00ADculos y mercanc\u00C3\u00ADas. www.aduana.gov.ec Mayo 2009. 107 their confiscations. For example, between 2011 and February 2012, the Energy Sovereignty Plan, launched in 2007, confiscated 4.7 million gallons of fuel and 468 propane cylinders for domestic use as these were being smuggled across the border illegally in Esmeraldas,339 another province located at Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border with Colombia. According to the Hydrocarbon Control Agency, a cylinder in Carchi Province has a value of between $1.60 (US) and $2 (US). When resold in Colombia it fetches up to $ 22 (US) dollars. Smuggling in Carchi costs the government of Ecuador $ 377,000 (US) per month, and $ 4,524,000 (US) per year.340 Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border with Peru is also a challenge for the state. During the Ecuador-Peru IX Meeting on Anti-Smuggling341 in September 2013, the representative of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Security claimed that Ecuador loses 37 million dollars annually due to fuel smuggling on the border with Peru. He also mentioned that smuggling is a recurrent crime at the border.342This position confirms the national security treatment given to this issue in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security policies. The smuggling of fuel and propane cylinders has been addressed at several meetings by government officials in order to develop measures to counter it. In April 2012, the Itinerant Cabinet held in the town of Cascales, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Province proposed the creation of a public national distributor as one possible solution to the corruption that exists in certain of the private distributors that sell subsidized propane cylinders across the borders.343 In a national security 339 Hoy, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMillones de Gasolina Incautados,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Febrero 29, 2012, http://www.hoy.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/millones-de-galones-de-gasolina-incautados-535743.html (accessed March 14, 2013). 340 Asociaci\u00C3\u00B3n Ecologista Rio Mocoreta, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGas envasado diferente precio incentiva contrabando,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Agosto 18, 2011, http://evaluacionimpactosambientales.blogspot.ca/2011/08/gas-envasado-diferente-precio-incentiva.html (accessed March 28, 2013). 341 The binational commission to fight smuggling was originated in 2007 when the Ecuador and Peru agreed to raise common efforts to combat smuggling across their common border. 342 El Comercio, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEcuador y Per\u00C3\u00BA realizar\u00C3\u00A1n operativos contra contrabando fronterizo,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Septiembre 26, 2013 http://elcomercio.com/seguridad/Ecuador-peru-delito-contrabando-reuniones-frontera_0_1000100192.html (accessed November 27, 2013). 343 El Tel\u00C3\u00A9grafo, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMedidas para combatir contrabando de gas se analizan en Gabinete Itinerante.\u00E2\u0080\u009D April 27, 2012. http://www.telegrafo.com.ec/noticias/informacion-general/item/medidas-para-combatir-contrabando-de-gas-se-analiza-en-gabinete-itinerante.html (accessed July 8, 2014). 108 speech based on ideas of patriotism and nation delivered at that meeting, the Ecuadorian President, Rafael Correa, claimed: \u00E2\u0080\u009CWe will make final decisions. We won\u00E2\u0080\u0099t allow the further abuse of communities, the continuous stealing of the money of all Ecuadorians because that subsidized propane cylinder\u00E2\u0080\u00A6we love Colombia, but we cannot afford to subsidize Colombia when none of us have enough.\u00E2\u0080\u009D344 Clearly, smuggling in Lago Agrio and its surroundings in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Province, viewed from Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s government perspective, is a matter of border security in the province that affects the national economy. Detaining smugglers and confiscating the goods to be smuggled, therefore, are the main disciplinary practices employed to control this threat to national interests. In 2013, the Research Unit for Energy and Hydrocarbon Crimes (UIDEH) of the National Police arrested three people carrying 14 cans of fuel without purchase authorizations in the Guanta area near the city of Lago Agrio in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Province.345 This event demonstrates that surveillance practices are imbued with disciplinary power that punishes \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdisobedient\u00E2\u0080\u009D borderlanders. \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe UIDEH agents worked with its intelligence unit and collaborated with Petro Amazonas staff, managing to detect three people who were involved in the illegal activity of transporting hydrocarbon derivatives. These three people were arrested, two women and a man, presumably belonging to a smuggling gang. The organization was led by an active [male] member of the Unit of Environmental Police (UPMA) assigned to Lago Agrio. His wife and mother in law were his accomplices.\u00E2\u0080\u009D346 The above information, posted by the Ministry of Interior of Ecuador on its web page, illustrates the active role of the Ecuadorian security authorities in tackling smuggling as a threat to national interests. It also demonstrates how the dominant discourse of national security frames the three 344 El Tel\u00C3\u00A9grafo, Ibid. 345 Ministerio de Interior del Ecuador, \u00E2\u0080\u009CPolic\u00C3\u00ADa de Delitos Energ\u00C3\u00A9ticos detiene a presuntos contrabandistas de combustibles,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Lago Agrio, 23 de Octubre de 2013. http://www.ministeriointerior.gob.ec/policia-de-delitos-energeticos-detiene-a-presuntos-contrabandistas-de-combustibles/ (accessed on July 9, 2014) 346 Ministerio del Interior del Ecuador. Ibid. 109 people in question as criminals and members of a smuggling gang. On the one hand, this discourse views the women members of the household as collaborators in the smuggling of fuel and as accomplices the accomplices of the male provider. On the other hand, what is really interesting in this case is that a police officer was involved in smuggling with the help of his wife and mother in law. This case suggests that human insecurity in the zone also affects the border security authorities. The family of this police officer was working together to improve its economic status and well-being. The complexity of the security scenario in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Province is affected by smuggling, which is the result of a security approach that does not view the individual and the community as referents of security. The minimal economic and personal security experienced in the border zone certainly increases the presence of issues that, according to the Ecuadorian authorities, affect the national security of the state in the three provinces studied in this case study. A social and economic approach in public policies must complement and gradually replace the punitive approach. Both, Lago Agrio, in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, and Tulc\u00C3\u00A1n, in Carchi have been identified by the security authorities as critical areas on the Northern border where smuggling takes place. In Lago Agrio, much of the smuggling of propane cylinders, diesel and gasoline crosses to Colombia via the river.347 In Carchi, the distance from Tulc\u00C3\u00A1n to the international Rumichaca bridge on the border with Colombia is only 10km. Table 1 shows the value, in US dollars, of the merchandise seized by Customs officers in the Northern provinces of Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos between 2011 and 2013. The table also demonstrates that important quantities of electronics, clothing, shoes, medicines and fruits and vegetables were seized. 347 Interview conducted and translated by the author with Officer of the Training Center of Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Customs Surveillance (Centro de Formaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Vigilancia Aduanera) July 1, 2013. 110 Table 1. Value in US dollars of Apprehensions of Merchandise in Zone 1 (including Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos provinces) 2011-2013 Merchandise 2011 2012 2013 SPIRITS $4,940.00 $1,025,481.10 $52,948.00 TEXTILES $590,354.80 $488,737.27 $232,098.10 SHOES $278,077.00 $158,991.73 $44,542.00 ELECTRONICS $149,804.60 $139,582.04 $457,758.00 MEDICINE $37,384.00 $100,084.90 $90,436.70 CIGARETTES $23,072.50 $87,735.70 $74,571.75 FRUITS AND VEGETABLES $140,067.64 $153,542.25 $237,764.00 VARIOUS MERCHANDISE $296,540.99 $398,980.53 $353,306.93 TOTAL $1,520,241.53 $2,553,135.52 $1,543,425.48 Source: Servicio Nacional de Aduana del Ecuador (SENAE). An interview with a Customs officer revealed that some Afro-Ecuadorians from the Chota Valley,348 in the Province of Carchi, are active members of what the border security discourse calls \u00E2\u0080\u009Csmuggling networks.\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00E2\u0080\u009CIn the north [border] there are people [Afro-Ecuadorians] \u00E2\u0080\u009Cworking\u00E2\u0080\u009D to bring fruit from Colombia\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 They described themselves as poor people. They use poverty as emotional blackmail. They even tell us that they are dedicated to work. But underneath the fruit, more than once, we [customs officers] have discovered another kind of merchandise. The fruit has become a way of concealing contraband. Fuel, car parts, drugs, agricultural products, appliances and electronics It has been found.\u00E2\u0080\u009D349 348 For this reason, the workshop that I conducted with local women in Carchi in August 2013 includes women of Chota Valley and La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n, both rural areas. 349 Interview translated and conducted by the author with a Customs Officer at the Training Center of Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Customs Surveillance. Quito-Ecuador. July 1, 2013. 111 The testimony of the Customs officer shows surprise at the audacity of the Afro-Ecuadorians who smuggle on the northern border, using poverty, in his words, as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cemotional blackmail\u00E2\u0080\u009D to justify their involvement in smuggling. In this context, the border security discourse of the National Customs Surveillance Office (DNVA) involves a pretty clear racist disciplinary power to punish Afro-Ecuadorians smugglers. For instance, two of the most popular national newspapers reported that, on September 19, 2014, residents of 38 communities in the Chota Valley blocked the Pan-American Highway, with large rocks and burned tires on the bridge at Mascarilla (provincial boundary between Imbabura and Carchi provinces) to demand justice for the death of Milton Chal\u00C3\u00A1 Quinteros. The 37-year old victim was an Afro-Ecuadorian man who was beaten to death by police and customs officers conducting a smuggling control operation on the border between Ecuador and Colombia.350 The border security authorities take advantage of their authority and power to express their racism through the excessive use of force against Afro-Ecuadorian smugglers. Finally, in the Southern province of El Oro, my study focuses on Huaquillas, a city on the border with Aguas Verdes in Peru that has been identified by the Ecuadorian border security authorities as a critical place with complex security issues and a significant amount of smuggling of diesel, fuel and such other goods as alcoholic beverages.351 As shown in Table 2, propane cylinders and fuel are not the only goods smuggled across the southern border: electronics, clothing, medicine and fruits and vegetables have also been apprehended by Customs officers. 350 Amparo Rosero, \u00E2\u0080\u009CProtesta mantiene cerrada la v\u00C3\u00ADa entre provincias de Imbabura y Carchi,\u00E2\u0080\u009D El Universo Septiembre 22, 2014. http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2014/09/22/nota/4019991/protesta-mantiene-cerrada-provincias-imbabura-carchi (accessed September 20, 2015). See also: El Comercio, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLa v\u00C3\u00ADa Panamericana, entre Imbabura y Carchi, est\u00C3\u00A1 bloqueada.\u00E2\u0080\u009D http://m.elcomercio.com/articulo/actualidad/via-panamericana-imbabura-carchi-bloqueada (accessed September 20, 2015). 351 Interview conducted and translated by the author, Director of the Training Center of Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Customs Surveillance and Rector of the Higher Technological Institute \"Customs Liceo\" July 1, 2013. Also interview conducted by the author with the Economist Cesar Emilio Bravo Ib\u00C3\u00A1\u00C3\u00B1ez, Regional Director of the Agency for Hydrocarbon Control ARCH-Machala-El Oro province. August 2013. 112 Table 2. Value in US dollars of Apprehensions of Merchandise in Zone 7 (including El Oro province) 2011-2013 Merchandise 2011 2012 2013 SPIRITS $36,704.00 $169,829.00 $578,219.05 TEXTILES $957,975.29 $1,451,783.77 $1,948,529.10 SHOES $233,037.90 $422,123.47 $1,454,293.41 ELECTRONICS $82,513.29 $189,598.50 $316,720.20 MEDICINE $348,487.08 $223,782.68 $251,389.20 CIGARRETTES $18,690.00 $14,726.70 $87,423.75 FRUITS AND EDIBLES $187,297.45 $480,791.58 $563,170.70 VARIOUS MERCHANDISE $623,966.50 $791,009.69 $1,866,783.80 TOTAL $2,488,671.48 $3,743,644.69 $7,066,529.21 Source: Servicio Nacional de Aduana del Ecuador (SENAE). The confiscation of numerous items in the border zones, as shown in the above tables, does not stop smuggling in a complex human security scenario in which intersectional inequalities, based on race, gender, class and geographical location play a significant role. Alternative initiatives to patrolling and confiscation have been deployed in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones. The Ecuadorian government has started a program of electronic cards to determine how many propane cylinders each family in the northern border zone consume.352 Implementing disciplinary power in Foucauldian terms, the Hydrocarbon Agency for Regulation and Control (translated as Agencia de Regulaci\u00C3\u00B3n y Control Hidrocarbur\u00C3\u00ADfero del Ecuador (ARCH)) coordinates both punitive and preventive actions. It has launched a preventive project that involves 352 Hoy, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGobierno controlara venta de gas en las fronteras,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Abril 29, 2012. http://www.hoy.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/gobierno-controlara-venta-de-gas-en-las-fronteras-544739.html (accessed July, 2013). 113 the use of electronic cards to record the supply of propane cylinders to households located in border areas. This project ensures that all families receive an adequate amount of gas for domestic use and also identifies when the propane cylinders are being sent to another destination. Indeed, this preventive project, which is also implemented at gas stations along the border, helps to identify which vehicles are used for multiple purchasing of propane cylinders. The vehicles are re- routed to other gas stations where they are recorded by a video camera. This border security practice shows how the Foucauldian metaphor of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe panopticon\u00E2\u0080\u009D exercises power at the border. In this sense, power coerces by means of observation and produces self-monitoring subjects that police themselves. According to an interview conducted with a representative of ARCH, the Ecuadorian state has already saved more than $ 8 million with this preventive project.353 In addition, the government has been buying gas stations located in the borders in order to prevent smuggling.354 In El Oro-province, eight gas stations have been bought, and eight have been closed, while others are in the process of being closed. In Huaquillas, a border city in El Oro Province, there are only 3 stations left.355 In my view, the closure of these gas stations does little to prevent the smuggling of fuel, since the smugglers merely buy their fuel supply in neighboring provinces. Less repressive solutions to confronting smuggling in the borders, informed by a human security approach, have been suggested by experts. For instance, Fernando Carri\u00C3\u00B3n considers that Ecuador should regulate this informal economy rather than relying on the easiest (and most repressive) tactic of police and military patrolling. In his view, the economy must be tackled from a policy of border integration and trade.356 For his part, Diego Velasco (2011) suggests mass media campaigns that promote a tax culture and a campaign to raise awareness of the damage caused by 353 Interview conducted by the author at ARCH-El Oro. Machala-Ecuador on August 2013. 354 Hoy.com, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGobierno controlara venta de gas en las fronteras.\u00E2\u0080\u009D 29 de abril, 2012. http://www.hoy.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/gobierno-controlara-venta-de-gas-en-las-fronteras-544739.html (accessed July, 2013). 355 Interview conducted by the author at ARCH-El Oro. Machala-Ecuador August 2013. 356 Carri\u00C3\u00B3n, Ibid., 1. 114 tax-avoiding practices that prevent the implementation of social projects357 in the country. In a 2010 study, Carlos Avil\u00C3\u00A9s presented another solution involving the elimination of subsidies on propane cylinders and fuel. The reduction or elimination of the subsidies is a sensitive issue for the population. A government that implements the removal of the subsidy might create destabilization. Furthermore, the subsidies for gas, propane cylinders, diesel and fuel do not necessarily benefit the poor. The rich benefit more from these subsidies because they are the ones who own the cars and the machines that consume these products. For this reason, it is important to implement measures that target fuel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) subsidies that benefit disadvantaged groups, including a subsidy for electricity.358 The average consumption of most of the population is 1.4 propane cylinders per month. Thus, 17 cylinders per household per year could be subsidized, and only low-income users could be allowed to benefit from the subsidy.359 Avil\u00C3\u00A9s\u00E2\u0080\u0099 study shows that, if the proposal to target the subsidy on LPG on disadvantaged groups, had been implemented in 2009, the government would have saved $ 300 million and would have avoided subsidizing 38 million propane cylinders utilized by higher income users or smuggling networks.360 However, none of these alternatives will be sufficiently effective if smuggling continues to be controlled mainly by security institutions that employ the discourse of national security to justify practices of surveillance, confiscation and repression. In sum, border security practices will not significantly decrease the involvement of local persons in the smuggling of fuel and propane cylinders across the border. Security policies centered on the individual rather than the state might be a better solution. 357 Diego Velasco, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEl delito aduanero en las fronteras de Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Fronteras 7 FLACSO Sede Ecuador Programa de Estudios de la Ciudad (2011):2. 358Carlos David Avil\u00C3\u00A9s Pazmi\u00C3\u00B1o, \u00E2\u0080\u009CAn\u00C3\u00A1lisis de los Subsidios de combustible en el Ecuador con sus posibles alternativas de focalizaci\u00C3\u00B3n y control, en el periodo 2004-2009\u00E2\u0080\u009D (thesis, Pontificia Universidad Cat\u00C3\u00B3lica del Ecuador, Octubre 2010), 11. 359 Carlos David Avil\u00C3\u00A9s Pazmi\u00C3\u00B1o, Ibid., 30. 360 Carlos David Avil\u00C3\u00A9s Pazmi\u00C3\u00B1o, Ibid., 31. 115 2.2 Human Security: a new paradigm in Ecuadorian security policy? A human security approach challenges the notion of national security by encouraging states to protect the security of the individual. Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s attempt to develop a human security approach on its borders has, however, been considered a failure by several experts and public functionaries. First, human security has been used mainly to complement national security initiatives. Second, a lack of continuity within public policy and permanent shifts in security priorities have affected how human security is implemented in the border zones in Ecuador. Third, human security initiatives need to be sensitive to intersectional inequalities based on gender, race, class and geographical location. Thus, changes in the institutional human security framework weaken and disrupt ongoing processes, arising concerns about the need for an intersectional human security approach within the security planning agenda on the borders. 2.2.1 Human Security as a complement to National Security Initiatives on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Borders The human security approach has not been successful in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones. The main reason because the Ecuadorian human security approach has been manipulated by the state in order to maximize its national interests. Biopolitics, governmentality and other methods of internal control affect conceptions of state security on the border. The Ecuadorian government has to develop human security as an emancipation of local communities rather than as a mere alternative to complement its national security. The analysis of biopolitics provides us with a meaningful understanding of power relations at the heart of human security as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgood\u00E2\u0080\u009D governance. Michel Foucault (2003) states that biopolitics deals with the population as a political problem, but also with the random events that occur within 116 a population.361 Foucault\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interest in security and war arises out of his concern with liberalism as a regime of power and governmentality that views species life as the core of power relations.362 In Foucault\u00E2\u0080\u0099s terms, the economy of power disciplines subjects, making them produce wealth.363 A Foucauldian incursion into security studies shows that life itself has become the principal referent for security practices.364 Therefore, security is immersed in an order of calculation of probability and statistical regularity.365 Biopolitics, thus, is a security apparatus366 in which a state of emergency is permanent in the politics of security. For Michael Dillon (2007) the emergence of emergency, subsequently, is the norm for a biopoliticized life.367 In order to deploy biopolitics, new disciplines, such as economic observation and demography, appeared368 to regulate a population\u00E2\u0080\u0099s life and displacement inside and outside its territory. Thus, the population is not people; rather, it is statistics, such as birth rate, migration, longevity, public health, mortality, employment rate, or housing, that are used by governments to manage life, and to prevent insecurity. The biopolitics of security is interested in the nexus of power/knowledge within governmental technologies, elevating contingency.369 Society must be defended from threats to a population\u00E2\u0080\u0099s life, because a vulnerable population might turn into a threat to the security of the state. 361 Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Coll\u00C3\u00A8ge de France 1975\u00E2\u0080\u00931976 (New York: Picador, 2003), 245-246. 362 Didier Bigo, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSecurity: A Field Left Fallow,\u00E2\u0080\u009D In Foucault on Politics, Security and War, eds. Michael Dillon and Andrew W. Neal (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 194-196. 363 Michel Foucault, Security, Territory and Population (New York: Picador, 2007), 30. 364 Brad Evans, \u00E2\u0080\u009CFoucault\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Legacy: Security, War and Violence in the 21st Century,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Security Dialogue 41, no. 4 (2010): 413. 365 Didier Bigo, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSecurity: A Field Left Fallow,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 96, quoted in Michel Foucault, \u00E2\u0080\u009CS\u00C3\u00A8curit\u00C3\u00A9, Territoire, Population; Cours au Coll\u00C3\u00A8ge de France (1977-1978),\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Paris: Seuil/Gallimard, 2004), 8. 366 Michael Dillon and Luis Lobo-Guerrero, \u00E2\u0080\u009CBiopolitics of security in the 21st century,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Review of International Studies 34, no 2 (2008): 266. 367 Michael Dillon, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGoverning Terror: The State of Emergency of Bio-Political Emergence,\u00E2\u0080\u009D International Political Sociology 1, no 1 (2007): 15. 368 Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality: Vol.1 an Introduction (London: Penguin, 1990), 140. 369 Dillon, Ibid., 10-11. 117 The analysis of human security as a complement to national security practices is better understood through the discourse of a risk society. Michael Dillon (2007) in my opinion, correctly points out that security issues are contained in discourses of danger (such as the discourse of insecurity produced on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders) around different referent objects of security (such as the state or the individual), fostering governmental technologies and political rationalities through state policies370 or, in more concrete term, through security and development plans. This way of comprehending security issues fosters a discourse of a risk society.371 As a result of this discourse, governments develop a variety of strategies372 through mechanisms, techniques and technologies of power centered on the individual body by means of surveillance, inspection and reports373 in order to prevent insecurity. Public policy design in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border provinces includes forecasts, statistical estimates and overall measures in order to establish equilibrium, keep an average or compensate variations. The regularization of development through a human security lens in the Ecuadorian case seeks to diminish a risk society, demonstrating that human security and national security complement each other. The strategy of the discourse of risk society ensures the national interest in the name of the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s own security: the border must be defended not only from threats to national interests and the population, but also from threats provoked by inhabitants of the border. As a result of human insecurity, a vulnerable population, such as men and women smugglers in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones, might turn into a threat to the security of the state while smuggling fuel and propane cylinders for domestic use. 370 Michael Dillon, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGoverning Terror: The State of Emergency of Bio-Political Emergence,\u00E2\u0080\u009D International Political Sociology 1, no 1 (2007): 10. 371 Dillon, Ibid., 9. 372 Michael Dillon and Luis Lobo-Guerrero, \u00E2\u0080\u009CBiopolitics of security in the 21st century,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Review of International Studies 34, no 2 (2008): 268. 373 Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Coll\u00C3\u00A8ge de France 1975\u00E2\u0080\u00931976 (New York: Picador, 2003), 242. 118 The redefinition of Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security agenda links national security with human security. For instance, during the interim government of Gustavo Noboa374 in 2000, the then National Security Council of Ecuador identified the need to create the Northern Development Unit (UDENOR),375 as a security mechanism aimed at preventing illicit crops. The creation of this unit was supported by the US and its development program USAID376 and through projects that benefited several Ecuadorian provinces, such as Esmeraldas, Carchi, Imbabura, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Napo and Orellana. The priorities of these projects were social and productive development, infrastructure, environmental management and democracy and governance. All those projects received funding from international agencies and from a national government counterpart, totaling $ 38 million by 2003.377 Policing a risk society378 has become a necessary strategy. In this sense, the Ecuadorian National Secretary of International Cooperation (SETECI) included several projects and programs financed through international cooperation in order to determine whether they are generating development that neutralizes vulnerabilities and strengthens capacities in the border zone, thereby eradicating belligerence and criminal activities. This strategy of attacking underdevelopment can be seen in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s northern border provinces, where funding from international sources in 2011, 374 On January 21st, 2000, a military coup deposed the government of Jamil Mahuad, forcing him to resign after popular discontent with the dollarization of the economy and with radical measures such as closing banks that were considered insolvent by the government. The following day Gustavo Noboa assumed power and became President of Ecuador. 375 Elizabeth Moreano, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEvaluaci\u00C3\u00B3n de la Pol\u00C3\u00ADtica de Seguridad en la Frontera Norte del Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D en La Seguridad del Ecuador desde el 11 de Septiembre hasta el Plan Patriota, ed. Javier Ponce Leiva (Quito: Centro de Estudios Internacionales de Barcelona, FLACSO-Ecuador y Abya Yala, 2005), 171-172. 376Inter-American Development Bank, International donor community to assist Ecuador in promoting alternative development to drug trafficking (October, 2001) http://www.iadb.org/en/news/news-releases/2001-10-23/international-donor-community-to-assist-ecuador-in-promoting-alternative-development-to-drug-trafficking,742.html (accessed October, 2013). 377 Explored, UDENOR ejecuta 120 proyectos fronterizos en el norte (Junio, 2003) http://www.explored.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/udenor-ejecuta-120-proyectos-fronterizos-en-el-norte-150049.html (accessed October, 2013). 378 Policing a society is conceived not only as what the public police can do but what other public institutions do to prevent and manage risks. See more at Richard Ericsson and Kevin Haggerty, Policing the risk society (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997). 119 according to the Ecuadorian National Secretary of International Cooperation (SETECI), was distributed in the following way: Esmeraldas received the most funding in 2007-2010, namely 46%; and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos received 27%. The major donors were: The United States, through USAID;379 the UN system through its various agencies; Spain through the exchange of debt and bilateral cooperation; and the European Community. The contributions from the Spanish, Italian and American aid agencies amounted to approximately $15,000,000.380 In this context, Ecuador linked border security policy with development issues, suggesting that national security alone is not sufficient to battle threats and vulnerabilities with multidimensional characteristics, and demonstrating that such an initiative reflects the close relationship between national security and human security. Thus, the national security approach cannot ever be forgotten; its presence continues within Ecuadorian security policies. It has softened and mutated its appearance through a human security discourse in several security plans such as the Plan Ecuador in 2007 and the Plan de Seguridad Integral in 2011. I shall discuss these plans further in the next section. A statist definition of human security currently prevails within policymaking circles, generating a misunderstanding of the original human-centered definition. If human security remains connected to a state-centered view in security policymaking, the presence of police, military and customs officers in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones will do little to dissuade smugglers, who view their survival options in those areas as reduced and minimal. Therefore, human security cannot be viewed as a mere complement to national security. The potential of an intersectorial and multidimensional security approach, such as human security, increases women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s opportunities to 379 Currently USAID is leaving Ecuador and several projects that were being implemented. The fact has a precedent in 2012 when the country's president, Rafael Correa threatened to expel the funding agency for alleged opposition to his government. See more at La Raz\u00C3\u00B3n, USAID sale de Ecuador tras los desacuerdos con el Gobierno, Diciembre 20, 2013 http://www.la-razon.com/mundo/Usaid-sale-Ecuador-desacuerdos-Gobierno_0_1964803534.html (accessed October, 2013). 380 SETECI interview with Gabriela Rosero, \u00E2\u0080\u009CHacia la articulaci\u00C3\u00B3n de una pol\u00C3\u00ADtica de cooperaci\u00C3\u00B3n para la frontera norte,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cooperamos, no 3 Diciembre (2011): 10-12. 120 improve their quality of life, their education, their health and their employment options. In this way, human security can contribute to the emancipation of local communities. 2.2.2 Lack of continuity within public policy and permanent shifts in security priorities The implementation of human security policies in the border zones in Ecuador has been affected by political agendas, lack of continuity of public policy and permanent shifts in security priorities. For instance, changes in the institutional framework have weakened and disrupted ongoing processes. Between 2001-2013, three institutions were in charge of fostering development in the northern border area: UDENOR (2001-2007); Plan Ecuador (2007-2013); and SENPLADES-region 1 (2013-\u00E2\u0080\u00A6). In its six years of operation between 2001 and 2007, UDENOR received $80 million in foreign aid, which was invested mainly in infrastructure in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Carchi, Imbabura, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Napo and Orellana. In 2007 alone, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) contributed $10 million. Nevertheless, UDENOR did not last long. The government of Rafael Correa eliminated it the Executive Decree 694.381 It was replaced by Plan Ecuador. The first technical secretary of Plan Ecuador, Juan Navarro, argued that the abolition of UDENOR assisted in improving the allocation of resources to the border areas. Plan Ecuador was a coordination unit and not an implementation one, so it did not compete with ministries and local governments for resources, as did UDENOR. Navarro explained that Plan Ecuador wished to avoid conflicts, because \u00E2\u0080\u009Call\u00E2\u0080\u009D the programs implemented by UDENOR had problems of accountability.382 From my perspective, those projects did not include a clear human 381 Rafael Correa, Decreto 694, Eliminaci\u00C3\u00B3n de la Unidad de Desarrollo del Norte-UDENOR, Octubre 25, 2007. 382 El Universo, Problemas de UDENOR pasan a Plan Ecuador, Noviembre 2007 http://www.eluniverso.com/2007/11/18/0001/9/32C0E4A628784EFBA1F7CF89D37FCE7D.html (accessed October, 2013). 121 security focus. Many of them were funded by USAID, so UDENOR indirectly supported the US national security agenda in the Andes region and in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s northern border zones. On April 24, 2007, the Ecuadorian government presented Plan Ecuador to its citizens and the international community as a human security public policy to strengthen interagency coordination and to support development based on security and a culture of peace. This policy was designed to deal with challenges arising from extreme poverty, social exclusion and corruption and to enhance public safety.383 Thus, Plan Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mission referred to the achievement of state decentralization by region, to the promotion of sustainable development and human security and to ensuring the resolution of conflicts in the northern Border zone.384 It proposed seven interdependent areas of intervention: 1) Capacity building for peace and development; 2) Economic recovery and employment; 3) Improving basic social infrastructure; 4) Sustainable management of natural resources; 5) Administration of justice and control of illicit activities; 6) Human rights and humanitarian assistance; and 7) Protection of sovereignty and territorial integrity.385 The fifth area of intervention of then Plan Ecuador \u00E2\u0080\u009CAdministration of justice and control of illicit activities\u00E2\u0080\u009D included the strengthening of systems to prevent unlawful acts, such as the System of National Intelligence, in order to improve control of illicit acts and to achieve a reduction in crime rates through long-term and comprehensive measures regarding the traffic of narcotics, weapons and chemical precursors, money laundering, human trafficking, organized 383Rafael Correa Delgado, President of Ecuador, Decreto 07, 2013 Absorcion del Plan Ecuador por SENPLADES (translated as Merge by absorption of Plan Ecuador by SENPLADES). See more at: SENPLADES, La pol\u00C3\u00ADtica de Plan Ecuador contin\u00C3\u00BAa con la Senplades (translated as Plan Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s policy continues with SENPLADESFebrero 19, 2014 http://www.planificacion.gob.ec/la-politica-de-plan-ecuador-continua-con-la-senplades/ (accessed September, 2015). 384 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad Interna y Externa, Gobierno de la Rep\u00C3\u00BAblica de Ecuador, Plan Ecuador Frontera de Paz http://www.planecuador.gob.ec/pages/interna.php?txtCodiInfo=16 (accessed August 27, 2012). 385Plan Ecuador, Ejes de Intervenci\u00C3\u00B3n. http://www.planecuador.gob.ec/LaInstituci%C3%B3n/EjesdeIntervenci%C3%B3n.aspx (accessed December 1st, 2013). 122 crime and corruption.386 Thus, Plan Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s areas of intervention in the northern border zone linked human security and national security. The main purpose of Plan Ecuador, therefore, was to strengthen human security in the northern border area in order to decrease threats to national security. Plan Ecuador was conceived as a plan for peace that demonstrates the Ecuadorian government\u00E2\u0080\u0099s political will to transform the security discourse, through a progressive security paradigm based on the needs of the population at the northern border area. A functionary involved in implementing Plan Ecuador explained clearly its purpose in the border: \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe mission of Plan Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u00A6was to be a response to Plan Colombia which uses a security perspective based on weapons and military force. [On the contrary] Plan Ecuador was based on security and development of the northern border area; meeting the basic needs of people, generating jobs and tools to resolve conflicts, and upholding the human rights of the population. When all the institutions of the state are working in the border area, the population has an option to improve day by day and it [the population] has capacity to choose whether to maintain its ties with guerrilla groups or become involved in development issues.\u00E2\u0080\u009D387 Nevertheless, Ecuadorian bureaucrats have constantly questioned the effectiveness of Plan Ecuador. Even a former undersecretary of Region 1 of the National Secretariat for Planning and Development (SENPLADES)388 was hesitant when I asked him during an interview which security and development plans both at the national and border level refer to a human security approach in Ecuador. The response of this former functionary, in my view, confirms a misunderstanding of the concept of human security among public policy designers and decision-makers. \u00E2\u0080\u009CI think we don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have one. When we [SENPLADES] put together the regional development agenda, if we review the content of human security issues, they are very weak. Even more, people hardly notice it. When we conducted focus groups, when we worked with local participants, they hardly perceived it... It [a human security approach] was not expressed, for example, in the 386 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad Interna y Externa, Plan Ecuador Frontera de Paz http://www.planecuador.gob.ec/pages/interna.php?txtCodiInfo=16 (accessed August 27, 2012). 387 Interview conducted by the author with a former Plan Ecuador functionary, Quito, July 1st 2013. 388 According to Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s new development planning, the country is divided into planning regions. The northern border is considered Region 1. It includes the provinces of Esmeraldas, Carchi, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and Imbabura. Ibarra, the capital of Imbabura province, is the headquarters of Region 1. 123 development plans. What was expressed were productive issues. What was expressed were more financial aid issues, road infrastructure and social infrastructure. The strong demand was for more education, public hospitals, health centers, schools and colleges. But there were not human security issues. Human security issues have begun to be relevant in recent years, particularly the last two years, because there is already a local demand, not only by the authorities but also by people on the issues of human security. If we review the development agenda, namely development plans in parishes, cantons, provinces and the region, the issue of human security is not yet expressed in depth; neither is the issue of gender. The gender issue is taken into account theoretically. The issue is little addressed. And, of course, some things that should be taken into account in a development process are omitted\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 Then they [the local authorities] approached [to the national authorities] and requested [financial] resources, and [Plan Ecuador] financed this type of requests. And the projects were not articulated\u00E2\u0080\u00A6, or intended to be coordinated with the pairs in Colombia.\u00E2\u0080\u009D389 The previous testimony confirms the lack of inclusion of a human security perspective in development planning. Furthermore, the last section of the testimony shows the concern of the interviewee about the lack of coordination of Plan Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s initiatives in the border area with the initiatives of the Colombian authorities. Certainly, a binational agenda at the border would increase human security for the borderlanders. However, the effectiveness and even the possibility of coordinating bilateral relations between Colombia and Ecuador declined significantly as a result of the March 2008 bombing, in Angostura in the Ecuadorian province of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos by Colombian forces,390 which created a diplomatic crisis. It was not obvious, at that time, how such coordination could be encouraged in the wake of that rupture in diplomatic relations? Moreover, any attempt to foster a positive bi-national agenda at the border with Colombia was dramatically stopped. Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s government national security discourse was based on a disrespected sovereignty, affecting the possibility to increase human security policies at the common border zone. Bilateral relations were renewed two years later, in 2010. 389 Interview translated and conducted by the author to a former undersecretary from SENPLADES\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Region 1. August 22, 2013. Quito-Ecuador. 390 On March 1, 2008, the Colombian security forces bombed a camp of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) located in Angostura, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Province, killing Ra\u00C3\u00BAl Reyes, second-in-command of this the guerrilla group. Ecuadorian authorities were not informed by the Colombian authorities about the intentions to attack that camp located in the Ecuadorian territory. Colombia disrespected Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s sovereignty, provoking a diplomatic crisis that lasted approximately two years. 124 Additional institutional changes continued during 2013. According to the President Rafael Correa Delgado\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Decree 07 -2013 \u00E2\u0080\u009CMerge by absorption of Plan Ecuador by SENPLADES\u00E2\u0080\u009D, Article 1 decrees the absorption and fusion of Plan Ecuador by the National Secretariat of Planning and Development (SENPLADES) in Region 1.391 Article 2 states that the skills, functions, representations and delegations of the Technical Secretariat of Plan Ecuador, the current decrees, regulations, ministerial decisions, resolutions and other regulations, as well as the planning, coordination, implementation, monitoring and execution of plans, programs and projects that are part of Plan Ecuador, will be assumed by SENPLADES.392 The above decree does not clarify which were the main causes of the transition. The testimony of a functionary of SENPLADES in Region 1 illustrates this fact: \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe internal conflict in Colombia has had an impact on the country [Ecuador], which has had to take measures and adopt policies in order to solve the conflict [referring to the effects of conflict] in the north now. In this case, I say, as northern zone [functionaries], we [SENPLADES] have recently assumed that process, because earlier, in the previous state structure, an organization, UDENOR, was created. Later, it [UDENOR] disappeared. It had its limitations and its successes. Later, Plan Ecuador was created as a state policy. Now it [Plan Ecuador] is merging with SENPLADES. You could talk about some form of state intervention.\u00E2\u0080\u009D393 In contrast, in the south, the border between Ecuador and Peru has demonstrated flourishing bilateral relations. The Peace Agreement of Itamaraty on October 26, 1998, put an end to a history of conflict and war between Peru and Ecuador. As a result, a binational plan began to be implemented successfully, and Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s southern border became, according to government officials, a more stable region. The Binational Development Plan for the Ecuador-Peru common border was established by the signing of the Comprehensive Border Integration and Neighborhood 391 Rafael Correa Delgado, President of Ecuador, Decreto 7, 2013, Absorci\u00C3\u00B3n del Plan Ecuador por SENPLADES (Merge by absorption of Plan Ecuador by SENPLADES) May, 2013. 392Decreto 07. 2013, Ibid. 393 Interview translated and conducted by the author at SENPLADES Region 1, Ibarra-Ecuador, August, 14, 2013. 125 Development Accord. The Binational Plan is an unprecedented and successful experience that, through the implementation of the Strategy of Economic and Social Cohesion and Peace Culture in the border region, co-finances projects in areas such as of roads, clean water, environmental health, watershed management, basic infrastructure for health and education services and intercultural bilingual education. It gives special attention to those areas within a range of 40 km from the border where no or little action was previously taken, prompting a vision of the border as a space for development at the economic and social levels.394 Currently, the northern border is seen by the Ecuadorian national security discourse and policies as a more conflicted area than the southern border. The southern border is viewed as space for integration. Nevertheless, the lack of a strong human security approach on both borders has encouraged the smuggling of fuel and propane cylinders as an option to unemployment, lack of education opportunities and under-development in both border zones. Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s tendency to focus more on the border with Colombia after the war with Peru concluded is not healthy at all. \u00E2\u0080\u009COn the southern border, things changed radically after the signing of the peace treaty with Peru. Trade is energized, but the shared feature with the other boundary [Colombia] is just fuel. Gasoline and diesel come from Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders, both north and south. The reason is simple: the price difference between fuel in Ecuador and the fuel price in Peru and in Colombia; this circumstance will seem attractive to any trader. So that has led to forming groups if not bands [criminal organizations] of people who see that their usefulness is huge. But percentage-wise this is more common in the north.\u00E2\u0080\u009D395 Despite the efforts made by the government, the treatment of security issues on both borders has been ineffective due to the lack of a strong human security approach. By patrolling in the northern 394 Plan Binacional de Desarrollo en la Regi\u00C3\u00B3n Fronteriza Cap\u00C3\u00ADtulo Ecuador, \u00C2\u00BFQui\u00C3\u00A9nes somos? http://www.planbinacional.gob.ec/informacion-general/pb-desarrollo-region-fronteriza-ec-pe/quienes-somos.html (accesed October 2014). 395 Interview translated and conducted by the author with a former undersecretary from SENPLADES\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Region 1, August 22, 2013, Quito, Ecuador. 126 (Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos) and southern provinces (El Oro), the military has maximized their budgets and maintained their status as professional fighters against drug trafficking, and contraband,396 showing a militarized security agenda that does little to increase human security in the border zone. Finally, the Plan de Seguridad Integral (translated as the Comprehensive Security Plan) launched in 2011 by Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Coordinating Ministry of Security is another security plan that includes the concept of human security among its objectives. In the Coordinating Ministry of Security\u00E2\u0080\u0099s view, this new plan includes the analysis and implementation of a multidisciplinary approach within a new security paradigm. This holistic and participatory model goes beyond using only policing and military criteria.397 It focuses its vision and mission on the individual, at whom all state efforts are directed. The aim is to spread peace, equality, security and social coexistence, or good living, of the citizens. Under the plan the Coordinating Ministry of Security outlines comprehensive policies that articulate security sub-systems and implement the international concept of human security and its seven dimensions mentioned in the 1994 United Nations report.398 This plan is quite similar to the abandoned Plan Ecuador. The Comprehensive Security Plan refers to an integrated security system. Such a system covers all the areas of security for people and the state. These security areas are integrated into a single system, Sistema de Seguridad P\u00C3\u00BAblica y del Estado (translated as System of Public Security and of the State). This system, as outlined within this plan, includes international security, internal security, national defense, economic security, food sovereignty and environmental security,399 being all the types of security considered strategic by the state. Unfortunately, human security, 396 Maiah Jaskoski, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Ecuadorian Army: Neglecting a Porous Border While Policing the Interior,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Latin America Politics and Society 54, no. 1 (2012): 127-129. 397 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Plan de Seguridad Integral (2011): 9. http://www.seguridad.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/07/01_Plan_Seguridad_Integral_baja.pdf 398 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Plan de Seguridad Integral, 9, 14. 399 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador. Ibid., 4. 127 despite being mentioned in several paragraphs of the Comprehensive Security Plan, does not appear as a key component of this system; nor do the intersectional inequalities based on race, class, gender and location faced daily by Ecuadorians, especially borderlanders. In sum, a human security approach that ignores multiple inequalities is problematic. For this reason, the next chapters will analyze the need for an intersectional framework to enrich the human security approach in public policy implementation. 2.3 Summary of the Chapter In this chapter, I have utilized the concept of national security in order to explain a traditional view of security based on states' national interests and values. By developing this concept, I was able to explain Ecuador's national security approach in its border zones. I also argued, that under Ecuador's current security policies, smuggling has been recognized as a threat to national security in Ecuador's border zones. Conflicts between states are given less attention than those provoked by non-state actors such as smugglers in Ecuadorian border zones. Despite, the multidimensional characteristics of these new threats, they are still addressed through a national security approach that is insufficient to solve the roots of the new security scenario. Initially, human security as a new security paradigm challenges the national security approach; specifically, it encourages states to protect the security of the individual. In Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zone, however, human security has been used to complement national security. Ecuador's attempt to develop a human security approach in its borders may sound promising, but one main concern arises from the need for a strengthened human security approach that empowers women and their communities within an intersectional framework in the security planning agenda. 128 Chapter 3. Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Insecurity and National Security This chapter examines the web of power relations that lead to women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity in the border areas and how smuggling is related to these conditions of insecurity. The chapter also argues that smuggling can involve both domination and empowerment of women, depending on the context in which it takes place. Supported by a feminist critical human security approach, I argue that women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s smuggling activities, as a way of life, are the result of intersectional inequalities in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones. Since regulating women through border security practices does not improve their conditions of security, I suggest viewing women as referents of security. Finally, I view a feminist critical human security approach as a tool to tackle interlocked inequalities within public policies. Therefore, I recommend that the effective design and implementation of feminist critical human security that is sensitive to the intersections of race, gender, class and geographical location can enrich the Ecuadorian human security agenda in the border zones. 3.1 National Security and Women Smugglers in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Borders Areas While smuggling is under the jurisdition of institutions that utilize a discourse of national security and practices of surveillance, confiscation and repression to punish disobedient borderlanders, women participate with some level of significance in smuggling activities. In the case of Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders with Colombia and Peru, Ecuadorian women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lived experiences of oppression may not really matter to mainstream approaches to security but, if those experiences come from women who smuggle natural resources that are strategic for the Ecuadorian economy, such as subsidized oil and gas derivatives, they become absolutely a security target. Women smugglers are constructed as a threat to Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s national interests and economy by the masculinized Ecuadorian discourse of border security. This construction, which shows asymmetrical power relations, denies the root of the involvement of women in smuggling activities. 129 Smuggling networks are constituted by men and women. However, a great percentage of the groups that are engaged in hormiga smuggling (smuggling in small amounts) are made up of women. Some women are recruited by informal traders, who seek to evade controls through this micro-smuggling. According to a Customs officer in Chacras, El Oro Province, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthese traders pay women approximately six dollars per trip; with three trips a day, these women get $18 (US). Bus tickets and food cost $3 (US), allowing these women to make a profit of around $14 and $15 US dollars per day.\u00E2\u0080\u009D400 Although the hormiga smuggling has become a short-term survival strategy for women who live in border provinces located, it does not resolve the structural inequalities that they face in their daily lives. According to the Hydrocarbon Control Agency (ARCH), the bigger smuggling networks made a profit of $ 3000 (US) per month, becoming a profitable business401 in a country where the minimum monthly wage is $354 US. Arrests of women demonstrate how border security practices permeated with disciplinary power exercise control and surveillance over them. According to data from Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s National Customs Surveillance Office (DNVA), 193 women were arrested for allegedly smuggling in 2012 while, between January and May 2013, 70 women were arrested.402 Additional data from the Unidad de Investigaciones de Delitos Energ\u00C3\u00A9ticos e Hidrocarburiferos de la Polic\u00C3\u00ADa Nacional de Ecuador-UIDEH (translated as Unit for the Investigation of Energy and Hydrocarbon Crimes of the National Police of Ecuador) demonstrate that in 2013 there were 188 control operations in eight of which a total of 11 women were arrested. During 2014, there were 122 operations, in which a total of 14 women were arrested. In two consecutive years (2013-2014) the operations 400 Interview translated and conducted by the author at Customs Surveillance Office in Chacras-El Oro, July 15, 2013. 401 Explored, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLos contrabandistas buscan abastecerse en otras provincias,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 27 de octubre, 2011. http://www.explored.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/los-contrabandistas-buscan-abastecerse-en-otras-provincias-510164.html 402 Data provided by the National Customs Surveillance Office (Direcci\u00C3\u00B3n Nacional de Vigilancia Aduanera -DNVA) July 1st, 2013. 130 conducted by the UIDEH detained 25 women.403 These data show that few women were arrested through disciplinary practices such as border control, but they do not show if these women arrested were the only ones in their communities involved in the activity. Furthermore, customs officers on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders deal with women differently than men, because they believe that dealing with women is very delicate due to their gender.404 For example, as a result of using a national security approach to control women smugglers, there are more female police, military and customs officers carrying out the border control operations.405 From a feminist critical human security perspective, these masculinized security institutions use women officers to exercise a hegemonic masculinity to control and criminalize women smugglers. Generally, local communities do not see borders in the same way as do governments. The interests and identities of the inhabitants of Carchi, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and El Oro differ from those of the state. Only border dwellers who involved in the everyday life of the border fully understand such a complex scenario. The leaders of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations in El Oro and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos provinces view the border in a more comprehensive manner. For instance, Rosa from the Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Movement of El Oro and Delia from the Federation of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos claim the following: \u00E2\u0080\u009CFor us, the border is a limit placed on the map, but not in the territory. I cross from Huaquillas [Ecuador] to Aguas Verdes [Peru], I come and go.\u00E2\u0080\u009D406 \u00E2\u0080\u009CFor us, the border is one thing ... let\u00E2\u0080\u0099s called it a political thing\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 here families come and go. There is not a wall, there is a river. It is an invented thing by the authorities to define a country. But the reality is that families have not put that wall there.\u00E2\u0080\u009D407 403 Official document provided by the Undersecretary of Police of the Ministry of Interior of Ecuador, September 11, 2014. 404 Interview translated and conducted by the author. Customs Officer. Quito-Ecuador. July 1, 2013. 405 Interview translated and conducted by the author. Customs Officer. Quito-Ecuador. July 1, 2013. 406 Interview translated and conducted by the author with Rosa Lopez, Movimiento de Mujeres El Oro (translated as El Oro Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Movement) Machala, El Oro Province, July 4, 2013. 407Interview translated and conducted by the author with Delia Malbay, Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos (translated as Federation of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos) Lago Agrio, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Province, July 22, 2013. 131 The border is a place to unite and integrate states and the borderland population. Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders with Peru and Colombia are seen by the population that lives on them not as a dividing line, but as a way of life, as a space of integration through economic and social interactions and as a place where the populations\u00E2\u0080\u0099 identities are constantly transformed by the dynamic of contact. In this study, the Ecuadorian borders with Colombia and Peru are understood as places of diversity and as spaces that are neither Colombian, Peruvian or Ecuadorian, but as space of intermingling. The populations that live on the border are hybrids, because they have flexible identities408 or, in Gloria Anzald\u00C3\u00BAa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s view, multiple identities.409 Anzald\u00C3\u00BAa understands the border as an intersection of identities and hierarchies based on nationality, race, class and gender. These identities influence the household survival strategies exhibited by local women in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones through smuggling. The gender, race and class of individuals affect the way in which practices of border security control are carried out. On July 15, 2013, after an interview at the City Hall in Huaquillas, I went to the Chacras Customs office in El Oro Province, which is located just 8 kilometers from Huaquillas. I had an appointment for an interview with the Head of the Customs office. While I was waiting for almost an hour for my appointment, I was able to observe the interaction between customs officers and locals. A middle-class Mestizo male was stopped by two customs officers. He was coming back from Peru with a few cell phones, and he did not have receipts to prove that he had bought them. Unaware of my observation, after few minutes the officers let him go. It seems that the gender, socio-economic status and race of the individual, as well as the amount and 408 Chainarong Sretthachau, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLiving Across Border: The Tactics of Everyday Life Practice of Cambodian-Lao Migrant Worker in Thailand in the Context of Mekong Regionalization of Development,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 4th Asian Rural Sociology Association (ARSA) International Conference (2010): 72. 409 Gloria Anzald\u00C3\u00BAa, Borderlands/La Frontera the New Mestiza, 3rd edition (San Francisco, CA, Aunt Lute Books: 2007). 132 type of merchandise expected to be smuggled, play a significant role in the disciplinary interactions of border security control. In addition to gender, race and ethnicity are other factors involved when the border authorities define who the smugglers are in the northern border area. For example, during an interview, an Ecuadorian customs officer affirmed that Afro-Ecuadorian women from the Chota Valley use pregnancy as a strategy to smuggle across the border. \u00E2\u0080\u009CFirst, even if a woman is aggressive, it is very difficult to imprison her. This scenario is even more complex when women are pregnant. Many women use pregnancy as a legal protection, believing that they cannot get arrested. If you know that a woman is pregnant, the judge stops the process immediately. If you did not know that a woman was pregnant, but she proves to be two or three months pregnant\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 she is released\u00E2\u0080\u00A6They also bring children in their arms. They [women] are friendly, this is terrible.\u00E2\u0080\u009D410 Since the law is gendered, it protects women because they are considered vulnerable. Thus, in the patriarchal understanding for this Customs officer, pregnancy involves gendered ideas of femininity and vulnerability, that preventing the border security authorities from treating women smugglers in the same way as men. For this reason, they believe that women use pregnancy as a strategy to successfully smuggle and get away with a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdeserved\u00E2\u0080\u009D punishment for being disobedient to border security control. However, from this testimony, it can be inferred that only Afro-Ecuadorian women have enough audacity to use pregnancy as a strategy. If this is the case, the Customs officer\u00E2\u0080\u0099s comments are not only sexist but also racist. These comments reflect the existence of processes of differentiation and a system of oppression in discourses and practices at the border. In addition, the gendered dynamics of smuggling networks in the Afro-Ecuadorian community demonstrate a deep collaboration of women cross-border traders with men. On one 410 Interview translated and conducted by the author with a customs officer, Quito, Ecuador, July 1st, 2013. 133 hand, the testimony of the Customs officer, claiming that male smugglers use pregnant women to be successful in their \u00E2\u0080\u009Cillegal\u00E2\u0080\u009D activities, involves a complete denial of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s agency and of their own decision to become involved in smuggling. On the other hand, at the community and family level, it seems that there is a negotiation of gender identities where men are \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgiving women permission\u00E2\u0080\u009D to smuggle in order to increase the income of the household; illegality never appeared as part of a moral gendered discourse. From this case, it can be inferred that women who take advantage of opportunities for smuggling push the boundaries of femininity, but this crossing of boundaries still contributes to their caring role for the wellbeing of their families and communities. For instance, in Carchi Province, women smugglers work together with their male partners in order to provide for the family. \u00E2\u0080\u009COn the Ecuadorian side [of the border], men and women are engaged [in smuggling], because sometimes they are family. So husband and wife do their job of carrying not only gas [propane cylinders for domestic use], but also fuel. Or, for example, the family has two or three old cars\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 in Tulc\u00C3\u00A1n. Then, one [vehicle] is driven by the wife and the other by the husband. So both [husband and wife] cross the border to sell the gasoline.\u00E2\u0080\u009D411 According to the same Customs officer, the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmanipulation\u00E2\u0080\u009D of the human rights discourse is another strategy used by Afro-Ecuadorian smugglers412 that his colleagues deal with when carrying out border security duties. \u00E2\u0080\u009CWhen you stop a pick-up truck with people, another pick-up truck comes behind with more people. There are women with children. So, how you can make an enforcement action with a woman with her child in her arms? I remember that in one operation... I did follow them from the border to a toll entrance in Quito. The women got out of the car and decided to lie down underneath it. Then the press came. Can you imagine that? They [smugglers] said that we are inhuman. So women and children are used\u00E2\u0080\u00A6But the individuals carrying out these activities are poor people, who are paid to smuggle the goods.\u00E2\u0080\u009D413 411 Interview translated and conducted by the author with the former under-secretary of SENPLADES, August 22, 2013. 412 Interview translated and conducted by the author with Customs Officer, Quito-Ecuador, July 1, 2013. 413 Interview translated and conducted by the author with Customs Officer, Quito-Ecuador, July 1, 2013. 134 This event shows how smugglers resist border security practices. Certainly, by lying down under the cars that were transporting the goods being smuggled and by calling the border security authorities \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinhuman,\u00E2\u0080\u009D the smugglers collaborated with each other in order to prevent the confiscation the of goods by the security forces, thereby exercising power as a collective force. The border security authorities are in a position of dominance over men and women smugglers, but the smugglers can decide to resist this form of control. Resistance to border control discourses takes place in everyday practices on Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders. I borrow the idea of the art of political disguise of resistance developed by James C. Scott\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1990) in his book Domination and the Arts of Resistance. By viewing oppressed groups\u00E2\u0080\u0099 political activity as neither a collective defiance to powerful groups nor a hegemonic compliance, Scott affirms that this activity is located between these two extremes.414 Subordinate groups disguise their resistance, because their vulnerable circumstances do not permit them to indulge direct confrontation.415 Scott's argument is relevant to understanding the case of women smugglers in the border area as a subordinated group that produces a hidden discourse that represents a critique of power; resistance occurs in areas away from the surveillance of power. By mocking the border security authority, women and men smugglers disguise their resistance to the practices of surveillance at the border. Women smugglers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 defiance of the power deployed by the national security discourse of border control uses smuggling as a veiled-disguised resistance. In this context, smuggling as resistance in Scott\u00E2\u0080\u0099s terms, is located in the realm of infrapolitics, which is real politics used as a tool by the powerless.416 Opposition to border security, as discourse and practice, can be risky. However, to smuggle and not to be detected is a source of prestige among smugglers. Smuggling 414 James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990), 136. 415 Scott, Ibid., 136. 416 Scott, Ibid., 200. 135 as a practice of resistance is an infrapolitical reaction within a clandestine culture against the dominant discourse of border security that criminalizes women and men who see smuggling as a way of life. Moreover, Afro-Ecuadorian smugglers choose to understand power as the ability to empower themselves. In this vein, Hannah Arendt\u00E2\u0080\u0099s ideas are helpful to understand that power as empowerment can also be perceived as a collective force. Power is not the property of an individual, but as an attribute of a group that exists as long as the group remains together.417 In this sense, power emerges from the relationship between individuals with a common goal418 such as smuggling, which is a survival activity for some members of the Afro-Ecuadorian community. Power appears when people act and live together as an organized unit.419 The only limitation on power as action is the existence of the border security authorities, who try to divide it. On the southern border, one of the circumstances, when women become involved in smuggling activities, is when they assume the role of the main breadwinner after terminating an abusive relationship with their husbands. Through the women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organization of El Oro, I was able to meet and interview an artisanal fisherwoman in Machala, the capital city of El Oro Province. Martha was a montubio woman who was a victim of domestic violence. But once her abusive partner left her, she needed to find an economic activity that enable her to provide for her three children. \u00E2\u0080\u009CI was afraid to leave him... I had to put up with 15 years of suffering. Then, when he left, I had to learn to work and decide to do it. I knew that I would suffer to face life [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] my children had to be hungry [...] because I did not have anything to feed them [watery eyes] [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] because the larva [shrimp farming] was already over. Once per day, I asked the neighbor for a plate of food.\u00E2\u0080\u009D420 417 Hannah Arendt, On Violence (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970), 44. 418 Allen, The Power of Feminist Theory, 100. 419 Arendt, Ibid., 200-201. 420 Interview conducted and translated by the author with a local woman in Machala, July 4th, 2013. 136 As the sole provider of the household, Martha decided to cross to the other side of the border to sell fish. She told me of her experience while crossing the border from Ecuador to Peru. \u00E2\u0080\u009COnce they [Peruvian border security authorities] arrested me, because I like the trade. I was going to Huaquillas to sell fish in a restaurant, and a Peruvian man sat beside me [on the bus]. And he asked, 'where are you going?' and I told him that I was going to sell fish in Huaquillas. He said that it was good to sell fish in Peru and it is also good to bring fish from Peru [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] He took me by the back of the market and I went to Zarumilla [Peruvian city in the Tumbes region] in a small bus. And to return [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] I did not know how to come back, I took a CIFA [a bus with cross-border routes] to return. And then they [Peruvian border authorities] asked [me] for documents, permits, I had nothing. Oh, I cried, now I was suffering and I did not have any documents. They incarcerated me in Aguas Verdes [Peruvian migration control office]. I was crying while I was trying to explain to them what I was doing there. I went to work [the lawyer that accompanied her during the interview laughed] I went for a job, but unfortunately, you have to get a safe-conduct. But it was a lack of information. He [referring to the Peruvian man] did not tell me that I have to do these things. Then I was afraid to go there [across the border]. I did not want to know anything about there [the border].\u00E2\u0080\u009D421 Martha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s testimony seems to indicate that the border as a physical division is not as clear for her as it is for the border security authorities. For her, the border is a space for trade, where she can generate an income to provide for her family. In this sense, Martha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s story can be viewed as an extension of the good motherhood of the Ecuadorian woman at the border, seeking to provide for her family: she often takes care of her children on a daily basis; her role as a mother is central to her identity as a woman and as a worker.422 As a poor montubio woman who crossed the border 421 Interview conducted and translated by the author with a local woman in Machala, July 4th, 2013. 422 In Ecuador, motherhood is influenced by Marianism. This term was initially developed by Evelyn Stevens (1977) to analyze the role of women in Latin American cultures. The term Marianism was used to designate the moral and spiritual superiority of women in relation to men, based on the model of the Virgin Mary. Women, according to the Marianist ideal, are contemplative, self-denying and self-sufficient. In this sense, it is believed that women adapt well to their submissive feminine role. Therefore, this model emphasizes the passivity and the resignation of the idealized woman. Marianism has influenced feminism in Catholic countries. In particular, the highly tolerated symbolic violence against women in Ecuador has deep religious roots. As a result, girls have grown up to be mothers and wives, with the Virgin Mary as their role model. According to Michael Handeslman, Marianist feminists in Ecuador did not encourage women to abandon their traditional roles, but rather to fulfill them with better results. See more at: Evelyn Stevens, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMarianismo: la otra cara del machismo en Latino-Am\u00C3\u00A9rica,\u00E2\u0080\u009D en: Ann Pescatelo, Hembra y macho en Latino-Am\u00C3\u00A9rica: Ensaios., Edici\u00C3\u00B3n Diana, M\u00C3\u00A9xico (1977), 123; Michael Handeslman, Amazonas y artistas: un estudio de la prosa de la mujer ecuatoriana, Volumen 1. Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, N\u00C3\u00BAcleo del Guayas (1978), 86, 88, 91, 94; M.B. Rondon, \u00E2\u0080\u009CFrom Marianism to terrorism: the many faces of violence against women in Latin America,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Arch Womens Ment Health 6, no. 3 (2003):157\u00E2\u0080\u0093158. DOI 10.1007/s00737-003-0169-3. 137 on a bus by herself, she became the target of border surveillance practices. In contrast, according to an interview conducted with the leader of the Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Movement of El Oro, middle-class Mestizo women (such as herself), who drive their own cars to cross the border, are less likely to be stopped by the border security authorities. Border security practices are more often exercised over minority ethnic groups, such as low-income Afro-Ecuadorian and montubio women.423 Systems of oppression based on the class, ethnicity and gender of the smuggler intersect at the border. Without a doubt, women smugglers on the Ecuadorian borders challenge a masculinized view of border security and the idea of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s moral virtue. For instance, in the southern border area, the local media in Huaquillas referred to the \u00E2\u0080\u009CFearless escape of a women smuggler in Huaquillas, Ecuador.\u00E2\u0080\u009D424 On July 14, 2013, a woman who was smuggling whiskey and clothing was caught by the police. The police officers shot the pick-up truck driven by the woman, but she was able to escape.425 In the social media, a man congratulated this woman426 who mocked the police officers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 operation. On the one hand, the border security authorities\u00E2\u0080\u0099 perception of this event involves discomfort with the audacity of this woman who dared to challenge male authority, escaping and hitting car a police officer with her. On the other hand, the local community in Huaquillas was upset at the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cuseless\u00E2\u0080\u009D operation of the police officers, but at the same time, one woman in a blog recognized that smuggling is part of everyday life in Huaquillas since there are 423 Interview conducted and translated by the author with leader of the Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s of Movement El Oro, July 4th, 2014, Machala, Ecuador. 424 \u00E2\u0080\u009CAudaz escape de mujer contrabandista en Huaquillas Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u009D (translated as Fearless escape of a woman smuggler in Huaquillas, Ecuador) Youtube video, 5:44, Julio 19 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wisZiRk-FrE (accessed on September 9, 2014). 425 TV Oro Huaquillas, \u00E2\u0080\u009C15 de julio pre aclaran situaci\u00C3\u00B3n sobre persecusi\u00C3\u00B3n\u00E2\u0080\u009D (translated as July 15 clarification about persecution) Youtube video, 4:15, Julio 15 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWCvAJ2rRDI (accessed on January 2, 2015). 426 \u00E2\u0080\u009CIntensa persecusi\u00C3\u00B3n a contrabandista en Huaquillas y Arenillas\u00E2\u0080\u009D (translated as Intense persecution of woman smuggler in Huaquillas and Arenillas) Youtube video, 1:33, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVZU_95fhls (accessed on September 9, 2014). 138 not too many formal employment options. It is noteworthy to say that women smugglers transform the understanding not only of femininity but also of an activity considered as a crime by national security discourse and practices. The analysis of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s motives for smuggling shows that it depends on the context. For example, a critical economic situation can be a justifiable motivation for women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s execution of acts considered criminal by the border control authorities. However, I also want to rescue the idea that women become involved in smuggling acts as a result of diverse circumstances, such as being the accomplices of men, out of love for their family, as resistance to their economic dependence on men, as a result of an emphasized femininity or, simply, as a survival strategy. Women can show a counter-conduct through oppositional femininities. Generating a rupture within the patriarchal system through smuggling is a strategic method of subverting established gendered identities. Women smugglers in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border area illustrate ways in which these women can challenge traditional patterns of behavior that are considered feminine. The border is a space where women from different social classes, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, through their everyday struggles, demonstrate their power, sometimes in ways outside the dominant images of femininity. In the Ecuadorian border area, women construct local understandings of gender relations and adopt strategies of struggling for equality. I do not deny that the feminization of poverty is associated with women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s involvement in smuggling activities, but it is not the only cause. Nevertheless, I suggest an alternative view to explain the connection between power as domination, resistance and empowerment in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border areas. Through their counter-conduct roles as smugglers, women in the Ecuadorian border areas resist interlocking 139 systems of domination by an economic dependence on men, and they reject an emphasized femininity427 that has made them accomplices of a patriarchal order. The analysis of female smugglers demonstrates that the involvement of women in crime cannot be battled only by using a national security approach; it is necessary to apply a feminist critical human security framework that takes into account women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s diversity and their triple role in the private and public spheres, such as reproductive, productive and community participation. This framework also acknowledges women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s resistance to the traditional constructions of gender identities imposed on their bodies through discursive practices. In this vein, the construction of gender identities as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgender performativity\u00E2\u0080\u009D discussed in Judith Butler\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Gender Trouble Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Butler (2006) emphasizes that individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 bodies are not free to perform gender as they wish; rather, a matrix of intelligibility constitutes the limits of sex or, in more concrete words, in order to be comprehensible to others and to ourselves and to avoid punitive consequences,428 gender must be performed repeatedly within cultural and historical boundaries.429 However, women involved in smuggling in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border areas challenge these boundaries, transgressing \u00E2\u0080\u009Cappropriated\u00E2\u0080\u009D feminine social constructions. In Butler\u00E2\u0080\u0099s terms, by failing to do their gender right,430 women smugglers are punished by society through border control practices. Smuggling can empower women. Smuggling, viewed as a tactic of everyday life deployed by women smugglers in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border areas, is an act to improve their lives. In this respect, I want to refer to Margaret Niger-Thomas\u00E2\u0080\u0099s analysis of women smugglers in Cameroon (2001), 427 An emphasized femininity is a complementary and accommodating subordinate relationship to the hegemonic masculinity. This type of femininity lacks social power. See more Justin Charlebois, The Construction of Masculinities and Femininities in Beverly Hills 90210, (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2012), 12. 428 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 2006), 24. 429 Butler, Ibid., 190. 430 Butler, Ibid., 190. 140 which can be also useful to understand the Ecuadorian case. In this study, she demonstrates that smuggling has certain positive effects on the lives of individual female entrepreneurs.431 Due to the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s inability to address the marginalized position of women and to control this form of trade, some women and their families have benefited socially and economically from smuggling, such as by decreasing the deficit in their household budgets, while at the same time maintaining a respected status in society.432 The situation in Ecuador is quite similar, but smuggling as a source of income for women is not considered among the traditional definitions of employment. Moreover, the lack of profitable employment options in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border provinces has fostered \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinformality\u00E2\u0080\u009D as a way of life for individuals responsible for wellbeing of their families. The cross-border zone, as the place where smuggling is an everyday practice, has become a place where women empower themselves and resist border security discourse and practices. The case of women smugglers on the northern and southern Ecuadorian borders demonstrates that they suffer from a lack of employment. However, these women are also active agents; they smuggle fuel and propane cylinders as a counter-conduct to show their resistance to a gender stereotype of victims in need of protection. Smuggling has become an activity that local communities have started to practice in order to improve their living conditions at the cost of being harassed by the border authorities and characterized as criminals. Resistance to border control takes place in the context of a traditional national security discourses and practices. National security in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border areas affects women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security. Military capability as an assurance against outside threats to the state is frequently hostile to individuals, particularly to women's security.433 For instance, in Machala, El Oro Province, one woman explained how the 431 Margaret Niger-Thomas, \u00E2\u0080\u009CWomen and the Arts of Smuggling,\u00E2\u0080\u009D African Studies Review 44, no. 2, Ways of Seeing: Beyond the New Nativism (Sep., 2001): 44. 432 Niger-Thomas, Ibid., 45. 433 J. Ann Tickner, \u00E2\u0080\u009CYou Just Don't Understand: Troubled Engagements between Feminists and IR Theorists,\u00E2\u0080\u009D International Studies Quarterly 41, no. 4 (Dec., 1997), 625. 141 border security authorities\u00E2\u0080\u0099 masculinized practices abuse their power to control smuggling, or what this local woman calls \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinformal trade\u00E2\u0080\u009D, thereby provoking women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity. \u00E2\u0080\u009CWomen who work in the informal trade have developed survival strategies for themselves and their families in any way. Either they become sex workers or they work in the informal trade [smuggling]. And what do they find in the informal trade? Your best option is to buy clothing at the border [in Peru] or other things. [Women] come with their packets and these packets are stolen, they are broken, they are removed [by Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security forces] if you do not give them money [to bribe border authorities].434\u00E2\u0080\u009D Based on the above testimony, a traditional understanding of security based on a militarized and masculinized national security approach is limited by its exclusive military focus on the defense of territorial boundaries and new threats, omitting multiple causes that can provoke women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity. It is relevant to adopt a broader definition of security, since narrow definitions [such as those encouraged by the Realist school of thought] largely exclude the private sphere, ignoring women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security.435 One interview conducted during my fieldwork in Ecuador in 2013 with a customs officer in Chacras, El Oro Province, illustrates this point. When asked if he thought that patrolling and operations at the border by police, military, and customs officers were sufficient to ensure border security and to reduce the involvement of the population in smuggling, he responded with the following: \u00E2\u0080\u009CI estimate that the efforts made by the border control authorities and especially the customs authorities are inadequate for this topic due to the extent of the trade [smuggling]. Ideally, the state should generate social inclusion policies [human security] through programs that provide jobs for these informal traders [smugglers] so that they can perhaps benefit from a program implemented by the state or an NGO.\u00E2\u0080\u009D436 434 Interview conducted by the author with a local woman in Machala, El Oro, July 4, 2013. 435 Mary Caprioli, \u00E2\u0080\u009CDemocracy and Human Rights versus Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Security: A Contradiction?\u00E2\u0080\u009D Security Dialogue 35, no. 4 (December 2004): 425. 436 Interview conducted and translated by the author at the Customs Control Center in Chacras, El Oro Province, Ecuador on July 15, 2013. 142 Despite recognizing the efforts made by the border security authorities to reduce smuggling in this southern Ecuadorian province, the customs officer also admitted that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cideally\u00E2\u0080\u009D, it would be essential to tackle social issues that cannot be solved by a national security approach. In my view, he is suggesting a more comprehensive security approach in the border zone. For the population at the border, a feeling of insecurity arises from worries about daily life. National security has demonstrated that it does not necessarily ensure the security of citizens.437 Indeed, the Ecuadorian border security authorities can provoke more insecurities for the populations living in border zones, and working there as informal traders. Smuggling as part of an informal economy is considered by locals as a survival strategy and a way of life. However, this activity, which is viewed as a threat to the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interests, is dealt through a national security approach. Certainly, women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity can be prevented by implementing an alternative, multidimensional, comprehensive, equitable and inclusive approach to security that views security and development as complementary initiatives within critical scenarios. It is important to dedicate the next section to analyzing the extent to which women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity is the result of intersectional inequalities in Ecuador, since women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s involvement in smuggling activities might be related to the conditions of insecurity created when systems of oppression based on intersected gendered, class, race and geographical inequalities interact at the border. 437 Gary King and Christopher Murray, \u00E2\u0080\u009CRethinking Human Security,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Political Science Quarterly 116, no. 4 (2001-2002): 588. 143 3.2 Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Insecurity in Ecuador: Intersectional Inequalities The efforts made by the Ecuadorian government to improve equality have not been fully successful. During the annual assessment of the National Plan for Good Living (PNBV) 2009-2013, in 2011, the Ecuadorian authorities determined that it remains a challenge for the state to eliminate gaps in the access of women to basic social services. Therefore, in 2012, the National Planning Council resolved to integrate seven new strategies within the PNVB in order to address the fundamental obstacles that had been identified. These strategies included the creation of the National Strategy for Equality by the Transition Commission to the Council of Women and Gender Equality (CDT). According to the National Secretariat of Planning and Development (SENPLADES), a National Agenda for Gender Equality will provide the CDT with mechanisms and tools for the enforcement and monitoring of the rights of women. This agenda will follow the guidelines of the National Strategy for Equality and Social Mobility, the Atlas of Socioeconomic Inequalities, and the National Plan for Good Living. However, many progressive initiatives regarding the rights of women and gender equality that have been taken on by the government are not made part of public policy. There may be several causes of this inertia. Despite the apparent technical and political will, limited financial resources paralyze ongoing initiatives, especially when it comes to transformations of gender discourses and socio-cultural patterns that are not considered by policy makers as significant in solving short-term material needs such as access to employment, education and health services. For instance, in 2010 the mass media campaign \u00E2\u0080\u009CReacciona Ecuador, Machismo es Violencia\u00E2\u0080\u009D (translated as React Ecuador, Machismo is Violence) was designed to create awareness of the different types of violence faced by women and to illustrate how men can contribute to the transformation/elimination of that pattern of violence. However, this campaign had a budget for only one year. Three years later, in May 2014, the Ministry of Interior in 144 coordination with the Ministry of Justice and the Judicial Council launched the national campaign \u00E2\u0080\u009CEcuador Act\u00C3\u00BAa Ya, Violencia de G\u00C3\u00A9nero, Ni M\u00C3\u00A1s\u00E2\u0080\u009D (translated as Ecuador Acts Now, Gender Violence, Never More), as a complement to the project \u00E2\u0080\u009CReact Ecuador, Machismo is Violence\u00E2\u0080\u009D that had been implemented between 2010 and 2011. This campaign promoted the adoption of positive behaviors that would eradicate gender-based violence and of shared responsibility for its eradication. Certainly, material needs, such as access to basic social services, need to be met, but the social constructions that create systems of domination and violence in our society, also need to be transformed in order to overcome discrimination based not only on gender, but also on race, class and geographical location. Buen Vivir as a new development paradigm cannot be achieved if inequality based on gender, race, socioeconomic status or residential location prevails. For this reason, a feminist critical human security framework that comprehensively tackles systems of discrimination is absolutely relevant in development and security policies. Another important challenge to be recognized in order to include the voices of women facing multiples inequalities is that not all subjects involved in the planning process have the same resources, or the same opportunities to access the spaces where agendas are discussed. The Ecuadorian government has tried to include traditionally marginalized sectors in planning initiatives through several workshops conducted by such institutions as SENPLADES. Nevertheless, the women of Carchi, El Oro and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos provinces do not believe that their voices, demands and interests were included in national and provincial development plans. The testimony of an indigenous leader of a Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organization in Lago Agrio, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Province, illustrates this concern. 145 \u00E2\u0080\u009CWe have a progressive government [Rafael Correa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s government] that is fine. But in these sectors [border zones], we still do not feel that [progress]. It has not changed, the reality that we had five years ago\u00E2\u0080\u00A6Things continue as they were, that is, [limited] access to education, health... However, in these sectors, you cannot have at least that. Even worse, you cannot talk about other achievements on women issues. There is not even the basic and elemental [social services]. I do not say that the state is not worried, not at all. But [these services] have not reached these areas yet for various reasons. Development plans in these places are fictitious plans. [These plans] have not included the participation and the current views of the realities of each local government.\u00E2\u0080\u009D The disappointment shown by this local leader is obvious. Development plans have not been effectively implemented in the province of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. Unfortunately, many sources of information generated at the local level, such as focus groups, participative diagnosis or collective memories, are rarely employed in decision-making at the local level and even less at the regional or national scales.438 The lack of channels of communication with policymakers can incubate social tensions where there are no spaces for the negotiation of significant claims. In the same vein, by referring to workshops conducted by the current Ecuadorian government at the local level, a woman, member of the National Coordinator of Black Women (CONAMUNE) in Imbabura Province, confirmed the concern expressed in the previous testimony, but she also pointed out the lack of implementation of what had been planned within the equality framework. \u00E2\u0080\u009CWe could say that the state has conducted its workshops\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 our needs, goals, and concepts within the topic of inequalities have been already reflected in the agenda of women, but they really haven\u00E2\u0080\u0099t been implemented. There are no new public policies created to diminish the theme of racism, gender inequality and unemployment.\u00E2\u0080\u009D439 Certainly, this lack of implementation of policies does not diminish local women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s intersected conditions of inequality. Nor does the creation of gender sensitive indicators and statistics. During the current administration of Rafael Correa, the Transition Commission to the Council of Women and Gender Equality (CDT) received support from UN Women to build an indicator system that 438 Saskya Lugo, \u00E2\u0080\u009CAn\u00C3\u00A1lisis de la incorporaci\u00C3\u00B3n del enfoque de g\u00C3\u00A9nero en los proyectos p\u00C3\u00BAblicos de desarrollo,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 17. 439 Interview conducted by the author with Sindi Tapia, CONAMUNE-Imbabura on July 31, 2013. 146 could evaluate the progress towards achieving gender equality. Gender indicators are a useful tool for the promotion of gender-specific policies to monitor achievements in women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security. A system of gender indicators makes possible the inclusion of the gender dimension in the design of policies. Such a system of indicators on the equality of opportunities for women would quantitatively express the situation of equal opportunities between genders and assess changes in the live of women. This type of indicator system can also identify significant contributors to the production and perpetuation of gender inequalities. Indeed, the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), through the Inter-Agency Committee on Gender Statistics, has taken various measures to respond to the constant and increasing demands for official information inclusive of a gender perspective. Thus, the Statistical Development Strategy with a focus on gender has been undertaken within the National Strategic Plan for Statistical Development (PENDES - September 2008) and the Plan for Good Living (PNBV) (translated as Plan Nacional para El Buen Vivir 2009-2013). Moreover, based on the results of the Population and Housing Census 2010, the Transition Commission to the Council of Women and Gender Equality (CDT), UN Women, and the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) developed the book \u00E2\u0080\u009CWomen and men of Ecuador in figures III.\u00E2\u0080\u009D The 180-page document was presented to the public as a contribution to the development of the national statistical system, because it includes comparative data for men and women on access to education, health, economic and political participation and violence.440 Having a gender perspective in statistics is vital to inform policy and decision-makers about the differences that exist between women and men in society. These types of statistics are a useful quantitative tool for designing public policy, because they monitor inequality and encourage advances towards achieving greater gender equality. 440 Consejo Nacional para la Igualdad de G\u00C3\u00A9nero, Mujeres y hombres del Ecuador en cifras III, http://www.igualdadgenero.gob.ec/images/publicaciones/MUJER_HOMBRE_III.pdf (accessed June 2014). 147 Statistical information about class, race, ethnicity and location also informs policy-makers about the diversity of women and men and assist them in tackling the multiple experiences of inequality and violence imbued in interlocking systems of oppression such as patriarchy, classism and racism. According to the 2010 Census, 14.483.499 people live in Ecuador, of whom 50.4 % are women and 49.6% are men.441 In particular, 51% of the female population live in urban areas, and 49.4% in rural areas. 7.1 % of the female population identified themselves as Indigenous, 7.0% as Afro-Ecuadorian, 6.8% as Montubia (peasants of the coastal area), 72.6% as Mestizo, and 6.1% as White. Also, 7.0 % of the total male population identified themselves as Indigenous, 7.4% as Afro-Ecuadorian, 7.9% as Montubio, 71.3 % as Mestizo and 6% as White.442 These data show the diversity of the Ecuadorian population. Mestizos are the biggest ethnic group. Generally, Mestizo men and women are the most privileged social groups, having greater access to education. For instance, data on illiteracy rates by ethnicity and gender show that 26.7% of Indigenous women and 13.7% of Indigenous men are illiterates, while only 5.9% of Mestizo women and 4.2% of Mestizo men are illiterate.443 This statistical information shows that inequality is based not only on gender but also on race, worsening the conditions of inequality and insecurity for Indigenous women and men. Although Ecuador has made significant progress in its social and economic development in recent years, significant deficiencies that inherited a structure of large social inequalities imposed since the Spanish conquest still prevail. Throughout the history of Ecuador, they have prevailed pronounced regional, ethnic, and gender inequalities, which have mainly affected the Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian population. According to the 2010 Census, Afro-Ecuadorians, and 441 INEC, Censo de Poblaci\u00C3\u00B3n y Vivienda 2010, en Cynthia Ferreira Salazar, Karina Garc\u00C3\u00ADa Garc\u00C3\u00ADa, Leandra Mac\u00C3\u00ADas Leiva, Alba P\u00C3\u00A9rez Avellaneda y Carlos Tomsich, Mujeres y Hombres del Ecuador en Cifras III, Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n hacia la Definici\u00C3\u00B3n de la Institucionalidad P\u00C3\u00BAblica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres y Mujeres, Instituto Nacional de Estad\u00C3\u00ADstica y Censos, ONU Mujeres. 442 INEC, Censo de Poblaci\u00C3\u00B3n y Vivienda 2010. 443 INEC, Censo de Poblaci\u00C3\u00B3n y Vivienda 2010. 148 indigenous people are those with the highest poverty indicators. In particular, 64.26% Afro-Ecuadorians who live in urban areas and 85.98% who live in the rural sector are affected by poverty. In addition, poverty and marginalization of the Afro-Ecuadorian population are related to racial discrimination present since the days of slavery.444 Racial discrimination is exacerbated in the case of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s discrimination and gender violence, which brings serious and visible consequences in multiple ways: poor access in communities to quality of education, to health care, decent housing, decent work and a good wage.445 Violence against women is one of the most widespread and persistent crimes in the history of mankind. The discrimination by gender has many facets and is intertwined with other forms of discrimination and violence, such as those linked to racial issues and socioeconomic status, among others. These factors act complicate the achievement of equality of Afro-Ecuadorian women.446 It is necessary to eradicate the quadruple discrimination faced by Afro-Ecuadorian women: women, black, poor, and rural. The breakdown by region reveals that the most critical social conditions are found in rural areas of the Amazon and the coast while the rural Sierra has achieved a slight advantage over these regions in 2010.447 Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conditions of inequality and insecurity are not exclusively a product of their gender, so it is also important to analyse the role of such factors as low economic status, ethnic heterogeneity and residential location (urban-rural). Without doubt statistical analyses are required to quantify the levels of inequality based on gender, race, class and location (rural-urban) in Ecuadorian society. These statistics must be relevant to designing and implementing socio-economic policies (employment, education and health) through an intersectional lens. By doing so, it is possible to comprehensively increase the 444 Fundaci\u00C3\u00B3n Afroecuatoriana Az\u00C3\u00BAcar y CONAMUNE, Haciendo Visible y Enfrentando la Violencia contra las Mujeres Afro-Ecuatorianas. Del Territorio Ancestral de Chota, La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n, Salinas y Guadalupe (2012), 7. 445 Fundaci\u00C3\u00B3n Afroecuatoriana Az\u00C3\u00BAcar y CONAMUNE, Ibid., 7. 446 Fundaci\u00C3\u00B3n Afroecuatoriana Az\u00C3\u00BAcar y CONAMUNE, Ibid., 7. 447 SENPLADES, Atlas de las Desigualdades Socio-Econ\u00C3\u00B3micas del Ecuador, 26, 28. 149 security of women regardless their social location. Critical areas such as the border zones may benefit greatly from this type of knowledge. A framework sensitive to the intersections of race, gender, class and geographical location must be included among the initiatives that seek to enhance women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s access to education, to encourage their political participation, to formulate employment policies inclusive of an equity component, and to devise actions aimed at women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s empowerment regardless of their social location. In what follows, I explain that violence against women and their limited access to education, and to the labor market are the main sectors in which inequalities based on intersected gendered, class, race and geographical systems of oppression have been perpetuated, thereby diminishing their security conditions. 3.2.1 Violence against Women Violence against women is the result of a system of unequal power relations that favors the superiority of men in patriarchal societies such as Ecuador. Six out of 10 women have experienced some form of gender violence.448 The rights of women enshrined in the Constitution of 2008 and in various international instruments are not fully respected. Despite the creation in 2007 of the National Plan for the Eradication of Gender Violence towards Children, Adolescents and Women (PNEVG),449 violence against women has not stopped completely. Violence against women is significantly high in the racist, classist and patriarchal society in Ecuador. This type of violence affects women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s personal security severely. 448 Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n para la definici\u00C3\u00B3n de la Institucionalidad P\u00C3\u00BAblica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres y Mujeres, Agenda Nacional de las Mujeres y la Igualdad de G\u00C3\u00A9nero 2014-2017, Gobierno Nacional de la Rep\u00C3\u00BAblica de Ecuador- Secretaria Nacional de Planificaci\u00C3\u00B3n y Desarrollo (Abril 2014), 66. 449 Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n para la definici\u00C3\u00B3n de la Institucionalidad Publica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres y Mujeres. Ibid., 71. 150 Gender violence is higher in minority ethnic groups characterized by lower levels of education. Statistical data regarding gender violence by ethnicity demonstrate that the greatest percentage of gender violence occurs among Indigenous women (67.8%) and Afro-Ecuadorian women (66.7%), followed by Montubia women (62.9%), White women (59.7%) and Mestizo women (59.1%). Same, 76% of women victims of violence are abused by their partners or former partners; 87.3% experience physical violence, 76.3% psychological violence, 61.0% economic violence and 53.5% sexual violence.450 Gender violence also varies by level of education. It exceeds 50% at all level of education, but it reaches 70% in women who have lower levels of education.451 The production of statistics has to inform us about inequalities based on intersected gendered, class, race and geographical systems of oppression in order to be an effective tool for public policy. Moreover, this information should reveal the conditions of inequality in each province. By doing so, it becomes possible to prevent a disproportionate benefit of one social group over the other in different geographical locations. Within the Buen Vivir development framework, the achievement of equality through public policy cannot rely exclusively on statistics related to gender and ethnicity; rather, it is necessary to understand the structural causes that produce inequality452 and the systems of discrimination based on racism, sexism and classism in order to be able to intervene appropriately with long-term solutions. It is worth mentioning that one of the most relevant actions carried out by the PNEVG was the transformation of violent social constructions and behaviours through the implementation of the campaign entitled \u00E2\u0080\u009CReact Ecuador, Machismo is Violence\u00E2\u0080\u009D led by the Ministry of Interior and 450 INEC-CDT, Encuesta Nacional sobre Violencia contra las Mujeres 2011. 451 INEC-CDT, Encuesta Nacional sobre Violencia contra las Mujeres 2011. 452 Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n para la definici\u00C3\u00B3n de la Institucionalidad P\u00C3\u00BAblica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres y Mujeres, Agenda Nacional de las Mujeres y la Igualdad de G\u00C3\u00A9nero 2014-2017 (Abril 2014): 31. 151 the Transition Commission to the Council of Gender Equality in 2010. This campaign included the dissemination of mass media messages in national and local communication organs and in alternative media such as festivals, competitions, theater and debate, graffiti and billboards, among others.453 In my view, this campaign was extremely educational and aimed to transform traditional gender roles in Ecuador but it was not completely successful due to the lack of continuity attributable to its limited budget. Certainly, the continuity of these types of campaigns is key to transforming discourses of discrimination against women based on a patriarchal system of oppression in Ecuadorian society. Overall, violence against women in Ecuador reproduces a matrix of domination based on ethnicity, race, gender and socio-economic status, thereby perpetuating the inequalities experienced by the women belonging to those social groups. 3.2.2 Education and Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Security Education is another sector that maintains inequalities based on intersected gendered, class, race and geographical systems of oppression. Over the last few 30 years, significant advances have been evident in the eradication of structural illiteracy in Ecuador; however, inequality based on gender, geographical location and ethnicity persists. One of the most important programs in terms of the eradication of illiteracy was the Monsignor Leonidas Proa\u00C3\u00B1o National Campaign in 1990, which contributed to reducing the illiteracy rate from 16.5% (1980) to 11.7% (1990).454 A breakdown of the illiteracy rate by geographical location shows that rural women have the highest illiteracy rate (15.2%) as compared to urban women (4.6%).455These data offer enough 453 Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n para la definici\u00C3\u00B3n de la Institucionalidad Publica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres y Mujeres. Ibid., 71. 454 Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n para la definici\u00C3\u00B3n de la Institucionalidad Publica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres y Mujeres. Ibid., 77. 455 INEC. Encuesta de Empleo, Desempleo y Subempleo-ENEMDU-Diciembre 2013. 152 information to understand the importance of implementing public policies in literacy for rural women. According to the data regarding illiteracy by ethnicity, Indigenous women have the highest rate of illiteracy (28.3%), followed by Montubio women (14.7%), Afro-Ecuadorian women (7.8%), Mestizo women (6.2%), and White women (3.1%).456 The literacy and education indicators show that both Indigenous and women remain in a strongly disadvantaged situation. Indigenous women had on average less than four years of schooling in 2010, compared to the national average that exceeds 7-8 years.457 The current government of Rafael Correa understands that public policies aimed at the education sector are the right mechanism to eradicate economic, political, social and cultural inequalities.458 For this reason, in 2008, the eradication of illiteracy became a priority of the state education policies through national campaigns such as \u00E2\u0080\u009CManuela Saenz\u00E2\u0080\u009D aimed at people living in the border regions and \u00E2\u0080\u009CDolores Cacuango\u00E2\u0080\u009D aimed at the Indigenous population;459 these initiatives incorporate a gender perspective.460 The Ministry of Education runs these programs based on the principle of equality to achieve the eradication of illiteracy that affects mainly Indigenous and Black women in rural areas.461 From a feminist critical human security perspective informed by intersections based on gender, class, race and geographical location, these statistics are useful for formulating public policy that does not homogenize the oppression of women. Public policies aimed at improving literacy cannot be targeted at all women; from the data presented above, it is necessary to continue encouraging 456 INEC, Encuesta Nacional de Empleo, Subempleo y Desempleo. Diciembre 2013. In Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n para la definici\u00C3\u00B3n de la Institucionalidad Publica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres y Mujeres. Ibid., 78. 457 SENPLADES, Atlas de las Desigualdades Socio-Econ\u00C3\u00B3micas del Ecuador (2013): 36. 458 Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n para la definici\u00C3\u00B3n de la Institucionalidad P\u00C3\u00BAblica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres y Mujeres. Ibid., 76. 459 Ministerio de Educaci\u00C3\u00B3n, Proyecto EBJA: Alfabetizaci\u00C3\u00B3n, http://educacion.gob.ec/proyecto-ebja-alfabetizacion/ (accessed July 20, 2015). 460 Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n para la definici\u00C3\u00B3n de la Institucionalidad P\u00C3\u00BAblica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres y Mujeres Ibid., 77. 461 Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n para la definici\u00C3\u00B3n de la Institucionalidad P\u00C3\u00BAblica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres y Mujeres. Ibid., 85. 153 policies aimed at Black and Indigenous women in rural areas. Therefore, development planners and policy makers aware of the importance of context need to continue approaching rural communities. Another topic related to education and women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security is the fact that the feminization of higher education in Ecuador reinforces traditional gender roles. It means that women study careers related to care, such as medicine, administration, philosophy and education. In men, on the other hand, the trend is towards careers related to engineering, physics, mathematics, geology and mining, agricultural sciences and the arts.462 That dichotomy show that even the selection of careers functions under a matrix informed by gender roles. Moreover, in relation to higher education, data provided by the National Secretariat for Higher Education, Science and Technology (SENESCYT) reveal that men access 65% of scholarships and student loans at the higher level of education, while only 28% are accessed by women. The poor access of women to scholarships is caused by several factors, such as the difficulty of being admitted to programs related to science and technology and the impossibility of balancing post-secondary studies with reproductive and care activities.463 Some interesting initiatives have been carried out to improve access to higher education among women. In 2010, an agreement between the Development Corporation for Afro-Ecuadorian (CODAE)464 and the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) was signed with the aim of training Afro-Ecuadorian professionals. This agreement constituted a mechanism to reduce 462 Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n para la definici\u00C3\u00B3n de la Institucionalidad P\u00C3\u00BAblica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres y Mujeres. Ibid., 81. 463 Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n para la definici\u00C3\u00B3n de la Institucionalidad P\u00C3\u00BAblica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres y Mujeres. Ibid., 84. 464 The Afro-Ecuadorian Development Corporation \"CODAE\" is a public sector entity created by Executive Decree No. 244 of 16 June 2005. Its mission is to promote the comprehensive and sustainable development, strengthening the organization Afro-Ecuadorians. It fosters the eradication of racism and discrimination. See more at http://www.codae.gob.ec/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=144&Itemid=54 (accessed on June 1st, 2015). 154 ethnic inequality in higher education. Women constituted 75% of its beneficiaries.465 This initiative demonstrates a cooperative relationship between the state and academia in Ecuador in order to improve the access to higher education of the Afro-Ecuadorian population. However, according to an interview conducted with the leader of CONAMUNE in Carchi,466 poor rural Afro-Ecuadorian women find it difficult to travel to urban areas in order to receive education. Therefore, education and training must come to rural communities in order to narrow the gap in educational achievement there. Certainly, the lack of education has been a source of the perpetuation of inequalities. Without education opportunities for poor rural Indigenous women or poor rural Afro-Ecuadorian women, it becomes a challenge to improve their economic security. The following section demonstrates that economic security is fundamental to improving the security of women at home and in the workplace market. 3.2.3 Labor Market and Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Security A feminist critical human security approach encourages the achievement of equality in the labor market in order to promote economic security. The 1994 UNDP Report explains the features of each dimension of human security. In particular, the economic security dimension requires a guarantee basic income, usually from a paid work, or as a last resort from some publicly financed safety net.467 In addition, access to land and credit, income security, social security and housing are basic requirements for achieving economic security.468 To address women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s economic security 465 Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n para la definici\u00C3\u00B3n de la Institucionalidad P\u00C3\u00BAblica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres y Mujeres. Ibid., 85. 466 Interview conducted and translated by the author with Barbarita Lara, CONAMUNE, August 23, 2013. 467 UNDP, Human Development Report 1994: New Dimensions of Human Security (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 25. 468 UNDP, 1994: 25-26. 155 and equality, it is necessary to be aware of the barriers that increase against the discrimination in the labor market. In a traditional and patriarchal society such as Ecuador, women have limited access to education and employment. Ana Luc\u00C3\u00ADa Herrera, while being President of the Transition Committee for the Women's Council (CDT) of the Ecuadorian Government, talked about the overall workload of women in Ecuador. She referred to a survey (Time Use) that demonstrates how people work in terms of hours. According to this survey, women have a greater workload because they have not neglected to be the caretakers of the family. In urban areas, women work 13 hours more than men, while in rural areas they work 22 hours more than men.469 Women living in poverty in urban areas or peasant women in rural areas face even more complex conditions of inequality that risk their human security conditions. They face minimal education and job training, a higher fertility rate, absence of affordable child care, the growth of female household headship and the urgent need to generate income for basic subsistence. In general, Ecuadorian women seem to be solely responsible for reproductive life. There is not a shared responsibility for the care of minors and the household; men are kept away from the domestic field. This fact affects the quality of life for women, with the exception of those in the middle and upper classes, because they are exposed to overwork, pressure and stress. There is not enough time for systematic exercise, leisure or recreation.470 Although the equality approach has been present in Ecuador since the 1990s, traditional social constructions of gender roles in the Ecuadorian society regarding \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe ideal womanhood\u00E2\u0080\u009D still show that working women must be responsible for all domestic tasks in family life despite their entrance into paid labor. Furthermore, the reproductive role of women has been 469 El Comercio, Interview to Ana Luc\u00C3\u00ADa Herrera, President of the Transition Committee Women's Council of the Government of Ecuador. Retrieved from http://especiales.elcomercio.com/2012/03/mujer/ (accessed April 1st, 2012). 470 El Comercio, Ibid. 156 seen by employers as an additional cost due to the fact that they have to pay maternity leave. Therefore, women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s access to paid work is negatively affected. In this sense, the undervaluation of women's labor assigns them roles strictly assumed to be feminine. Public policy aimed at improving women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s quality of life cannot reproduce traditional gender roles that keep women in a discriminated condition due to their social location. The most obvious source of discrimination is based on gender difference in the world of the working place, which is related to the reproductive role of women. Employers generally consider motherhood as a cost.471 Thus, the undervaluation of women's work is internalized in the collective unconscious of patriarchy. In addition, for women from the poorest strata of society, the situation is, even more, complex due to less education and job training, higher fertility rate, the absence of affordable child care, the growth of female household headship and the urgent need to generate income for basic subsistence. Consequently, a massive influx of women into the informal sector or in the most precarious activities of the formal sector472 has become a critical reality in Ecuador. Employment and unemployment are directly related to the economic security of women. The 2012 National Survey of Employment, Unemployment, and Underemployment (ENEMDU) of the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) in Ecuador showed that the female participation in the labor market in Ecuador was 42.5%, which meant that out of 100 women only 42 were active in the labor force. Male participation in the labor market in 2012 was 67.4%.473 Wages earned by women In December 2011 were 14% lower than those of men; and the those earned by Indigenous persons under identical working conditions were 11% lower than those of 471 Janina Fern\u00C3\u00A1ndez Pacheco, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLa Cohesi\u00C3\u00B3n Social, las Mujeres Trabajadoras, el empleo y los ingresos,\u00E2\u0080\u009D en G\u00C3\u00A9nero y Empleo. Documento de Trabajo No 32. Judith Astelarra coordinadora. Fundaci\u00C3\u00B3n Carolina-CeALCI, Espa\u00C3\u00B1a (2009): 31. 472 Fern\u00C3\u00A1ndez Pacheco, Ibid., 31. 473 Instituto Nacional de Estad\u00C3\u00ADstica y Censos de Ecuador (INEC), Encuesta Nacional de Empleo, Desempleo y Subempleo - ENEMDU - Diciembre 2012. 157 non-Indigenous persons.474 Thus, the labor market maintains a discriminatory structure against women and Indigenous workers.475 Moreover, according to the 2013 ENEMDU, underemployment among rural women (85.3%) was much higher than among urban women (49.8%).476 These statistics show that men were more employable than women in Ecuador and that rural women were disadvantaged compared to urban ones. More recent data, contained in the September 2015 quarterly report of the labor market of the Central Bank of Ecuador, showed that the provinces with the highest unemployment rates were Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, with 6.6% and 6.2% respectively;477 these are two provinces chosen in this study. Therefore, the design of public policy needs to increase the employability of rural women, Indigenous workers and the populations of the border provinces such as Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. These are mechanisms to improve the economic security of these social groups through a continuous income. One of the most important areas of inequality between men and women is income. Growth based on the low cost of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s labor is definitely a barrier to increasing their economic security. A feminist critical human security perspective believes that this type of growth exacerbates inequity. The gender order established in the labor market gives a lower remuneration for equal work to women. Capitalism requires low labor costs,478 resulting in economic insecurity for women. Data, from the 2012 National Survey of Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment (ENEMDU), regarding the average household income showed that female-headed households earned $591 (US) while male headed households earned $758 (US).479 474 SENPLADES, Atlas de las Desigualdades Socio-econ\u00C3\u00B3micas del Ecuador, 37. 475 SENPLADES, Ibid., 37. 476 INEC, ENEMDU - Diciembre 2013. 477 Banco Central del Ecuador, Reporte Trimestral del Mercado Laboral Septiembre 2015, Direcci\u00C3\u00B3n de Estad\u00C3\u00ADstica econ\u00C3\u00B3mica.http://contenido.bce.fin.ec/documentos/Estadisticas/SectorReal/Previsiones/IndCoyuntura/Empleo/imle201509.pdf (accessed on January 2016). 478 V\u00C3\u00A1sconez, Ibid., 55. 479 Instituto Nacional de Estad\u00C3\u00ADstica y Censos de Ecuador (INEC), Encuesta Nacional de Empleo, Desempleo y Subempleo - ENEMDU - Diciembre 2012. 158 Furthermore, rural women were the most disadvantaged; they generally received 72.2% of the income paid to men.480 Public policy sensitive to labor rights acknowledges that women need equal pay for equal work. Unequal remuneration constitutes gender discrimination; increasing the gender pay gap encourages women to look for jobs in the informal sector. From a feminist critical human security perspective, jobs in the informal market do not improve the economic security of women. According to a study by the Gender Commission of the Andean Trade Unions Coordinator (CCSA), women work mostly in customer service, marketing, sales and public relations. More than 52% of women work in the informal market.481 For the activist, Amparo Macas, a representative of the Assembly of Popular and Diverse Women (AMPDE) in Ecuador, it is mainly in the informal sector that women who are heads of household perform sales of merchandise, and thus fulfill their roles as mothers and as providers to address the economic needs of the household.482 Certainly, job insecurity in the formal sector contributes to an increase in employment in the informal sector. But in many cases, informal sector jobs are low-paid, and the job security is poor. In addition, the probability of that a woman will work in an informal job is highly correlated with her skill and educational level.483 The higher the level of education, the better the possibility of having a higher paid job. Nevertheless, depending on Ecuadorian women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social location based on their race, class, gender and geographical location, access to a permanent job or to financial stability can be limited, thereby affecting their economic 480 Instituto Nacional de Estad\u00C3\u00ADstica y Censos de Ecuador (INEC), Encuesta Nacional de Empleo, Desempleo y Subempleo - ENEMDU - Diciembre 2013. 481 El Tel\u00C3\u00A9grafo, \u00E2\u0080\u009CInclusi\u00C3\u00B3n laboral de g\u00C3\u00A9nero, por buen camino en Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D March 8, 2013, http://www.telegrafo.com.ec/economia/item/inclusion-laboral-de-genero-por-buen-camino-en-ecuador.html (accessed January 10, 2014) 482 El Tel\u00C3\u00A9grafo, Ibid. 483 Marc Bachetta, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGlobalization and Informal Jobs in Developing Countries,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Economic Research and Statistics Division-World Trade Organization and International Institute for Labour Studies-International Labour Office (2009), 31. 159 security which is one of the seven dimensions of human security.484 This situation motivates women in Ecuador to find alternative ways of generating income in order to overcome their economic difficulties. Any formalization strategy in the labour market needs to establish educational systems for women working in the informal sector. Education/training is an example of an issue that is important for the empowerment and increased security for women.485 Fostering formalization in the labour market also requires providing proper protection and support for workers in the informal economy, helping them to access the necessary funds and resources for a successful transition.486 The ministry of labor is responsible for coordinating the formulation of employment policy, but it is not the sole institution responsible for its substantive content. The fundamental role of the ministry of labor is to contribute to the formulation of and subsequently to ensure the implementation of policies through several instruments such as a Labor Market Policy.487 Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has shown that women reinvest 90 percent of their income in their families and communities, compared to men who reinvest only 30 to 40 percent of their income.488 484 According to the 1994 Human Development Report, there are seven dimensions of the human security approach, economic security, food security, political security, community security, personal security, environmental security, and health security. See more at United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 1994 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994). 485 Nanna R\u00C3\u00BAn \u00C3\u0081sgeirsd\u00C3\u00B3ttir, \u00E2\u0080\u009CHuman Security, Gender and Development. A Test-Case for Iceland\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Assistance Policy\u00E2\u0080\u009D (master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s thesis, University of Iceland, June 2010), 37. 486 Marc Bachetta, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGlobalization and Informal Jobs in Developing Countries,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Economic Research and Statistics Division-World Trade Organization and International Institute for Labour Studies-International Labour Office (2009), 138. 487 Janina Fern\u00C3\u00A1ndez Pacheco, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLa Cohesi\u00C3\u00B3n Social, las Mujeres Trabajadoras, el empleo y los ingresos,\u00E2\u0080\u009D en G\u00C3\u00A9nero y Empleo. Documento de Trabajo No 32. Judith Astelarra coordinadora. Fundaci\u00C3\u00B3n Carolina-CeALCI, Espa\u00C3\u00B1a (2009): 30. 488 OECD, DAC Guiding Principles for Aid Effectiveness, Gender Equality and Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Empowerment (2008), 3. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/14/27/42310124.pdf (accessed February 25, 2014). 160 Employment insecurity cannot be related only to gender. Race and class discrimination also play a significant role in increasing women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s economic insecurity. The analysis of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security through a feminist critical human security approach acknowledges intersectionality in contexts where power relations take place, such as the labor market. By understanding inequality as an interlocking system of oppression, it becomes possible to challenge the racist idea that Black and Indigenous women in Ecuador are poor because they do not work enough or because they are just lazy. Afro-Ecuadorian and Indigenous women have always worked, but they have been actively restricted to jobs that kept them in poverty. For example, race limits Afro-Ecuadorian and Indigenous women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s occupational opportunities. It is necessary to analyze the racism and sexism imbricated in the occupations available to them, such as agricultural and domestic workers. These interlocking inequalities affect directly Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences of oppression; they experience racism in ways not always the same as those experienced by Indigenous and Black men. They also experience sexism in ways not always parallel to those of Mestizo women. Table 3. Paid and Unpaid average work hours per week by gender and ethnicity Indigenous Mestizo Afro-Ecuadorian Female Male Female Male Female Male Paid work 44.2 68.7 53.3 79.6 54.7 79.6 Unpaid work 55.8 31.3 46.7 20.4 45.3 20.4 Source: 2007 Time Use National Survey. The above table shows clearly that Indigenous women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s unpaid work is significantly greater than the unpaid work of Indigenous men, of Mestizo men and women and Afro-Ecuadorian men and women. It also demonstrates that, within the Indigenous women group, the hours per week of 161 unpaid work are higher than those of paid work. Thus, the economic security of Indigenous women in comparison with Mestizo and Afro-Ecuadorian women. This type of discrimination in paid and unpaid work is not only sexist and racist, but it also increases inequality. The social location of women promotes circumstances of inequality, limiting their opportunities to increase their empowerment and economic security. In ethnically diverse societies such as the Ecuadorian, it is important to tackle inequality through an intersectional lens. Employment policies cannot be targeted exclusively at a limited number of Ecuadorian women, generally Mestizo upper- and middle-class women. Inclusive employment policies with a focus on intersected gendered, class, racial and geographical inequalities must be inserted into the National Development Policy and must be directed at increasing the economic security and dignity of all women and their communities, especially in such critical areas as border zones. Table 4. Average hours per week spent on unpaid work by gender and ethnicity Indigenous Mestizo Afro-Ecuadorian Male Female Male Female Male Female Cook 6.08 11.43 5.13 11.28 6.35 12.05 Cleaning 4.38 7.34 3.38 6.31 3.11 6.21 Child care 4.52 9.33 4.53 9.07 6.01 9.52 Community work 5.01 3.37 3.12 2.49 3.54 2.43 Agriculture 10.26 9.31 5.58 4.28 4.08 2.55 Source: 2007 Time Use National Survey. Afro-Ecuadorian, Mestizo and Indigenous women spend more time on unpaid work than men. The activities on which women, from the above mentioned ethnic groups, spend most of their unpaid 162 work are cooking, cleaning, and child care. These data demonstrate an unequal distribution of unpaid work in the household, showing power relations in the private sphere. Child care is assumed mainly by women due to their number of children, their lack of income, shortage of infrastructure and the lack of support services. Out of every10 persons who are care providers, seven are women and three are men in the range of 18-65 years old.489 Public policy aimed at decreasing this type of inequality makes unpaid care work visible. The goal is to push governments to rethink how they understand the economy and how they prioritize the allocation of public resources in order to mitigate ethnic, gender and geographical inequalities. Table 5. Work Load by level of education, gender, and ethnicity/ Average hours per week Indigenous Mestizo Afro-Ecuadorian Female Male Difference Female Male Difference Female Male Difference None 96.45 71.46 24.99 76.17 57.04 19.13 77.24 58.01 19.23 Elementary 87.07 65.57 21.50 79.55 61.18 18.37 82.28 60.35 21.93 High School 78.06 60.03 18.03 75.28 61.37 13.91 78.01 60.23 17.78 Post-Secondary 77.43 72.12 5.31 72.37 63.43 8.94 77.02 66.12 10.90 Source: 2007 Time Use National Survey. Table 5 shows that the higher the level of education, the less difference in workload per week by gender. In particular, non-educated Indigenous women have a higher workload per week than Mestizo and Afro-Ecuadorians women. The data presented in tables 3 and 4 showed that social identities such as race, class, gender and geography interact in a unique form, provoking complex 489 Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n para la Definici\u00C3\u00B3n de la Institucionalidad Publica que garantice la Igualdad entre Hombres y Mujeres, Agenda Nacional de las Mujeres y la Igualdad de G\u00C3\u00A9nero 2014-2017 (Abril 2014), 60. 163 experiences of inequality within and between groups in society. Public policy cannot be neutral, as it is not experienced in the same way by all populations.490 In my view, the data presented above are a useful source of information as long as they are aimed at the creation of public policies that are aware of the intersections of gender, class, race, ethnicity and geographical location and that address the inequalities experienced by various social groups. Feminist critical human security is concerned with the equality, dignity, welfare and security of individuals and communities. Since security and equality are closely interconnected, women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security cannot be achieved under conditions of inequality. From a feminist critical human security perspective, women's economic insecurities are also related to how patriarchal structures supported by other systems of domination based on race, class or geographical location assign women to low-paying or non-waged work in subsistence economies or in the household. For example, Black and Indigenous females in Ecuador have continually presented income inequalities compared to their male counterparts and non-Indigenous and Black population. Some of the wage differences for men and the non-indigenous population is a result of discrimination based on gender and ethnicity. Generally, a Black or Indigenous woman in Ecuador gets the lowest paying jobs. The structural roots of inequality in Ecuador involve several systems of domination. According to Barbarita Lara Calder\u00C3\u00B3n\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2013) lived experiences of domination, as a Black woman in Carchi, gender inequality is interconnected to discrimination based on race, ethnicity, class and the urban-rural divide; for her, differences result in marked inequalities that began with the slavery of Black people during the Spanish colony.491 Gender inequality in developing countries such as 490 Olena Hankivsky and Renee Cormier, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIntersectionality and Public Policy: Some Lessons from Existing Models,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Political Research Quarterly 64, no. 1 (2011): 218. 491 Interview conducted by the author with Barbarita Lara Calder\u00C3\u00B3n, August 22, 2013. La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n, Carchi-Ecuador. 164 Ecuador cannot be fully understood without understanding the other inequalities that articulate and reinforce it. First, socioeconomic inequalities, based on income, education and occupation, have encouraged class cleavages, segregating and discriminating low-income women. Moreover, inequalities based on ethnic distinction have historically been a factor that reinforces gender inequalities. Then, an Indigenous woman [or a black woman such as Barbarita] has more interlocked experiences of inequality than an urban mestizo man within the Ecuadorian society.492 Thus, the nature of inequality and of a gendered order is interconnected to class domination and ethnicity discrimination. For instance, the role of Indigenous women remains as the role of women responsible for the reproduction of life, or to be in the private sector where there is no equal sexual division of labor.493 The issue is part of the gendered order present in the Andean indigenous world. Intersections within systems of oppression recognize that gender cannot be dealt with in isolation. A gendered order is always articulated to other orders of domination that create interlocked inequalities. Therefore, intersectional public policies that address structural inequalities must be aware of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s multiple social locations. These interlocked inequalities are part of the web of power relations that led to women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border provinces, El Oro, Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. In sum, security approaches such as feminist critical human security discourage the belief that the state is the main referent of security; the security of women and of communities matters. In order to satisfy the requirement for security, multiple inequalities have to be tackled within public policies. Thus, this approach requires that public policies incorporate a gender equity dimension to implement specific projects aimed at the construction of new relations of equality that can benefit women and men within their diversity. Public policies should be designed to 492 Interview conducted by the author with Gioconda Herrera, July 2nd, 2013. Quito-Ecuador. 493 Interview conducted by the author with Silvia Vega, July 18, 2013. Quito-Ecuador. 165 decrease the inequality that exist within different spheres of social relations -based on racism, class exploitation, gender discrimination and the rural and urban divide- and to promote intersectionality in policy analysis, design, implementation and assessment. It is important to dedicate the next section to analyzing the main challenges to including equality policies within a feminist critical human security approach. 3.3 Planning Feminist Critical Human Security in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Border Zones When planning security policies within a feminist critical human security framework, it is important to take into account the voices of those women who face multiple inequalities; this inclusion has to be accompanied by effective implementation. It is important to rethink how women are affected by Ecuadorian security and development planning. At Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones, decision makers and security and development planning technicians have not sufficiently recognized the importance of equality as a planning issue within a feminist critical human security approach. In this sense, the feminist critical human security approach that I apply recognizes that equality cannot be dealt solely through the lens of gender. Identity markers, such as race, social status, location (rural-urban) and gender must be employed to assess the inequalities faced by local women in their everyday lives. The material needs of women should be tackled in conjunction with a transformation of the discursive practices that have constructed intersections of inequality within systems of oppression. One impediment to achieving human security has been the tendency to homogenize the sources of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s inequality under a single category, gender. Nina Pacari\u00E2\u0080\u0099s reflection (2002) about the political participation of Indigenous women in the Ecuadorian Congress at the beginning of the 1980s showed that the women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s movement in Ecuador focused its efforts on proposing legislation favorable to women without using the ethnic and cultural reality of women to inform 166 public policies.494 In this regard, Chandra Talpade Mohanty\u00E2\u0080\u0099s idea of the construction of monolithic subject is helpful to understand this discursive exclusion and the lack of recognition of the diverse experiences of oppression of women in Ecuador within policies and legislation. She questioned the Western feminist discourse that has constructed Third-World woman as a monolithic subject, thereby fostering a discursive homogenization of the oppression of all women. The category \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwoman\u00E2\u0080\u009D cannot be assumed to be a single homogeneous category with identical interests regardless of class, age, race, ethnicity or geographical location. This colonialist First-World construction has suppressed the heterogeneity of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences, which crosses different boundaries.495 In the same vein, Patricia Hill Collins (2000) argued that women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences need to be viewed as a heterogeneous collectivity.496 Furthermore, she claimed that an analysis of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s oppression based exclusively on gender omits the fact that women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s subordination occurs according to a matrix of domination that intersects gender, class, race and nationality.497 Of relevance to this significant idea, based on her local experience and knowledge, a woman from the Black Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Council of Ecuador (CONAMUNE) interviewed for this study mentioned that \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccultural and social differences, the worldview, and phenotypic traits of people are part of a great diversity which needs to be taken advantage of in order to design policies that benefit everyone [women and men], but always without neglecting the differences, because there are many 494 Nina Pacari, The Political Participation of Indigenous Women in the Ecuadorian Congress: Unfinished Business. International IDEA, 2002, Women in Parliament, Stockholm (http://www.idea.int). This is an English translation of Nina Pacari, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLa participaci\u00C3\u00B3n pol\u00C3\u00ADtica de la mujer en el Congreso ecuatoriano. Una tarea pendiente\u00E2\u0080\u009D, in International IDEA Mujeres en el Parlamento. M\u00C3\u00A1s all\u00C3\u00A1 de los n\u00C3\u00BAmeros, Stockholm, Sweden, (2002), 1. 495 Chandra Talpade Mohanty, \u00E2\u0080\u009CUnder Western Eyes Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Third World and Politics of Feminism (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1991), 51-55. 496 Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (London: Routledge, 2000), 26-27. 497 For further discussion, see Patricia Hill Collins\u00E2\u0080\u0099 concept of matrix of domination, which refers to the organization of power within society through intersecting systems of oppression of class, gender, race and sexuality in Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (London: Routledge, 2000), 227-228. 167 times that [these differences] have been homogenized.\u00E2\u0080\u009D498 When using a focus on gender in framing policy and legislation, therefore, it is necessary to acknowledge the diversity of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences. From an intersectionality viewpoint, public policy needs to address multiple identities and within-group diversity.499 To not do so decreases human security opportunities for women and increases the existing power relations within a patriarchal, classist and racist state. Certainly, gender inequalities cannot be attributed exclusively to poverty or patriarchy, because they involve the joint presence of poverty, patriarchy and the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s public policy.500 In particular, a public policy cannot improve women's economic security if it does not create a rupture with patriarchy, classism and racism. Legislation and public policy favorable to women must consider the ethnic and class diversity of women if they are to promote non-discriminatory practices. The Ecuadorian government\u00E2\u0080\u0099s public policies related to the security of women must take into account the intersections of race, class, gender and geographical location. They must also include a clear plan of action. Such a plan must include deadlines and information about who are or will be the actors within public institutions and local organizations responsible for carrying out initiatives. Such a plan is highly recommended as a way of improving the implementation of public policies seeking equality. For example, the third strategic objective of the Comprehensive Security Plan (translated as Plan de Seguridad Integral) seeks to increase the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s presence in the national territory, especially on the borders and in areas of high risk, in order to improve the quality of life of the citizens.501 This objective combines the national security and the human security 498 Interview conducted by the author with Barbarita Lara, CONAMUNE, Carchi, August 2013. 499 Olena Hankivsky and Renee Cormier, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIntersectionality and Public Policy: Some Lessons from Existing Models,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Political Research Quarterly 64, no. 1 (2011): 218. 500 Ghada Mousa, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGender aspects of human security,\u00E2\u0080\u009D International Social Science Journal 59, no. 1 (2008): 86. 501 Ministerio Coordinador de Seguridad del Ecuador, Plan de Seguridad Integral, 95. http://www.seguridad.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/07/01_Plan_Seguridad_Integral_baja.pdf (accessed on February 2015). 168 approaches within its eight strategies.502 However, this objective lacks a clear action plan, and it does not explain how it is going to include women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s triple roles as mothers, workers and leaders in their communities from an intersectional perspective in order to improve the security conditions of Indigenous, Black, or Mestizo women in their communities in the border zones. Generally, this absence of a feminist critical human security approach within public policy in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones has contributed to the involvement of women in smuggling. For this reason, women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s voices should not be marginalized in planning policies. A feminist approach to issues under male control (such as border security) includes women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s explanations of how their governments control their labor, hopes and fears.503 Asking how citizens (in this case women) are, or are not, made secure impels us to tell the story of international relations (or border security) in a different way.504 The Ecuadorian government\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border policies related to \u00E2\u0080\u009Chuman security\u00E2\u0080\u009D need to acknowledge that they do not pay enough attention to the intersectional inequalities faced daily by women in the border provinces included in this study. Thus, women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s involvement in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cillegal\u00E2\u0080\u009D activities has continued due to the lack of social justice, human security and equality, which are problems with socio-economic roots. The incorporation of an intersectional framework, such as a feminist critical human security perspective, suggests the implementation of projects aimed at the construction of new gender relations that benefit women and men equally, thereby addressing multiple sources of inequality. Technical expertise and financial resources must be invested in guidelines and programs of equality and non-discrimination. Such programs can increase women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security through access to education, empowerment, political participation and employment policies sensitive to intersectionality. 502 The strategies focus on development projects, international cooperation, social services, surveillance and control at airports, ports and border, increase of military, and police and judicial presence at the borders. 503 Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics, 201. 504Marysia Zalewski, \u00E2\u0080\u009CFeminist International Relations: Making Sense\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Gender Matters in Global Politics. A Feminist Introduction to International Relations, ed. Laura J. Shepherd (New York: Routledge, 2010), 34. 169 Overall, this section has demonstrated that Ecuadorian policymakers have not always been successful in tackling interlocking systems of oppression. It is noteworthy that the insecurities faced by women involve interconnecting conditions of oppression and inequality, such as gender, race, class and geographical location. Definitely, there is a need to tackle multiple inequalities through the effective implementation of public policy. Planning equality cannot exclude valuable information from women facing intersectional inequalities as a result of their multiple social locations; for instance, a woman can be indigenous, poor and rural. Doing so weakens the equality and gender perspective within public policies in Ecuador. The intersectionality perspective has transformed how gender is discussed. In particular, intersectionality reveals that the individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social identities profoundly influence their experience of gender. Intersecting identities must be at the forefront in any investigation of gender. In particular, gender must be understood in the context of the power relations embedded in intertwined social identities.505 The security of local women in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones needs a planning tool that moves beyond the one-dimensional category of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s oppression, such as gender. By addressing interlocking inequalities through effective public policy, security for all women can be achieved in the dimensions of the human security approach. Policy goals require assessing whether \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdiversity\u00E2\u0080\u009D or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgender\u00E2\u0080\u009D is the better vehicle for mainstreaming equity policy. The next section analyzes the virtues of intersectionality mainstreaming in comparison to gender mainstreaming as a way to incorporate an intersectional approach in public policy. 505 For further discussion about interlocked systems of oppression see Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. London: Routledge, 2000. 170 3.3.1 Gender mainstreaming vs. Intersectionality mainstreaming Mainstreaming gender equality has resulted in an effort to create the structural conditions in the state organization for ensuring that policies impact evenly on women and men. Broadly, gender analysis is the most common method for achieving gender mainstreaming (GM), which is a process for examining policies to detect gender bias and to ensure that they pay attention to the differing experiences of women and men.506 GM highlights \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgender\u00E2\u0080\u009D as a primary category that will have similar effects in differing cultures.507 This perspective assumes that if the category gender is not mentioned, the place of women would not be addressed508 within public policy. As a result, it has become necessary to sensitize leaders and decision makers at the political, technical and administrative levels so as to strengthen their understanding of the importance of gender equity.509 A clear mandate, resources, expertise and political will are needed in order to ensure gender equality. Nevertheless, the lack of expertise within the state to mainstream the gender perspective can be a limitation. An additional problem is that sometimes only two or three individuals working in a gender unit within a ministry are in charge of the whole mainstreaming process.510 The political will of leaders should be secured in order to address the issue and to promote internal changes. Therefore, technical experts on intersectional mainstreaming, have to work together and should have adequate financial resources to guarantee the continuity and success of public policies sensitive to the diversity among women and to achieve a greater impact in the beneficiaries. 506 Joan Eveline, Carol Bacchi and Jennifer Binns, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGender mainstreaming versus diversity mainstreaming: Methodology as emancipatory politics,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Mainstreaming Politics: Gendering practices and feminist theory eds. Carol Bacchi and Joan Eveline (South Australia: The University of Adelaide Press, 2010), 241. 507 Joan Eveline, Carol Bacchi and Jennifer Binns, Ibid., 237. 508 Joan Eveline, Carol Bacchi and Jennifer Binns, Ibid., 238. 509 Saskya Lugo, \u00E2\u0080\u009CAn\u00C3\u00A1lisis de la incorporaci\u00C3\u00B3n del enfoque de g\u00C3\u00A9nero en los proyectos p\u00C3\u00BAblicos de desarrollo,\u00E2\u0080\u009D ILDIS (Octubre 2010), 15. http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/quito/07691.pdf. 510 Interview conducted by the author with Francisco Cos-Montiel, IDRC-Ottawa, November 5, 2013. 171 Currently, most of the technical staff in Ecuadorian public institutions are not familiar with the needs of individuals and the differences between women and men. Furthermore, the implementation of GM in the public agenda (and development planning) encourages civil servants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 understanding on gender equity,511 because civil servants believe that gender involves issues related to women exclusively. These technical staff members do not have the necessary tools to analyze the differential impacts that their decisions and projects might have in improving or worsening conditions of inequality.512 In order to avoid the worsening of inequalities, the process of developing better policy needs to map the complex institutional processes through which inequalities are produced and reproduced.513In turn, this mapping exercise reveals to policymakers how their own work contribute to the production of inequalities.514 In particular, the National Secretary for Planning and Development (SENPLADES) has incorporated GM in instruments such as the rules for the inclusion of programs and projects in public investment plans, the guide for formulating sectorial public policies from a human rights-based approach, the guide for public participation in the planning of Autonomous Decentralized Governments, the methodological guide for institutional planning, and the guide of content and process for the formulation of Development Plans in provinces, cantons and parishes.515 Despite these significant efforts for planning at the local level, equality among Ecuadorian women has not been fully achieved. Thus, making better equity policy involves the need to understand and challenge the ways in which inequality is regularly reproduced; inequality is not produced exclusively in 511 Lugo, Ibid., 8. 512 Lugo, Ibid., 15. 513 Joan Eveline, Carol Bacchi and Jennifer Binns, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGender mainstreaming versus diversity mainstreaming: Methodology as emancipatory politics,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 246. 514 Judith Squires, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIs mainstreaming transformative? Theorising mainstreaming in the context of diversity and deliberation,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society 12, no. 3 (2005): 379. 515 Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n hacia el Consejo de las Mujeres y la Igualdad de G\u00C3\u00A9nero, Octavo y Noveno Informes Peri\u00C3\u00B3dicos Consolidados del Ecuador sobre la Aplicaci\u00C3\u00B3n de la CEDAW (Diciembre 2012), 8. 172 gendered power relations. GM has focused on the differential effects of policy on the lives of men and women, but it has not properly acknowledged the diversity among men and women. Fixed oppositional categories such as men and women obscure the complex ways in which power and privilege react in specific social contexts. In this sense, intersectionality has much to offer to GM. The experts on gender whom I interviewed in 2013, such as Gioconda Herrera and Francisco Cos-Montiel, are skeptical about the effectiveness of GM in public policies. The main argument suggests that mainstreaming alone does not do enough to overcome gender inequality.516 As a strategy, GM cannot influence policy only by adding a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfeminized component\u00E2\u0080\u009D to plans, programs and projects and by establishing a set of specific activities to achieve gender equality and affirmative action. The technical teams that formulate development projects need to have access to differentiated information about the sources that sustain inequities based on race, ethnicity, class and geographical location. This information needs to be incorporated into the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development strategies. A national planning system seeking a just society must implement an equality perspective that take into account the intersections of gender, race, class and location within public policies. GM has not been completely successful in increasing equality among women. Although it was formally adopted at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, GM\u00E2\u0080\u0099s impact has been uneven.517 GM remains focused on the male-female dichotomy so prevalent in second-wave liberal feminist theorizing.518 This approach is limited, because it always prioritizes gender as the axis of discrimination. Moreover, it invokes a liberal concept of an abstract woman that 516 Interview conducted by the author with Gioconda Herrera, FLACSO-Ecuador, July 2013. And Interview conducted by the author with Francisco Cos-Montiel, IDRC-Ottawa, November 5, 2013. 517Olena Hankivsky, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGender vs. Diversity Mainstreaming: A Preliminary Examination of the Role and Transformative Potential of Feminist Theory,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Canadian Journal of Political Science 38, no. 4 (December 2005): 977. 518 Hankivsky, Ibid., 978. 173 disregards the variety of conditions of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences and needs.519 Methods of creating policy, such as GM, are limited because they fail to take intersectionality into account. Differences among women must be taken into account in formulating, implementing and evaluating policies within an intersectional framework. Policymakers must seriously consider whether a focus on gender is adequate for understanding inequality and social justice in public policy. Policy interventions that are based on solely gender reflect an incomplete knowledge of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lives; as a result, they cannot be effective. In many instances, gender is not the primary cause of discrimination, oppression and inequality.520 Policy is not experienced in the same way by all populations; important differences and needs have to be taken into account.521 Intersectionality is a primary analytical tool for theorizing identity and oppression,522 and it needs to be integrated into policy discourse, implementation and evaluation.523 In particular, the implementation of intersectionality must address the inequalities experienced by various social groups.524 Moreover, intersectionality clearly differs from approaches designed to accommodate difference by targeting a single identity such as gender.525 Public policy needs to ensure that all members of any marginalized group are enabled to empower themselves.526 GM must be replaced by different forms of diversity mainstreaming informed by an intersectionality lens.527 Diversity mainstreaming retains the category of gender, but it also focuses on various forms of oppression, such as race, class, ethnicity, ability and sexuality. Thus, diversity mainstreaming explores how 519 Hankivsky, Ibid., 986. 520 Hankivsky, Ibid., 988-989. 521Olena Hankivsky and Renee Cormier, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIntersectionality and Public Policy: Some Lessons from Existing Models,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Political Research Quarterly 64, no. 1 (2011): 218. 522 Jennifer Nash, \u00E2\u0080\u009CRe-thinking intersectionality,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Feminist Review 89 (2008): 1-15. 523 Hankivsky and Cormier, Ibid., 217. 524 Bishwakarma, R., V. Hunt, and A. Zajicek, Intersectionality and informed policy. Manuscript (2007), 9. 525 Hankivsky and Cormier, Ibid., 218. 526 A. M. Hancock, \u00E2\u0080\u009CWhen multiplication doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t equal quick addition: Examining intersectionality as a research paradigm,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Perspectives on Politics 5 (2007): 66. 527 Hankivsky and Cormier, Ibid., 218. 174 these forms of oppression interconnect and mutually reinforce one another.528 It addresses the manner in which racism, patriarchy, class oppression and other discriminatory systems create inequalities among women.529 In order to be fully effective, diversity mainstreaming cannot lose its critical insights about power and exclusion.530 Thus, it is necessary to acknowledge the potential of mainstreaming intersectionality as a way for going beyond one-dimensional policy formulation. Mainstreaming intersectionality is an appealing idea. This approach does not reduce people to one category at a time; it rather, treats social positions as relational spaces constituted by multiple vehicles of power relations in everyday life.531 Several efforts to move beyond one-dimensional, or additive, policy analyses have included equality mainstreaming, diversity mainstreaming, intersectional feminist frameworks, intersectional public policy analysis and multi-strand mainstreaming. These approaches reject binary thinking in formulating policy; attention to diversity changes the policy questions that are asked, the kinds of data that are collected, how data are collected and how they are disaggregated.532 Policy designers in Ecuador have attempted to include \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdiversity\u00E2\u0080\u009D from a non-intersectional perspective in the principle of equality and non-discrimination within the Constitution, the National Plan for Good Living 2013-2017 and the National Agenda of Women and Gender Equality 2014-2017. The Agenda addresses the need to pay attention to those facing multiple forms of discrimination, but the main category of difference to be focused on is still gender. 528 Hankivsky, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGender vs. Diversity Mainstreaming: A Preliminary Examination of the Role and Transformative Potential of Feminist Theory,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 979. 529 Hankivsky, Ibid., 993. 530Joan Eveline, Carol Bacchi and Jennifer Binns, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGender mainstreaming versus diversity mainstreaming: Methodology as emancipatory politics,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Gender, Work and Organization 16, no. 2 (2009): 244. 531 Rita Kaur Dhamoon, \u00E2\u0080\u009CConsiderations on Mainstreaming Intersectionality,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Political Research Quarterly 64, no 1 (2011): 230; Ann Phoenix and Pamela Pattynama, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEditorial: Intersectionality,\u00E2\u0080\u009D European Journal of Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Studies 13, no. 3 (2006): 187. 532 Olena Hankivsky and Renee Cormier, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIntersectionality and Public Policy: Some Lessons from Existing Models,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Political Research Quaterly 25 (2010): 220. 175 Processes of differentiation and systems of domination must be tackled in any initiative aimed at mainstreaming intersectionality. In intersectional-type work, at least four aspects of sociopolitical life have been studied: the identities of an individual or social group that are perceived as different (an Indigenous woman or Black women); categories of difference (race or gender); processes of differentiation (racialization or gendering); and systems of domination (racism, colonialism, sexism and patriarchy). Rita Kaur Dhamoon (2011) concluded that, in combination, the study of processes of differentiation and systems of domination is most effective at analyzing how power operates on the different levels of life and at revealing the conditions in which representations of difference are socially organized.533 By processes, she means the ways in which social differences are produced, such as through discourses and practices of gendering, racialization, ethnicization, culturalization or sexualization.534 Racing\u00E2\u0080\u0093gendering processes produce \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdifference, political asymmetries, and social hierarchies that create the dominant and the subordinate\u00E2\u0080\u009D535 at the epistemological, individual, social and institutional levels. By systems, she refers to historically constituted structures of domination such as racism, colonialism, patriarchy, sexism and capitalism. In both cases, she is not interested in the intersection itself, but on what the interaction reveals about power. She stresses the techniques of power imbued in these processes and systems.536 Thus, identities do not naturally pre-exist; the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdoing of difference\u00E2\u0080\u009D demonstrates that subjects are socially produced as identities through institutionalized discursive processes.537 For this reason, Dhamoon expands Patricia Hill Collin's matrix of domination idea to give prominence 533 Rita Kaur Dhamoon, \u00E2\u0080\u009CConsiderations on Mainstreaming Intersectionality,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Political Research Quarterly 64, no 1 (2011): 232-233, 235. 534 Dhamoon, Ibid., 234. 535 Mary Hawkesworth, \u00E2\u0080\u009CCongressional enactments of race gender: Toward a theory of raced-gendered institutions,\u00E2\u0080\u009D American Political Science Review 97 (2003): 531. 536 Dhamoon, Ibid., 234. 537 Dhamoon, Ibid., 235. 176 to the productive forces of power or, in concrete terms, the processes of differentiation as well as the systems of domination. She refers to this as a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmatrix of meaning-making.\u00E2\u0080\u009D The idea of a matrix of meaning-making promotes an expanded Foucauldian understanding of power that captures the ways in which processes of differentiation and systems of domination interrelate.538 For this reason, when designing public policy within an intersectional framework, it is desirable to be aware not only of the identities and categories of difference of the potential beneficiaries, but also of the processes of differentiation and the systems of domination that have perpetuated inequalities in order to provoke social change and benefit social groups equally. 3.4 Intersectionality in Public Policy I have suggested that gender as a category of analysis is not enough to tackle discrimination based on women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s multiple identities and social locations. At this point, I would like to explain two approaches that have been developed for applying intersectionality to public policy. These approaches will be useful when recommending better practices of policy designing and implementation in the empirical case presented about women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security in the provinces of Carchi, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and El Oro. The first approach, which draws on the work of Bishwakarma, Hunt, and Zajicek (2007), integrates intersectionality into the policy-making cycle in order to capture the interaction between two or more forms of inequality.539 For these authors, all national, international and non-governmental organizations interested in developing policies leading to the inclusion of the most marginalized groups, must incorporate intersectionality at all stages of the policy-making 538 Dhamoon, Ibid., 238. 539 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, \u00E2\u0080\u009CEducating Dalit Women: Beyond a One-Dimensional Policy Formulation,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies 27, no. 1 (2007): 27-29. Article 5. Available at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol27/iss1/5 177 process.540 Representatives of intersectional-defined target populations must be included proportionately in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation phases541 in order to include the voices of all the potential beneficiaries. The second approach for applying intersectionality to public policy is the multistrand approach, which identifies complex sources of inequality, taking into account the whole person and not just a single aspect of identity or experience; it maintains the distinctions between the origins of inequality between \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstrands.\u00E2\u0080\u009D542 Intersectionality in the policy-making cycle seeks to systematically integrate intersectionality using a typical policy cycle. The first phase of the policy cycle involves intersectional problem definition and policy formulation. Problem definition can be understood as a way in which a social condition is represented in a public discourse.543 For example, if the issue of the low employment rate among Ecuadorian women is defined as a problem of gender inequality, policymakers will formulate policies to increase women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s access to employment opportunities. Nonetheless, if the problem is defined as the high unemployment rate among Black women in Carchi Province, policies must be formulated to increase employment opportunities for Black women in that province. In this example, public policy cannot be designed to benefit an abstract woman; it needs to be specific, contextualized and targeted at Black women in a specific province. The problem definition and policy formulation phase determines the extent to which the intersectional approach is needed. This means first establishing whether the problem is experienced differently by different social groups. If the answer is positive, the next step is to 540 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, Ibid., 28. 541 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, Ibid. 542 Olena Hankivsky, and Renee Cormier, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIntersectionality and Public Policy: Some Lessons from Existing Models,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Political Research Quarterly 64, no. 1 (2011): 226. 543 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, Ibid. 29. 178 determine if official policy formulation proposals address the problem through an intersectional perspective.544 For instance, using the same example of Black women in Carchi Province, a problem has to be defined across various intersected categories of difference, such as gender, class, race and geography. But if the policies are formulated focused only on gender, it is necessary to revise or reformulate the policy to include the categories that were missed, in this case, the interaction of geography, race, and class with gender. The second phase of a policy cycle is policy formulation. In this phase, official recommendations or alternatives are developed for dealing with policy issues through an intersectionality perspective.545 The third phase refers to the policy implementation. At this phase, an adopted policy is carried out by a governmental institution through the mobilization of financial resources in compliance with the intersectional nature of the problem and policy.546 Finally, through policy assessment, or evaluation, governmental units determine whether all relevant policy actions are in compliance with the statutory requirements of the policy and whether the policy objectives have been achieved547 within an intersectional framework. All these phases require contributions from many disciplines to produce an informed policy.548 At each phase of a policy cycle, a decision needs to be made whether policy objectives have been achieved given the intersectional nature of the problem. However, policies cannot tackle only categories of differentiation, such as race, class or gender, but also those systems of oppression, such as racism and patriarchy, that have perpetuated the inequalities. These systems are reproduced by discourses and by practices of differentiation such as gendering, racialization, 544 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, Ibid. 30 545 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, Ibid. 30. 546 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, Ibid. 30. 547 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, Ibid. 30. 548 Bishwakarma, Ramu; Hunt, Valerie; and Zajicek, Anna, Ibid. 29. 179 ethnicization or sexualisation, thereby creating social hierarchies. Therefore, policies must seek to transform the matrix of meaning-making undelaying these processes of differentiation. The second approach for applying intersectionality is known as a multistrand approach. It has the capacity to identify complex sources of inequality. It can be citizen-focused, taking into account the whole person and not just a single aspect of identity or experience. It can also maintain the distinctions between the origins of inequality, namely between \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstrands\u00E2\u0080\u009D549 The multistrand approach draws upon expertise in policy, equality and human rights and is intended to engage with all relevant stakeholders.550 To operationalize intersectionality, the multistrand approach gathers evidence of inequality with the aim of creating new policies that are able to address the inequalities identified.551 It avoids beginning with one strand and then adding others. It begins by investigating a policy area (for instance, women's security in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones) and then focuses on asking who are the women who smuggle in the border zones by quantitatively and qualitatively using the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstrands\u00E2\u0080\u009D to identify the inequities to which they may be subject. The multistrand model has four distinct stages: mapping, visioning, road testing, and monitoring and evaluation. Mapping involves the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data from secondary sources such as census data and surveys552 and scrutiny of local authorities to determine who is providing women's security as well as to examine current policies.553 The next step in the process is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cvisioning,\u00E2\u0080\u009D which entails asking ourselves how we can achieve social change by creating a policy that promote equality. The process of visioning entails 549 Olena Hankivsky, and Renee Cormier, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIntersectionality and Public Policy: Some Lessons from Existing Models,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Political Research Quarterly 64, no. 1 (2011): 226. 550 Hankivsky and Cormier, Ibid., 223. 551 Hankivsky and Cormier, Ibid., 226. 552 Alison Parken, \u00E2\u0080\u009CA multi-strand approach to promoting equalities and human rights in policy making,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Policy & Politics 38, no. 1 79-99 (2010): 87. 553 Hankivsky, andCormier, Ibid., 223- 224. 180 identifying commonalities among the different strands and striving to identify common solutions that will benefit all the strands.554 \u00E2\u0080\u009CRoad testing,\u00E2\u0080\u009D considers how policy solutions would affect, for example, a low-income widowed Mestizo woman with four children in Huaquillas, El Oro Province. From the perspective of each strand, issues of accessibility and inclusion must be examined, and the above example reflects the multifaceted complex aspects of women's lives. The final step, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmonitoring and evaluation,\u00E2\u0080\u009D involves identifying and measuring indicators of improvement in achieving equality once a new policy is implemented. It is important to understand that each strand may have individual indicators and varying degrees of success.555 By using this model, an intersectional framework in public policy can be achieved in the design and implementation of policies. A feminist critical human security perspective informed by intersectionality understands that, depending on our social location, features of our identity and categories of differences such as race, gender or class may lead to discrimination or privilege. When using intersectionality within public policy formulation, therefore, it is important to go beyond the mere recognition of categories of difference among women in order to transform structures of domination. If processes of differentiation (racialization or gendering) are transformed through concrete practices and discourses, systems of domination (racism, colonialism, classism and patriarchy) can also be transformed in the long term. Therefore, the feminist critical human security approach tackles intersectional inequalities faced by women at the discursive and practical levels, because the two levels complement one another. In order to be achievable, the design, implementation and monitoring of a feminist critical human security approach sensitive to the intersections of race, 554 Olena Hankivsky, and Renee Cormier, Ibid., 225. 555 Olena Hankivsky, and Renee Cormier, Ibid., 225. 181 gender, class and geographical location, must achieve the collaboration and participation of local and national governmental agencies, international cooperation agencies and the local organization that represents women. From a feminist critical human security perspective, the human security agenda in the border regions cannot be implemented homogeneously. Recognizing the particular inequalities to be tackled and the needs of the potential beneficiaries in each province is essential. Since feminist critical human security cannot be implemented as a universal formula, it has to take into account diverse local realities, including public policy beneficiaries\u00E2\u0080\u0099 participation and opinions about how and in which areas those policies might improve their quality of life. A feminist critical human security agenda must consider all the interconnected factors that create insecurity in the zone of intervention within a framework aware of the intersections of gender, class, race and geographical location. For instance, gender equality in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border provinces cannot be achieved if it does not intersect with the lack of employment and education for Indigenous, Mestizo, Montubio, and Black women in the zone. When comprehensively implemented within a framework sensitive to the intersections of class, gender, race and geographical location, feminist critical human security transforms a traditional security paradigm and decreases existing inequalities. Thus, feminist critical human security as a broader conception of security can increase women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security in critical areas such as Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border provinces, Carchi, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and El Oro. Feminist critical human security is the most desirable approach to deal with insecurity scenarios based on different and intersectional types of inequalities. A contextualized feminist critical human security approach that includes local women's knowledge of development and security can be really useful in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones. Definitely, I would like to revive the idea that a feminist human security perspective emphasizes the power of the community and that it is oriented toward practical policy issues. 182 3.5 Summary of the Chapter The chapter highlights that national security is not a sufficient approach to tackling new and multidimensional threats to security. Traditional security approaches, such as national security, to smuggling and smugglers view them as a threat to the state, demanding and emphasizing border security. In contrast, feminist critical human security analyses of smuggling give priority to the security of the individuals, establishing women (smugglers or not) as a referent of security. Border security treats women smugglers as criminals, omitting the circumstances that have motivated smuggling in a specific context. Furthermore, the state and its border security practices neglect the voices and agency of women smugglers, whose access to another type of survival activity is limited in the three provinces where this study was conducted. A national security approach through repressive border control increases the problem by abusing the use of force to combat an issue categorized as \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccrime.\u00E2\u0080\u009D A feminist critical human security analysis permits a transformative approach to the national security discourse of criminalization of certain cross-border activities such as smuggling. The experiences of women smugglers in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones demonstrates that, while women are victims of classist, racist and patriarchal structures; they are also active agents who use this activity as a counter-conduct to resist traditional patterns of femininity and as a response to the lack of an intersectional lens on human security policies in the border zones. Smuggling at Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones has been described as a new threat to Ecuadorian national security and to the country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s economy, but smuggling is a way of life in the border zones and at the same time a response to the lack of a human security strategy sensitive to the intersections of race, class, gender and geographical location. Undoubtedly, a military approach cannot solve a security problem that reflects structural inequalities in the border zones. Despite smuggling\u00E2\u0080\u0099s \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnegative connotations,\u00E2\u0080\u009D it does not represent a conventional military threat to the 183 state. Therefore, a feminist critical human security approach understands that an increase in military presence and patrolling are not the exclusive options for solving smuggling in critical and multidimensional insecurity scenarios. Repression and confiscation cannot be seen as natural ways to deal with human security affairs. The chapter also explains smuggling as a borderland economic dynamic and describes women smugglers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 role within this dynamic. The experiences of women who smuggle fuel, propane cylinders and other goods in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones demonstrate how these women can be dominated by the hormiga type smuggling or empowered by helping family and community members to smuggle, thereby challenging social expectations and acceptable social constructions of femininity in order to increase their human security. The chapter seeks to contribute to the understanding of how women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s responses to human insecurity challenge a construction of femininity as they employ counter-conduct strategies in order to resist traditional gendered power relations within a national security discourse. Their oppositional femininities556 invite us to rethink the widespread idea that women are weak and are less likely to commit activities considered as a crime by the national security discourse. These women remake the understanding not only of femininity but also of national security issues. By using a feminist critical human security approach, I argue that the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s response to informal economic strategies by the borderlanders must recognize their agency557 and must offer constructive and comprehensive solutions rather than mere repression. 556 Oppositional femininities refer to a condition frequently mentioned when women \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfail\u00E2\u0080\u009D to represent hegemonic femininity, capturing the notion of resistance. See Justin Charlebois, Gender and the construction of dominant, hegemonic, and oppositional femininities (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2011), 33. 557 When I introduce the notion of agency, I mean that individuals have agency, meaning the ability to take independent action by negotiating their own desires vs. those impose by a context. As Judith Butler (2006) mentions that there cannot be agency without an agent that can transform relations of domination. Agency is associated with the idea that the subject has a [independent] reflexive meditation that remains unharmed in spite of cultural embeddedness. See Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), 34, 195. 184 State policies must not only promote equality between men and women in the private and public spheres; but they must also promote equality among women, tackling additional intersectional inequalities such as those based on race, class and location. In that way, planning policies within a feminist critical human security approach could decrease women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s smuggling activities by providing other alternatives of income. Smuggling is a profitable option for the biggest networks, but it is not the best economic option for women who are dedicated to the hormiga type smuggling in small quantities. The state can increase the security forces\u00E2\u0080\u0099 presence and control at the borders, but what really matters is the encouragement of local development planning and bi-national initiatives such as social and economic projects sensitive to the intersectional experiences of women in the border zones between Ecuador and Colombia and between Ecuador and Peru aimed at the well-being of women and their communities. By incorporating an intersectional and multidimensional approach to new threats to security, feminist critical human security views insecurity as structural violence and adds more recognition of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s contributions to society. A feminist critical human security perspective on border security allows the development of a theoretical framework untethered from historical male domination and recognizes diverse forms of domination of women smugglers in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones based on their race (Black, Indigenous, or Mestizo), and class (upper, middle or lower). Such a perspective encourages the elimination of relations of domination and subordination through feminist policy initiatives within a development planning framework concerned with the intersectional inequalities faced daily by women in the border provinces included in this study. By appealing to a discussion of the particularities of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s daily experiences of domination, a feminist critical human security approach to border security enable this study to analyze the diversity of women smugglers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 experiences on the Ecuadorian borders, with a focus on the construction of gender identities and the politics of masculinities. At the same time, this 185 chapter acknowledges that women's insecurity is reinforced not only by border security practices, but by numerous inequalities based on a matrix of domination that includes discrimination due to race, class, gender, nationality and the dichotomy between urban and rural in the border zones. Finally, the chapter demonstrates that power relations based on intersected gendered, class, racialized and geographical systems of oppression led women to become smugglers in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border provinces of El Oro, Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. 186 Chapter 4. Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Insecurity in Carchi, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and El Oro This chapter analyzes the conditions of inequality that provoke women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity in the three Ecuadorian provinces chosen for this study. Based on this analysis, it suggests areas where public policy aimed at improving women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security must include an intersectional lens. The information for the chapter was gathered mainly through conducting workshops and group interviews between July and August 2013 with the support of the Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Movement El Oro (MMO) in El Oro Province and the National Coordinator of Black Women (CONAMUNE) in Carchi Province. The main topics discussed during the workshops in Huaquillas (El Oro) and La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n (Carchi) were border security, employment and inequality. In the case of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, the results are based on a group interview with two leaders of the Federation of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos in Lago Agrio and on the Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Agenda of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos (WAS) rather than on a workshop. WAS reports the results of several workshops conducted with local women by the Federation of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos during 2005. The topics included in WAS are health, domestic violence, labor force participation and the Colombian conflict. Since women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conditions have not changed significantly according to the two leaders of this Federation,558 the results of WAS are still a useful source of information to assess women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity in this province. As explained in previous chapters, the security discourse in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones constructs and criminalizes actions such as smuggling as threats to national security, despite the fact that these activities have been historically a way of life in the border zones. To understand this process from the perspective of those who live in the border zones, I conducted workshops in two locations identified as critical areas for smuggling by the security authorities. The objective of these workshops was to identify local perceptions of security and to investigate how intersectional inequalities affect women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security, leading to their involvement in smuggling. The first 558 Group interview conducted by the author at the Federation of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos on July 22, 2013. 187 workshop was conducted on July 13, 2013, in Huaquillas a city located on the border with Peru in El Oro Province. According to the Mestizo male border security authorities and their data regarding attempts to smuggle goods, Huaquillas has the highest problems related to smuggling in the province.559 The second workshop was conducted on August 31, 2013, in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n, a small rural parish in Carchi Province. Initially, I wanted to conduct the workshop in Tulc\u00C3\u00A1n, the capital city of Carchi Province, which is located closer to the border with Colombia. However, two previous interviewees560 agreed that Afro-Ecuadorians from the Chota Valley region, which includes La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n, are part of a smuggling network in Carchi Province. Therefore, I ended up conducting the workshop in that area in order to investigate if there is a link between processes of racialization and the criminalization of women smugglers. Class and ethnic differences cannot be neglected within a feminist critical human security framework seeking to ameliorate women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s quality of life. Workshops conducted with urban low-income Mestizo women in Huaquillas in El Oro Province and with rural low-income Afro-Ecuadorian women in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n in Carchi Province illustrate the diversity of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences of insecurity. As a result, the existing power relations based on race, class, gender and geographical location can be exposed within the patriarchal and racist state. Overall, public policy requires an intersectional approach that focuses on tackling material needs and changing social constructions in order to be effective and to achieve equality. Without a doubt, an intersectional focus on development and security planning is required to increase the human security of women, especially in critical areas such as the border zones. One aspect to consider when planning feminist critical human security within an intersectional 559 The interviews were conducted with the Director of the Hydrocarbon Agency for Regulation and Control- ARCH. at the Southern border, and another with a Customs officer in Chacras, El Oro. 560 The interviews were conducted with the former Secretary for Development Planning at the Northern border, and another with a Customs officer. 188 framework is the inclusion of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s roles in society according to their social location. Policy makers need to recognize women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s triple role at the reproductive, productive and community levels;561 women are not only in charge of childbearing. For example, in rural areas such as La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n in Carchi Province, Afro-Ecuadorian women participate in the economy as agricultural workers; in urban areas, such as Huaquillas and Lago Agrio, among other economic activities, Mestizo women work in the informal sector. In these communities, women are considered to be secondary income earners. These women also have a third role that has to do with their active involvement in community participation. Since feminist critical human security is inclusive of intersectionality, it makes public policy more sensitive to the multiple identities and the process of differentiation that provoke women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity. The following section applies intersectionality in the policy field of women's security in the three provinces that I studied. An intersectional framework for public policy is sensitive to the role of social locations and interacting social processes in the production of inequities. In particular, I have previously discussed that violence against women is not only a matter of gendered power relationships, but is also constructed within racial and class stratification and other systems of oppression. Therefore, public policy informed by intersectionality acknowledges the importance of gender, race/ethnicity, class, income, education and location (rural/urban) in order to respond best to issues of differences among women and men and how these shape their human security in the border zones. It is important to ask who are the women who smuggle in border zones and how their lives are located at the intersection of multiple dimensions of inequity and a web of power relations. These dimensions are analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to identify what inequities they may be subject to. In what follows, a feminist 561 Caroline Moser, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGender planning in the Third World,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Gender and International Relations, eds. Rebecca Grant and Kathleen Newland (U.K.: Open University Press, 1991), 83, 86-87. 189 critical human security approach sensitive to the intersections of gender, race, class and geographical location is applied to the three distinct stages of the public policy cycle: intersectional problem definition; visioning solutions; and monitoring and evaluation. 4.1 Intersectionality and Women's Security in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Carchi and El Oro This case study analyzes the intersections of class, gender, race and geographical location that have contributed to creating women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones. The study was conducted in three provinces, El Oro, Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, representing three border regions, being respectively the coast, the highlands, and the Amazon. Table 6 shows the current diversity of the ethnic groups in these provinces. Afro-Ecuadorian, Mestizos, and Indigenous are the biggest groups. Table 6. Ethnic Groups in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Carchi and El Oro Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Carchi El Oro Capital Lago Agrio Tulc\u00C3\u00A1n Machala Area 18,147km\u00C2\u00B2 3,780km\u00C2\u00B2 6,188 km\u00C2\u00B2 Population 176,472 164,524 600,659 Indigenous 23,684 5,649 4,060 Afro-Ecuadorian 10,351 10,562 41,441 Montubio 1,682 445 16,858 Mestizo 132,354 142,933 489,843 White 8,015 4,711 46,801 Other 386 224 1,656 Source: INEC, VII Censo de Poblaci\u00C3\u00B3n y VI Vivienda, 2010. 190 Table 7 shows the main fields in which the populations of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Carchi and El Oro works, demonstrating a significant gap between men and women in the workplace. Data about the labor force participation rate by ethnicity and gender are needed to inform public policy that is inclusive of a feminist critical human security perspective in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Carchi, and El Oro. Table 7. Fields in which inhabitants of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Carchi and El Oro work Occupation Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos/Men Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos/Women Carchi/Men Carchi/Women El Oro/Men El Oro/Women Private employee 12,398 3,246 8,079 4,505 45,395 19,850 Self-employed 15,236 7,320 11,452 6,840 42,100 24,076 Hacienda worker 8,727 714 14,917 3,084 45,244 4,111 Public employee 6,965 3,676 5,048 3,686 15,330 11,492 No declared 2,112 1,912 905 1,287 6,084 5,194 Maid 165 1,869 100 1,983 622 8,457 Boss 1,130 644 1,301 888 4,955 2,715 Unpaid worker 1,091 546 532 528 2,316 1,209 Partnership 398 189 764 262 2,406 850 Source: INEC, Resultados del censo 2010 Poblaci\u00C3\u00B3n y Vivienda del Ecuador. Fasc\u00C3\u00ADculo provincial Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Carchi, and El Oro. Table 7 reveals a noteworthy gap between men and women working in the private sector, haciendas and public institutions and those who are self-employed. On the other hand, the number of female maids is significantly greater, showing a legitimation of traditional gender roles. This gap is expressed as inequality of opportunities to access a formal job in the formal sector. The situation is even worse in rural parts of the province, such as La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n in the Chota Valley region, which have a greater presence of Afro-Ecuadorian women. 191 Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s northern border region includes three provinces, Esmeraldas, Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and two Colombian departments, Nari\u00C3\u00B1o and Putumayo, in a boundary line extending transversely 543 km. Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s southern border region includes three Ecuadorian provinces, El Oro, Loja and Zamora Chinchipe, and four Peruvian departments, Tumbes, Piura, Cajamarca and Amazonas. Map 1. Ecuador's border Source: Provinces of Ecuador. espanol.mapsofworld.com Permission given on January 19, 2016 (accessed on January 19, 2016). 192 4.1.1 Northern Border According to the 2010 Ecuadorian National Census, Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos have a population of 340,996 inhabitants and a surface area of 21,927km\u00C2\u00B2.562 This study focuses on the rural parish of La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n in Carchi Province and the Chota Valley region, where I conducted a workshop with local women. Non-participative observations and interviews were also carried out in Lago Agrio, the capital of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Province, and in Ibarra, the city where the National Office of Planning and Development of Region 1 (northern border) is situated. Non-participative observations were also conducted in Tulc\u00C3\u00A1n, where the Ecuadorian customs office is located on the Rumichaca Bridge, which borders Colombia. This border area boasts a complex duality. Poverty levels reach 33. 9% in urban areas and 83.5% in the rural area.563 On one hand, the northern border presents natural resource areas of strategic importance for tourism, biodiversity, an attractive climate and ethnic and cultural richness. On the other hand, it shows a low degree of competitiveness and investment, an insufficient level of education and social cohesion, a high level of poverty, malnutrition, social conflict, insecurity, forest predation and a weak presence of the state, which provides poor basic social services,564 clearly affecting the human security of its population. The economy of the northern border area is based on trade, agriculture and the oil industry. In Carchi, the dominant economic activity is trade, followed by agriculture. The situation is different in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos due to the presence of large deposits of oil. Ecuadorian oil is exported through Esmeraldas, another northern province, where the country's largest oil refinery, at Balao, 562 Gobierno del Ecuador, \u00E2\u0080\u009CCenso Nacional de Poblaci\u00C3\u00B3n y Vivienda 2010.\u00E2\u0080\u009D 563 Secretaria T\u00C3\u00A9cnica de Cooperaci\u00C3\u00B3n Internacional del Ecuador (SETECI), Direcci\u00C3\u00B3n de Enlace, Seguimiento y Evaluaci\u00C3\u00B3n \u00E2\u0080\u0093\u00E2\u0080\u009CDiagn\u00C3\u00B3stico de la cooperaci\u00C3\u00B3n y resultados preliminares de la evaluaci\u00C3\u00B3n en Frontera Norte,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cooperamos, Diciembre 2011, no. 3, 23 http://www.seteci.gob.ec/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=24 (accessed April 1st, 2012). 564 Secretaria T\u00C3\u00A9cnica de Cooperaci\u00C3\u00B3n Internacional del Ecuador. Ibid. 193 is located. Therefore, among the provinces in the northern border zone, the only province that has no links with the oil industry is Carchi. Nevertheless, poverty levels are still very high in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos; the resources generated by extraction, processing and transportation of oil do not produce wealth and development for this province.565 The incidence of extreme poverty in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos is 30%, the highest level recorded in the provinces of planning region 1 (northern border), which is almost two times the national average (13%). The province has a lower per-capita income than the minimum cost of a basic food basket that would satisfy the population\u00E2\u0080\u0099s basic needs.566 As claimed by a representative of Plan Ecuador during an interview in Quito on July 1st, 2013, the development features of the northern border provinces have not been similar to those of the other provinces in Ecuador. The lack of infrastructure, such as roads and access to water and sanitation, to meet the basic needs of the communities is a great problem. From this representative\u00E2\u0080\u0099s perspective, the Ecuadorian government should direct all state ministries to make it a priority to use their investment budgets to allocate resources and to intervene in the border zones, hoping for the best results.567 It seems reasonable to assume that individuals have found their own way to deal with the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s abandonment, the lack of human security, unemployment, the unequal distribution of wealth and inequality in the border region through smuggling. At this point, it is relevant to mention that insecurity, violence and crime in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones are not exclusively related to an external threat or to neighboring states\u00E2\u0080\u0099 security policies. In this vein, Andr\u00C3\u00A9s G\u00C3\u00B3mez claims that Ecuador already experienced an important growth in crime during the 1990s within the Andean region context. Ecuador began to experience a steady escalation of the homicide rate in the 1980s, but it remained below ten homicides per hundred 565 Pablo Samaniego Ponce, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLa Econom\u00C3\u00ADa de la Frontera Norte del Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Fronteras 7, FLACSO Sede Ecuador Programa de Estudios de la Ciudad (2011): 6. 566 Ministerio de Coordinaci\u00C3\u00B3n de la Producci\u00C3\u00B3n, Empleo y Competitividad, Agendas para la Transformaci\u00C3\u00B3n Productiva Territorial: Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, (Junio, 2011), 24. 567 Interview translated and conducted by the author with a representative of Plan Ecuador on July 1 2013, Quito-Ecuador. 194 thousand inhabitants, but it had double by the end of 1990.568 A review of the homicide rate since the late 1980s demonstrates that, in the provinces such as Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, bordering Colombia, violence was present even before the implementation of Plan Colombia. Table 8. Homicides rate in the Andean Region Country Late 1980s-Early 1990s Latest figure available in 1995 Colombia 89.5 65.0 Ecuador 10.3 14.8 Peru 11.5 10.3 Source: Arcos, Carri\u00C3\u00B3n, and Palomeque. Ecuador, Informe Seguridad Ciudadana y Violencia 1990-1999. Quito, FLACSO-Ecuador (2003). The root of violence in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border region is not exclusively related to the consequences of the Colombian conflict, but to the numerous inequalities experienced by the population. In Fernando Carri\u00C3\u00B3n\u00E2\u0080\u0099s terms (2013), violence is diverse: there is not one but several types of violence, because violence is an expression of various social relations of conflict that change according to the context in which it occurs. In the context of the diversity of violence, a special type of violence has developed in the border regions that takes advantage of asymmetries and inequalities at the national and binational levels. When the asymmetries are exacerbated, a conflict arises and violence at the borders increases.569 Border policies are, however, manifested in the discourses of foreign affairs and defense of sovereignty, hiding the socio-economic problems in 568 Andr\u00C3\u00A9s G\u00C3\u00B3mez, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLa Frontera Colombo-Ecuatoriana: desde la ejecuci\u00C3\u00B3n de Pol\u00C3\u00ADticas de Seguridad a las consecuencias en Seguridad Ciudadana,\u00E2\u0080\u009D en Fernando Carri\u00C3\u00B3n, Seguridad, planificaci\u00C3\u00B3n y desarrollo en las regiones transfronterizas, Fronteras, FLACSO-Ecuador. IDRC-Canad\u00C3\u00A1. (2013), 106. 569 Fernando Carri\u00C3\u00B3n, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLa violencia fronteriza,\u00E2\u0080\u009D en Seguridad, Planificaci\u00C3\u00B3n y Desarrollo en las regiones transfronterizas, compilador Fernando Carri\u00C3\u00B3n, FLACSO-Ecuador y IDRC-Canad\u00C3\u00A1 (2013), 9, 24. 195 the border regions.570 Thus, the policies that prevail are based on a national security approach rather than on public safety, human security and peaceful coexistence. As a result, the living conditions of the border populations tend to be ignored because of the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s preoccupation with national security interests. The border, therefore, becomes, in Carrion\u00E2\u0080\u0099s perspective, an exclusionary barrier and not a space of integration.571 Ironically, the dynamics of violence in the border regions are born from the very policies that the state designed to eliminate them.572 An intersectional approach to tackling inequalities, such as feminist critical human security, is not even considered when trying to overcome the structural violence faced in the border regions through more comprehensive public policies. Certainly, inequalities promote a violent environment and the ensuing disadvantages for the human security of the people living in the border region, especially women. The following section examines the socio-economic data from Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and Carchi provinces in order to assess the insecurity of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conditions in those provinces. In the Ecuadorian border regions, women\u00C2\u00B4s security is threatened by complex social and economic circumstances that are worsened by multiple sources of inequality. Women in the provinces of Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos are affected by violence, an increased cost of living, minimal access to education, the lack of employment opportunities and controlled trade due to the presence of border security authorities. These factors reduce the opportunities of earning income for women, restrict their mobility,573 generate economic insecurity and increase family instability and household violence. Hence, the insufficient integration of women into paid and productive work restricts their access to job opportunities in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border provinces, thereby significantly decreasing 570 Carri\u00C3\u00B3n, Ibid., 24. 571 Carri\u00C3\u00B3n, Ibid., 26. 572 Carri\u00C3\u00B3n, Ibid., 29. 573 Gloria Camacho, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMujeres al Borde. Refugiadas Colombianas en Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Fondo de Desarrollo de las Naciones Unidas para la Mujer (Quito: UNIFEM, 2005), 22. 196 their economic security. Although the section identifies identity markers such as race, social status, location (rural-urban) and gender to assess the inequalities faced by local women in their everyday lives, it is absolutely relevant to be aware that women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s material needs cannot be considered in isolation. The simultaneous transformation of the discursive practices that have constructed intersections of inequality within systems of oppression must be achieved as well. This section will conclude by suggesting that only the creation of public policies concerned with the intersection of gender, race, ethnicity, class and geographical location in the lives of the diverse female populations living in the border regions would make it possible to address the multiple sources of inequality experienced by the various social groups at the material and discursive levels. In that way, it would become possible to find new ways to transform the current conditions of insecurity in the communities. 4.1.1.1 Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos-Lago Agrio Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Province was created in 1989 in the northern region of the Ecuadorian Amazon, covering 6.31% of the national territory.574 It borders Colombia to the north, the provinces of Napo and Orellana to the south, Peru and Colombia to the east and the provinces of Carchi, Imbabura and Pichincha to the west. 574 This province was created on February 11, 1989, according to Law No. 008, published on the Official Register No. 127 on February 13, 1989. 197 Map 2. Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Province Source: Map of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Province. http://www.codeso.com/TurismoEcuador/Mapa_Sucumbios.html Permission was given on March 27, 2016 (accessed on March 25, 2016). The region where Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Province is located was traditionally the territory of indigenous peoples, such as the Cofanes, the Sionas and the Secoyas. Since the late nineteenth century, this area has also been populated by the indigenous Kichwa group that led by caucheros,575 came to Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos from Napo Province. Interethnic relations in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos have been characterized by the recognition of differences, mutual understanding and conflict. The colonization of this province by groups from different regions of the country led to encounters between various cultures. Initially, this relationship was based on mutual cooperation between families of mixed descent and native Indians of the Amazon. For example, Indigenous families recommended to Mestizo families the use of medicinal plants that can reduce tooth pain or skin allergies.576 In a context characterized by the absence of the central state and weak and almost non-existent local institutions, everyday relations were based on social solidarity among the inhabitants of the region in order to support 575 Caucheros are known as the owners of the haciendas exploiting rubber in the region. 576 Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 115. 198 each other to solve the problems that they faced. For instance, women helped critically ill people in the community by providing food, medicine and care, and even by requesting soldiers to help them to bury a decease community member.577 There were ties of cooperation and friendship between Indigenous and Mestizo families, but cultural differences, especially regarding the relationship with the land, and linguistic differences induced Indigenous people to search for spaces where they could organize and could recreate better their culture. As a result, with the support of the Mestizos inhabitants, the Indigenous inhabitants of the region advocated being given a common territory and a reservation.578 Cultural differences were also causes of conflict, as in the case of the relationship between Black people and Mestizos, which was aggravated by discriminatory attitudes based on negative stereotypes. For example, Black people were often blamed for robberies. In one incident, a Black woman refused to be arrested by the police, because she was not involved in robbery, but she was stopped by security authorities because of her race.579 Poverty and inequality in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos have structural roots based on discrimination against some ethnic groups. The country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s colonial heritage resulted in the decline of welfare levels of ethnic groups such as Afro-Ecuadorians. This situation has generated a profound asymmetry in the levels of development of this ethnic group. For instance, it is noteworthy that, based on the economic dependency ratio, 54.5% of Afro-Ecuadorians are economically dependent.580 Structural inequality based on the race and ethnicity of certain social groups persists despite the presence of the oil industry in the province. Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos\u00E2\u0080\u0099 economy is primarily based on the oil industry, which turned the area into a magnet for population migration from the mountains and the coast of Ecuador. The peasant 577 Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, La Historia de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos desde las voces de las mujeres, desde distintos lugares hemos llegado hasta aqu\u00C3\u00AD\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 (Quito, Abya Yala: 2009), 118-119. 578 Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 115-116. 579 Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 116-117. 580 INEC, VII Censo de Poblaci\u00C3\u00B3n y VI Vivienda, 2010. 199 economy, meanwhile, was based on the production of coffee, cocoa and. in recent years, other products such as palm oil. In 1964, the Ecuadorian government gave a Texaco-Gulf consortium 1,431,450 hectares of land in the northern Amazon region of what is now known as Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. In 1967, the first oil well called Lago Agrio, extended production.581 Since 1972, the oil industry, especially in the areas of Lago Agrio, Cuyabeno and Shushufindi, has been the leading producer of hydrocarbon products in Ecuador, representing 40% of the national budget.582 The presence of transnational oil companies and the exploitation of oil have resulted in serious environmental, health and social damage to the Lago Agrio region. In the period between 1972 and 1993 alone, more than 30 billion gallons (114 billion liters) of toxic waste and crude oil were discharged into the lands and waterways of the Ecuadorian Amazon.583 Specifically, the oil company Chevron584 has been found guilty of these types of damage in Ecuador.585 Oil exploitation in the area has created health risks related to exposure to chemicals, metals and drilling mud and to accidental explosions.586 According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, when petroleum and natural gases are burned, harmful components, such as nitrous, sulphuric and carbon oxides, heavy metals and hydrocarbon particulates, are released into the air. The potential exposure to hydrocarbons from the petroleum industry activities include inhalation of vapors and dermal contact.587 Moreover, environmental contamination associated with oil exploitation has increased cancer cases in local communities.588 The presence of the oil industry has not decreased 581 Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, La Historia de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos desde las voces de las mujeres (Quito: Universidad Polit\u00C3\u00A9cnica Salesiana-Abya Yala, 2009): 71. 582 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Agenda de las Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos (2006):7. 583Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. Ibid. 7. 584 The oil company Texaco operated in Ecuador from 1964-1990. Texaco was bought by Chevron in 2001. 585 BBC News, \u00E2\u0080\u009CUS judge annuls Ecuador oil ruling against Chevron,\u00E2\u0080\u009D March 4, 2014. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26441836 (accessed July 7, 2014). 586 Santiago Borasin, Susanah Foster, and others, Oil: A Life Cycle Analysis of its Health and Environmental Impacts, ed. Paul R Epstein and Jesse Selber. The Center for Health and the Global Environment (2002). 587 Michael Kelsh, Libby Morimoto, and Edmund Lau, \u00E2\u0080\u009CCancer Mortality and Oil Production in the Amazon Region of Ecuador, 1990-2005,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Int Arch Occup Environ Health. DOI 10.1007/s00420-008-0345-x (2008). 588 Richard W. Clapp, \u00E2\u0080\u009COil Extractions and Its Human Health Impacts in the Amazon Region of Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Julio 2006. 200 inequalities; rather, it has created severe damage that affects the security of women and their communities. The adverse effects of oil extraction aggravate the insecurity of communities. In a patriarchal society women are the keepers of the home and family. The contamination of water and the environment, which affects the health of the population as a whole, imposes more demands, pressures and anxieties on women than on men. For instance, women are permanently exposed to water contaminated with hydrocarbons due to their responsibility for providing the basic necessities of the household, such as clean water to cook and to wash clothing by hand.589 Although Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos is a source of natural resources such as oil, the absence of the state and the profits of the oil industry contribute little to its development. Rather, this industry has worsened the environmental security of women and their communities. As a result of the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s absence, the people of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos have exercised their collective power through several forms of social resistance. One interesting feature of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos is that it has been a province characterized by its social organization and its power to act. According to Hannah Arendt (1970), power is not just the human ability to act, but to act in concert.590 The population in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos has acted together through several types of organizations, in which women were the visible protagonists of provincial demands, as shown during actions against: a) the lack of the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s presence in the province before and during the earthquake of 1987; b) popular resistance due to 500 years of the Spanish conquest in October 1992; c) the refusal to tolerate the unjust arrests of peasants and Indigenous persons in 589 Miguel San Sebasti\u00C3\u00A1n; Ben Armstrong y Carolyn Stephens, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLa Salud de mujeres que viven cerca de pozos y estaciones de petr\u00C3\u00B3leo en la Amazon\u00C3\u00ADa ecuatoriana,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Revista Panamericana de Salud P\u00C3\u00BAblica 9, no. 6 (2001): 375-384. 590Hannah Arendt, On Violence (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970), 44. 201 December 1993; d) actions against the privatization of oil in 1997; and e) provincial strikes in 2005.591 Alicia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s testimony demonstrates the power of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social organization. \u00E2\u0080\u009CI mean here [in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos], there have been great battles waged by the organizational structures of society. From various organizations, from the Bi-provincial [Orellana and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Assembly], it is a province that has been characterized by its social fabric. And through its social fabric, many goals have been pursued and achieved.\u00E2\u0080\u009D592 During the strikes in 2005, women played an important role in the democratic space created by the Bi-Provincial Assembly, which is made up of two Amazonian provinces Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and Orellana. This Assembly decided to pressure the government to invest 25% of the royalties or income tax paid by the oil companies in social services and infrastructure in the two provinces.593 Currently, the government invests 12% of the royalties from the oil sector.594 Similar to the strike in 2005, the strike in the Dayuma area in 2007 included sabotage of public oil infrastructure and attempts to blow up a bridge, creating millions of dollars of losses to the state.595 These strikes show the desperation and disappointment of the population caused by the unfair distribution of the wealth. It is a right of the Amazonian communities to receive the benefits of the oil industry in order to improve human security in the border zone. The empowerment of women in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos led to the creation of a strong women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organization in the province. In 2006, two forums highlighted and discussed two main themes. The first, held on March 14, 2006, examined the impact of Plan Colombia on the population of the 591 Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, La Historia de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos desde las voces de las mujeres, Universidad Polit\u00C3\u00A9cnica Salesiana- Abya Yala, (2009), 161-178. 592 Interview translated and conducted with Alicia Garc\u00C3\u00A9s, Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos (translated as Federation of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos) in Lago Agrio, July 22, 2014. 593 Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 167. 594 Ley de Hidrocarburos del Estado Ecuatoriano de 1978 (translated as Hidrocarbon Law). It is the law that governs and regulates the oil and gas sector, this is the first specific law that deals with this sector. Since its publication it has undergone many changes, the last being on November 24, 2011. See more at file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/LEY%20DE%20HIDROCARBUROS.pdf (accessed on September 22, 2015). 595 La Hora, \u00E2\u0080\u009CTres ministros responden ante Asamblea por Dayuma,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 18 de Febrero de 2008. http://www.lahora.com.ec/index.php/noticias/show/683138/1/Tres_ministros_responden_ante_Asamblea_por_Dayuma.html#.U720F_ldXYE (accessed on July 9, 2014). 202 province, including the point of view of women. The second held, on April 10 of the same year, focused on the analysis of the organizational and political participation of women, including a proposal for the electoral process.596 These events evolved into the Agenda for Action for Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, formed by the following organizations: 1) Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Federation of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos; 2) Women Center of the Cooperative Grammen Amazon; 3) Women Leaders Network for Nationalities of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos; 4) Women's Association of the Kichwa Nationality of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos; 5) Organization of Black Women \u00E2\u0080\u009CNew Hope\u00E2\u0080\u009D; and 6) Table of Gender Equality.597 As a result of several meetings, a coordinating committee was formed, composed of representatives of the different organizations. The themes discussed were sexual and reproductive health, domestic violence and the gendered impacts of Plan Colombia in relation to the right to live in peace, the economy, education and political participation. The contributions of women regarding the specific socio-cultural problems faced by them, as well as their proposed solutions, were collected through several workshops that built the women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s provincial agenda. 403 women participated in the workshops, including 35 in the capital of the province, Lago Agrio.598 The common goal of the women's organizations representing different ethnic, social and geographic sectors of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, was to improve the lives of women and to participate actively as a collective force in actions that could benefit the province. By building collective strength, the women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations seek to reduce social conflict and to promote equitable relations. In sum, the empowerment of the population of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos is shown through several initiatives that protect the rights of the province such as strikes to pressure the government to invest 25% of the royalties paid by oil companies in social services and infrastructure, demands to protect the environment in the region and the creation of the women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s agenda. From an Arendtian 596 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Agenda de las Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, 4. 597 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. Ibid. 4. 598 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. Ibid. 4-5. 203 perspective, an individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s act becomes empowering as long it turns into an action that occurs within the web of human relationships.599 Therefore, the power exercised by the population of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, in Arendt\u00E2\u0080\u0099s terms, appears when people act together. When people live together as an organized unit, they produce power through action. In the next section, women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos is investigated as a policy field that needs to integrate the intersections of gender, race, class and geographical location at all stages of the policymaking process. The stages proposed to be analyzed are the following: intersectional problem definition; visioning common solutions for multiple inequalities; and monitoring (measuring indicators of improvement in achieving equality). There are multiple other intersections that can be included, such as religion, immigration status, disability status and sexual orientation, but my study focuses on intersections of gender, social class, ethnicity and rural-urban location in the policy field of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security. Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos: Intersectional problem definition In 2006, local women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations came together to create the Agenda of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos (Agenda de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos) as an important initiative to tackle the inequalities that they faced daily. During the workshops conducted to elaborate this agenda, local women discussed six areas of intervention: health; domestic violence; the Colombian conflict and peace; economic rights; education and political participation. a) Health Health was one of the topics identified by women in the Agenda of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. One of the main factors that affects the health security of women is the lack of adequate infrastructure, 599 Arendt, The Human Condition, 181-184. 204 supplies and medicines. Historically, health policies have not provided adequate solutions to the health problems of the population in the province. Public clinics have usually been small spaces with inadequate infrastructure and limited supplies and medicines. Health Area No. 1 is located in Lago Agrio, which is the capital city of the province; in this city, the \u00E2\u0080\u009CDr. Marco Vinicio Iza\u00E2\u0080\u009D General Hospital has only 40 beds for the four basic specialties (general medicine, pediatrics, gynecology and obstetrics, and surgery). In Area No. 2, which is located closer to rural areas, the \u00E2\u0080\u009CShushufindi Central\u00E2\u0080\u009D Basic Hospital has only 15 beds for the same four basic specialties. The total of beds at the provincial level in the public hospitals is 55. At the private level, there are 147 beds distributed in five clinics,600 but local women cannot afford to pay a private clinic. In 2015, the Ministry of Public Health built a public hospital with 150 beds.601 This initiative was an important contribution to the health sector, but it is still not enough to meet the heath needs of the provincial population. The government needs to understand that women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security and public health are deeply intertwined. Another factor that affects the sexual and reproductive health of women is related to a lack of services and personnel in the health system, which is also related to the strong patriarchal structure that persists within families in the province. Drawing on the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO), 23 physicians is the minimum number recommended per 10,000 inhabitants. However, 19 Ecuadorian provinces have not yet reached that goal, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos being the province with the lowest rate, namely of 11 physicians per 10,000 inhabitants.602 Although health is an essential human right, not all women have access to the public health system 600 Asdruval Albuja, Programa M\u00C3\u00A9dico Funcional Nueva Loja. Centro de Salud Tipo C-1. Centro de Atenci\u00C3\u00B3n Ambulatoria IESS. Instituto Ecuatoriano de Seguridad Social. Direcci\u00C3\u00B3n Nacional del Seguro de Salud Individual y Familiar. http://www.iess.gob.ec/documents/10162/3321612/PMF+NUEVA+LOJA.pdf (accessed September 15, 2015). 601 Asdruval Albuja. Ibid. 602 Ministerio de Salud P\u00C3\u00BAblica del Ecuador, Datos Esenciales de Salud: Una Mirada a la d\u00C3\u00A9cada 2000-2010, Coordinaci\u00C3\u00B3n General de Desarrollo Estrat\u00C3\u00A9gico en Salud (2012), 53. http://www.salud.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/05/Datos-esenciales-de-salud-2000-2010.pdf (accessed September 18, 2015). 205 in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. Only 30% of pregnant women have access to the public health system; only 58% of women have care during childbirth, while 42% of women who have none are located in rural areas.603 Hospitals do not have enough medicines and supplies. Despite their lack of financial resources, women must acquire their own medicines. Sometimes C-sections are cancelled due to the lack of anesthesiologists.604 Access to a private clinic is not an option for women due to economic and cultural reasons. In rural areas, midwives help during childbirth. Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos has the highest rate of maternal deaths in the country, with 330 per 100,000 births. The main causes of death are difficulties in labor, eclampsia, hemorrhage, postpartum and antepartum. In this province the fertility of women, especially in rural areas, is still very high (an average of seven children) and especially in the Indigenous population.605 Cultural practices and machismo provoke women to start getting pregnant at a very young age, often around 13 years of age. This situation is also the result of poor information about sexuality in the education system and the media. In this context, the responsibility for planning, through birth control, the number of children desired in the family is not yet determined by economic, health and emotional circumstances that guarantee the good health of both women and their children.606 This situation diminishes the quality of life for women. One of the first steps to visioning solutions for multiple inequalities is that statistics regarding health must be broken down by race and gender at the provincial level. Thus, statistics by race and gender inform public policy design, demonstrating disparities between the health of Blacks, Indigenous, Mestizo and Whites in urban and rural areas in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. In particular, the health sector in this province needs a public policy that is targeted mainly at poor women in rural 603 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 15. 604 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 16. 605 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 15. 606 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 15. 206 areas where the service is limited. In this sense, an equitable provision of basic services, healthcare infrastructure and the permanent presence of a medical doctor in the walk-in clinics is required. These initiatives must be accompanied by the creation of a wide variety of health indicators. Monitoring and evaluation Monitoring and evaluating the implementation of public health policy within an intersectional framework is required to ensure the success of initiatives aimed at the well-being of women. Through the Agenda of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations have proposed the formation of oversight committees for the monitoring and control of health services locally and with the support of the women's organizations.607 It is important, therefore, to identify health indicators that take into account differences between ethnic groups and between urban and rural populations. It is also important to consider the negative effects of environmental issues on health.608 The following are the measurable indicators that I propose considering in an intersectional perspective on the health sector of this province: number of female deaths due to lack of health care in rural areas; percentage of health care utilization and access in rural areas by ethnicity and gender; number of well-nourished rural women during pregnancy by ethnicity; mortality rate due to respiratory infection among rural women; and incidence of morbidity due to acute respiratory infections among rural Indigenous, Black, and Mestizo women. These indicators are, however, neither fixed nor universal. What makes a good indicator in one context at one time will not necessarily be relevant at another. 607 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Agenda de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. http://lafede.org/images/stories/documentos/agendadelasmujeresdesucumbios.pdf (accessed on September 21, 2015) 608 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 13-14. 207 b) Domestic Violence Domestic violence disrupts women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security in the private sphere. The organization of the family in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, as in the rest of Ecuador, serves a patriarchal model that has established hierarchies of power and roles between men and women. The direct consequence is that violence is not viewed as a violation of a fundamental right.609 Around 38% of women in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos have suffered gender-based violence.610 Currently, the health system simply diagnoses these abuses as bruising, headaches, ulcers or bleeding caused by abortion. However, these diagnoses do not show that this kind of violence is caused by men.611 For Guadalupe Le\u00C3\u00B3n, the system of justice does little to prevent psychological, physical and verbal violence against women.612 Women are also afraid and ashamed to denounce violence, often leaving such crimes unpunished.613 The educational system that discriminates against women also supports the idea of men\u00E2\u0080\u0099s sexual supremacy.614 Therefore, violence by men is not subject to denunciation or change.615 Domestic violence in the province mostly harms women, and it is not yet seen as a relevant public issue. Because it is exercised within the sphere of the family, the problem of domestic violence is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cprivatized.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Domestic violence also occurs when the male who assumes the role of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe provider\u00E2\u0080\u009D in the family fails to fulfill his functions. Masculinity then also suffers its crisis, causing a huge burden of frustration, 609 Guadalupe Le\u00C3\u00B3n, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLa Violencia de G\u00C3\u00A9nero en el Ecuador: Nudos y Perspectivas,\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00C3\u0081frica Am\u00C3\u00A9rica Latina. Cuadernos no. 19. Centro de Estudios de Investigaci\u00C3\u00B3n sobre el Maltrato de la Mujer Ecuatoriana, 95-97. 610 Instituto Nacional de Estad\u00C3\u00ADsticas y Censos (INEC) y Secretar\u00C3\u00ADa Nacional de Planificaci\u00C3\u00B3n y Desarrollo (SENPLADES), Encuesta Nacional de Relaciones Familiares y Violencia de G\u00C3\u00A9nero en contra de las Mujeres (translated as National Survey of Family Relations and Gender Violence against Women), November 2011. 611 Le\u00C3\u00B3n, Ibid., 97. 612 Le\u00C3\u00B3n, Ibid., 95. 613 The new Ecuadorian Penal Code, launched in August 2014, protects all people suffering from psychological to physical violence. This legislation defines such attacks (without physical injury) as a crime and establishes prison for seven to 30 days for the aggressor and financial compensation for the victim. When it comes to pregnant women and older adults, the penalty increases to 40 days in jail. Instead, femicide which is a crime against a woman by virtue of being or gender is punishable by imprisonment for between 22 and 26 years. In the previous Penal Code, this crime was not included as such, but was considered as murder and the penalties established were between 12 and 16 years. 614 Le\u00C3\u00B3n, Ibid., 96. 615 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Agenda de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, 20. 208 the outcome of which often is domestic violence,616 affecting the personal security of women. Women in most cases must suffer violent situations in solitude and silence that are socially accepted under the common belief that the family is a sacred space. There are no policies at the local level to address the problem of domestic violence through specific psychological care and legal advice. In the absence of proposals from the state, some local women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations have developed initiatives to address the issue with their own resources. In this regard, it is important to mention the shelter for female victims of violence run by the Women's Federation of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos since 2000.617 As a result of the ongoing struggle of women's organizations, in November 2006, the Women's Commissariat618 began operating in Lago Agrio. The Women's Commissariat is a public institution that seeks to prevent and detect domestic violence. It reviews and coordinates comprehensive care for victims of domestic violence, providing an interdisciplinary treatment through legal service, psychological and social support and promotion of a life free of violence.619 However, other cities lack this public institution, leaving more space for abuses against women with impunity. Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations have proposed several strategies to tackle domestic violence in the province. The first strategy involves ensuring that women's organizations include domestic and gender-based violence in their agendas as the top-priority issue.620 However, from a feminist critical human security perspective, a way of visioning solutions for multiple inequalities will encourage these organizations to take into consideration the extent to which the intersections of 616 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 20. 617 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 21. 618 Gobernaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, \u00E2\u0080\u009CComisar\u00C3\u00ADa de La Mujer,\u00E2\u0080\u009D http://gobernacionsucumbios.gob.ec/?p=1652 (accessed on July 17, 2014). 619 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 21. 620 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 22. 209 gender, class, ethnicity, race and geographical location influence the prevalence of domestic violence. The second strategy encourages the education of institutional staff, working on education, health, police, the justice system, Law 103621 and its application mechanisms, along with the legal framework that deals with sexual offenses.622 This strategy is aimed at creating awareness among public servants, but it also needs to be targeted at families through community activities that inform them of the social and legal consequences of discrimination and violence. The third strategy looks at monitoring the authorities responsible for the implementation and application of Law 103 and the legal framework that deals with sexual offenses.623 This strategy is very important because Law 103 needs to be implemented effectively in order to avoid allowing more cases of abuse and violence to go unpunished. The fourth strategy is to encourage the visibility of the problem of domestic violence as a public health issue at the county and provincial levels. The fifth strategy suggests the establishment of police stations to serve women at the local level, adapting the services to the sociocultural conditions of the population. Finally, the agenda of the Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Federation of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos seeks to improve specialized health care service delivery for victims of violence.624 All these initiatives need special support from the state through technical and financial resources, and continuous political will. 621 The Law against Violence to Women and the Family was originated at the National Directorate for Women; it is the result of the collaboration between lawyers, judges, organized women's groups, NGOs, the Commission for Women, Children and the Family of the National Congress and the support of international agencies. It is known as Law 103. It was adopted on 29 November 1995 and published in the Official Gazette No 839 of 11 December of the same year. 622 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 22. 623 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 22. 624 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 22. 210 Monitoring and evaluation The creation of a wide variety of domestic violence indicators is needed to benefit all women. For example, the number of incidents of violence against women by race and ethnicity and by geographical location (urban-rural) in the border provinces such as Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos can be a measurable indicator from an intersectional perspective. For this reason, it is important that statistics regarding domestic violence in Ecuadorian official documents are classified by geographical location, race, ethnicity and gender at the provincial level. These statistics can demonstrate disparities between exposure to domestic violence among Blacks, Indigenous, Mestizo, and White women in urban and rural areas in the province. Thus, these statistics are required to inform public policy design and implementation. Moreover, laws and public policies need to be accompanied by programs aimed at changing the social constructions that perpetuate racism and sexism as sources of violence against women living in border provinces such as Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. c) Labor Force Participation Structural violence against women in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos is also reflected in their poor economic participation. According to the 2010 Census, the economically active population (EAP) in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos Province was 71,490 inhabitants. Of these inhabitants 50,237 were men and 21,253 were women,625 which shows the lack of women's contribution to the economy. Some 22.6% of the female EAP is located in rural areas, where agriculture is the principal economic activity. Some 16.3% of the female EAP is located in urban areas and is dedicated to the service sector.626 In urban areas, women are usually integrated into the informal sector of the economy, which explains 625 Resultados del Censo 2010 de Poblaci\u00C3\u00B3n y Vivienda del Ecuador. Fasc\u00C3\u00ADculo Provincial Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. http://www.ecuadorencifras.gob.ec/wp-content/descargas/Manu-lateral/Resultados-provinciales/sucumbios.pdf (accessed January, 2016). 626 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Agenda de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, 30. 211 why they have less access to labor rights. Overall, the unemployment rate in the province is 10.6%. The unemployment rate of women (15.5%) is more than double that of men (6.9%). The total rate of underemployment for the region is 62.8%, corresponding to 56.1% for men and 71.8% for women.627 This section presents official statistics, but aspects of the border informal economy, such as smuggling, are not included. Statistics demonstrate that women face limited employment options. In Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, the number of households headed by women is 21.6% 628 while the labor force participation rate for women is 26.3%.629 In relation to the economic participation of women, the Participatory Strategic Development Plan of the Province of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos (2005-2015) points out that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinequality is also reflected in the persistent limitation in entering and remaining in the labor market, sources of income generation and ignorance of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s contribution to society\u00E2\u0080\u0099s economy.\u00E2\u0080\u009D630 Furthermore, the reproductive capacity of women has not been considered a privilege; rather it has been a pretext for viewing as natural women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s assignment to the domestic sphere.631 Discrimination in the labor market affects women in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. Other areas of discrimination against women occur in the extractive sector. The few women who are active in this sector have no security or work-related rights under the Labour Code.632 There are no data regarding how many women in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos work in the extractive sector or if men and women receive equal benefits. Microenterprises, where women do participate, face many adverse conditions due to the lack of credit lines, the absence of information on state programs, low 627 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 30. 628 Consejo Nacional de Mujeres-CONAMU, \u00E2\u0080\u009CJefatura de Hogar por Sexo,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Encuesta de Condiciones de Vida 1998. 629 Camacho, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMujeres al Borde. Refugiadas Colombianas en Ecuador,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 29. 630 Gobierno Provincial de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, \u00E2\u0080\u009CPlan Participatorio para el Desarrollo Estrat\u00C3\u00A9gico de la Provincia de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos (2005-2015),\u00E2\u0080\u009D in G\u00C3\u00A9nero y Frontera Norte, Carmen De la Cruz, Programa de Desarrollo y Paz en el la Frontera Norte del Ecuador, (Quito: UNIFEM-UNDP, 2007), 21 631Guadalupe Le\u00C3\u00B3n, \u00E2\u0080\u009CLa Violencia de G\u00C3\u00A9nero en el Ecuador: Nudos y Perspectivas,\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00C3\u0081frica Am\u00C3\u00A9rica Latina. Cuadernos no. 19. Centro de Estudios de Investigaci\u00C3\u00B3n sobre el Maltrato de la Mujer Ecuatoriana, 97. 632 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Agenda de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, 31. http://lafede.org/images/stories/documentos/agendadelasmujeresdesucumbios.pdf (accessed September 22, 2015). 212 productivity, informality and insufficient income, which does not allow for sustainable development. During the workshop conducted to create the Agenda of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, the attendees mentioned that, in addition to irregular working conditions and the limited supply of jobs, women are often subject to sexual harassment or blackmail if they whish to keep temporary or long-term jobs. These situations have not been sufficiently known or tackled within organizations; they are considered to be isolated events.633 These inequalities in the labor market reduce women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s options to empower themselves and to become self-reliant individuals. Access to the social security system is another limitation in the province. According to the 2010 Census, in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos 68.3% of women and 60.9% of men are not registered with the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS), which is responsible for implementing the compulsory national social security system,634 which includes a pension plan, public health benefits and access to loans. Only 22% of women and 26.7% of men contribute to this system.635 Ecuadorians receive the benefits of the social security system only if they are working in the formal sector, where employers and employees split the cost of the monthly contributions. Nevertheless, if Ecuadorians are not working, or if they are living abroad, they can decide to contribute in full to these payments in a voluntary basis. Based on their local knowledge and experiences, women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos have proposed several initiatives to improve employment conditions in the province. For example, these organizations seek to pressure local and provincial governments to fulfill their development role, promoting policies and actions for employment generation inclusive of a gender perspective.636 However, in order to discover and vision solutions to structural intersectional 633 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Agenda de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, 31. 634 INEC, Censo de Poblaci\u00C3\u00B3n y Vivienda 2010 (translated as 2010 Census Results of population and housing in Ecuador, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos provincial chapter). 635 INEC, Ibid. 636 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 31. 213 inequalities, it is important to produce data related to the unemployment rate by gender, race, ethnicity and geographical location at the provincial level. A lack of data limits an intersectional approach, such as feminist critical human security, to promoting equality. The data that is not collected hides structural issues that affect this diverse population differently, leading to more inequalities. Monitoring and Evaluation It is important to identify employment indicators that take into account racial and ethnic differences and levels of education according to geographical location (urban-rural). For instance, the number of (Indigenous, Black and Mestizo) women working in the extractive sector receiving equal benefits to (Indigenous, Black and Mestizo) men, and the number of microcredits that rural indigenous women can access. In what follows, I discuss the effects of the Colombian conflict as another issue that has affected women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. d) Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security and the effects of the Colombian conflict The impacts of the Colombian conflict have also increased the human insecurity situation in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. Since the late 1990s, due to the dollarization of the Ecuadorian economy, and subsequently, the implementation of Plan Colombia, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos has been suffering a severe economic crisis. This situation, according to the Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Movement of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, has been exacerbated by the increased immigration flow of displaced Colombians,637 thereby increasing the unemployment rate in this area through competition in the labour market. The Colombian conflict has also increased the presence of security forces in the northern border, provoking strict 637 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 7. 214 immigration controls.638 Due to these type of controls, according to the Agenda of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, families have been divided and cannot visit each other as before. This situation has changed relationships characterized by deep historical family ties between the peoples of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and those in border areas in Colombia. Moreover, trade channels that existed previously have been broken and now are perceived as an illicit economy,639 or are labeled by the Ecuadorian border security authorities as smuggling. Historically, the presence of the Ecuadorian state has been minimal in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. There have not been enough facilities where inhabitants can obtain documentation to prove that they are Ecuadorians (identity cards, birth certificates, etc.). Currently, this situation has increased the percentage of the population that lacks such documentation, putting them in an extremely vulnerable situation due to the continuous migration controls of the Colombian and Ecuadorian security forces.640 Alicia Garc\u00C3\u00A9s, an expert on the development of projects in the Federation of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, explains how the lack of a stronger presence of the Ecuadorian and Colombian states in the border region and national security discourses and practices clearly affect the security of women and men living in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. \u00E2\u0080\u009CThere are women, some of Colombian origin, who have lived in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zone [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] They never had the need to regulate their stay in the country [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] In the Putumayo area [Colombia department] there was no civil registry. Then, where could they register their children born in Ecuador? As a result of Plan Colombia, the governments focus their interest on the northern border whereas previously all the state's interest was to defend the southern border. But since 2000, [all the attention] went to the northern border because of the Colombian conflict. This added other forms of regulation for the movement of citizens from one country to another. That will generate a lot of trouble. For example, the comrades who are Ecuadorian or Colombian and have been here for a long term, they are viewed as irregulars and have difficulties moving within the province.\u00E2\u0080\u009D641 638 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Agenda de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, 21. 639 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 25. 640 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 25. 641 Interview translated and conducted with Alicia Garc\u00C3\u00A9s, Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos (translated as Federation of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos) in Lago Agrio-Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, July 22, 2013. 215 Certainly, one of the problems that affect women in particular is the Colombian conflict, especially when Colombian women have to seek refuge in Ecuador. According to the interview conducted in Lago Agrio with Alicia Garc\u00C3\u00A9s, many Colombian women looking for international protection in Ecuador have come on their own with their children, becoming the heads of household, as they have left their husbands and everything they owned behind.642 This situation has become a problem that affects a large group of women in the province; these women require special support. In addition to being refugees, these women are still vulnerable to domestic and gender violence, which arises precisely from the conflict.643 Also, because of their more vulnerable position, these Colombian migrants become cheap labor, competing with Ecuadorian workers and increasing xenophobia and discrimination based on nationality. For the President of the Federation of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Delia Malbay, women face multiple problems as single mothers.644 Besides, in Delia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s view, women in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos have more problems; for example, they have not completed their studies or they do not have documents such as passports or identity cards, which causes them to be at a greater disadvantage. These women have to support the whole family and their children.645 This reality is increased by multiple sources of inequality such as that based on nationality and marital status, exacerbating the poor human security situation of women already present in the area. Another phenomenon that affects women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security in this border region is that the armed attacks of the Colombian guerrilla can last between two and three months. These attacks take place 642 Interview translated and conducted with Alicia Garc\u00C3\u00A9s, Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos (translated as Federation of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos) in Lago Agrio-Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, July 22, 2013. 643 Interview translated and conducted with Alicia Garc\u00C3\u00A9s, Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos (translated as Federation of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos) in Lago Agrio-Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, July 22, 2013. 644 Interview translated and conducted with Delia Malbay, Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos (translated as Federation of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos) in Lago Agrio-Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, July 22, 2013. 645 Interview translated and conducted with Delia Malbay, Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos (translated as Federation of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos) in Lago Agrio-Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, July 22, 2013. 216 close to rivers, creating difficulties for women who need to get water from the river.646 Since women are primarily responsible for feeding the family this lack of access to water has become a real problem for the security of women. Public policies intended to improve women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security need to be sensitive to the complex reality faced by women in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. Alicia Garc\u00C3\u00A9s explains how public policies in border zones can be improved. \u00E2\u0080\u009CSo, the first thing that is needed is the political will to understand the various problems that exist in these areas [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] Therefore, you cannot often work in the same way as you do in Quito, and Cuenca [Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s biggest cities]. There must be different ways to implement these policies in these areas. Moreover, we also found out that this way of understanding development is common in these [urban] centers [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] People, professionals do not want to go out to the suburbs [rural areas or secondary provinces]. Then, there is a difficulty in finding professionals who can work on these types of public policy strategies. This also implies a level of economic resources that the state does not always distribute equitably according to the needs of each region. For example, here, the border should have more resources than other areas. And that does not occur.\u00E2\u0080\u009D647 In conclusion, policymakers need to be familiar with the local reality in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. Any initiative aimed at improving women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security must include women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s voices in policy design. Economic security, empowerment of women and violence prevention need to be strengthened in this province through local policies and plans to improve the quality of life for all women. It also needs to be developed with input from grass-roots organizations and local women. From a feminist critical human security perspective, security cannot be achieved without a comprehensive commitment to tackling the multiple sources of inequality faced by women daily. For this reason, it is important that the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) develops, in addition to provincial statistics, cantons statistics disaggregated by gender, income, race, ethnicity and geographical 646 Interview translated and conducted with Alicia Garc\u00C3\u00A9s, Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos (translated as Federation of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos) in Lago Agrio-Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, July 22, 2013. 647 Interview translated and conducted with Alicia Garc\u00C3\u00A9s, Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos (translated as Federation of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos) in Lago Agrio-Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, July 22, 2013. 217 location. These statistics would inform the design of public policy designed to tackle multiple inequalities in urban and rural areas. In addition, it is necessary to have access to information about social investment and the breakdown of this investment by race, ethnicity and gender to combat poverty, exclusion and inequality, which are generated by systems of domination such as racism, classism and sexism. In the next section, I analyze the factors that affect women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security in Carchi, which is a province located in the highlands region. 4.1.1.2 Carchi-La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n -Chota Valley Carchi is one of the smallest provinces in Ecuador. It borders Colombia to the north, the province of Imbabura to the south, the province of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos to the east and the province of Esmeraldas to the west. Map 3. Carchi Province Source: Cantones del Carchi 2011. http://www.zonu.com/detail/2011-11-04-14830/Cantones-de-Carchi-2011.html Permission given on March 2016 (accessed in September 2015). 218 Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security in Carchi: Intersectional problem definition Carchi, like many regions of Ecuador, is characterized by being predominantly agricultural, producing mainly potatoes and milk in the high Andean zone and beans in the dry and warm zone. Some 82,495 people live in the urban sector, and 82,029 in the rural sector.648 Like Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, access to the social security system is limited in Carchi. According to the 2010 Census, in Carchi 68.2% of women and 69.3% of men are not registered with the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS).649 Therefore, a significant percentage of women and men have no access to benefits from the social security system, such as pension plan, public health and loans. Only 23.7% of women and 17.9% of men contribute to this system.650 The population of the parish La Concepcion is Afro-Ecuadorian and Mestizo. It is the most populated rural parish of Mira Canton. La Concepcion has 3,379 inhabitants representing 26.16% of the cantonal population. Some 1,675 (49.6%) of the parish population are women and 1,704 (50.4%) are men corresponding.651 648 Gobierno de la Provincia de Carchi-Prefectura, Gobierno Aut\u00C3\u00B3nomo de la Provincia del Carchi \u00E2\u0080\u009CEl Desarollo continua,\u00E2\u0080\u009D http://www.carchi.gob.ec/images/informacion_cantonal/CARCHI.pdf (Accessed on July 14, 2014). 649 INEC, Censo de Poblaci\u00C3\u00B3n y Vivienda 2010, Carchi provincial chapter. 650 INEC, Censo de Poblaci\u00C3\u00B3n y Vivienda 2010. 651 Gobierno Aut\u00C3\u00B3nomo Provincial del Carchi, La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n, Peri\u00C3\u00B3dico Parroquial no 6 (Abril, 2013), 4. 219 Map 4. La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n Parish Source: Parroquias del Cant\u00C3\u00B3n Mira. http://mira.ec/canton-mira/ Permission given in November 2015 (accessed on September 2015). The presence of the black population in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n dates back to the seventeenth century when, the Jesuits' Catholic mission decided to increase agricultural production by introducing Black slaves of African origin. La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n was the most important and productive hacienda, maintaining the largest amount of land planted by slaves. Despite the abolition of slavery, the Black population continued living in inhumane conditions. Black workers lived on farms as huasipungueros652 until the Agrarian Reform Law of 1964. According to data from the Ecuadorian Institute of Agrarian Reform and Colonization (IERAC)- from 1965 to 1968, 191.9 hectares of land in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n was distributed to 158 beneficiaries to help ex-huasipungueros to meet the survival needs of their households. However, this was insufficient to relief the poverty of the local families.653 Currently, the inhabitants practise agricultural activities on small parcels, while raising livestock is promoted as a means of family subsistence. Some families have a few cows for 652 Huasipungo was a legacy of the colonial system. Huasipungueros were families that were assigned a small piece of land (huasipungo) to cultivate their own crops, thus guaranteeing that they would stay on the ranch (hacienda). In spite of being able to use the land to build their modest homes and to raise a small crop, the land did not belong to them but to the landlords (terratenientes). 653 Gobierno Aut\u00C3\u00B3nomo Provincial del Carchi, Ibid., 4. 220 breeding, as well as horses, mules or donkeys for transportation and for agricultural work.654 The community has one school, with 198 students and 13 teachers. The leader of the National Council of Black Women (CONAMUNE), Barbarita Calder\u00C3\u00B3n Lara, is a teacher at that school. She has encouraged the inclusion of ethnic education as part of the curriculum. There is a great sense of community in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n. Minga is a tradition of Afro-Ecuadorians in which, youths and children become involved in community work. It is a way for occupying free time by cleaning or painting communal areas, demonstrating solidarity and sharing experiences and anecdotes. Through music and dance Afro-Ecuadorians in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and the Chota Valley region maintain an African ancestral tradition. La Bomba (translated as the bomb) involves music and dance, expressing experiences and feelings that have to do with the realities of the social group, such as frustrations and personal illusions. The bomb thus became a communication tool par excellence and a tool for cultural manifestation.655 Traditional music groups use drums and other instruments made from local plants and fruits. As in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian women are the most discriminated against in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and the Chota Valley region. In particular, women of African descent continue to face racism, discrimination and xenophobia manifested through sexual exploitation, human trafficking, domestic violence and forced territorial displacement.656 A representative of the National Coordinator of Black Women in Imbabura explains how discrimination experienced by Afro-Ecuadorian women particularly in the workplace. 654 Gobierno Aut\u00C3\u00B3nomo Provincial del Carchi, Ibid., 5. 655 Gobierno Aut\u00C3\u00B3nomo Provincial del Carchi, Ibid., 10. 656 Fundaci\u00C3\u00B3n Afroecuatoriana Az\u00C3\u00BAcar, Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras y Cooperaci\u00C3\u00B3n Alemana al Desarrollo-GIZ, Haciendo visible y enfrentado la violencia contra las Mujeres Afroecuatorianas. Del Territorio Ancestral de Chota, La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n, Salinas y Guadalupe. Quito-Ecuador (2012): 5. 221 \u00E2\u0080\u009CIn the workplace, Afro-Ecuadorian women are mostly domestic workers. It has often been said that is the way we cook. Indigenous women are more discriminated against, because they go together with men to the field [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] many indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian women are in public office and [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] have succeeded. But mostly, this discrimination still exists even in our own family.\u00E2\u0080\u009D657 Discrimination is also expressed in different types of violence. Verbal, psychological, physical, cultural, economic, political or territorial violence are not recognized as violent acts at the legal level.658 But violence is not unknown for women in the Chota Valley and La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n; this violence also involves negative stereotypes about Afro-Ecuadorians that go unchallenged, aggravating racism and discrimination and exacerbating the context of poverty lived by Afro-Ecuadorians, especially those from rural areas.659 Because of racism, Afro-Ecuadorians have the highest rate of unemployment. Moreover, they report the lowest rate of school attendance in the country both at high school and university.660 Hence, the discrimination against Afro-Ecuadorian women is manifested through their limited access to quality education, housing, medical care and decent and well-paid jobs.661 Inequality clearly affects the human security conditions of these women, limiting their opportunities to improve their quality of life. For this reason, local women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and the Chota Valley region advocate for equality and empowerment of women in Carchi. 657 Interview translated and conducted with the author with a representative of National Coordinator of Black Women (CONAMUNE). Ibarra, July 31, 2013. 658 Fundaci\u00C3\u00B3n Afro-ecuatoriana Az\u00C3\u00BAcar, Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras (CONAMUNE) y Cooperaci\u00C3\u00B3n Alemana al Desarrollo (GTZ) Ibid., 5. 659 Fundaci\u00C3\u00B3n Afro-ecuatoriana Az\u00C3\u00BAcar, Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras (CONAMUNE) y Cooperaci\u00C3\u00B3n Alemana al Desarrollo (GTZ) Ibid., 7. 660 Fundaci\u00C3\u00B3n Afro-ecuatoriana Az\u00C3\u00BAcar, Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras (CONAMUNE) y Cooperaci\u00C3\u00B3n Alemana al Desarrollo (GTZ) Ibid., 7. In S\u00C3\u00A1nchez, John Ant\u00C3\u00B3n. Los afro-ecuatorianos en Cifras, Sistema de Indicadores Sociales del Pueblo Afro-ecuatoriano- SISPAE, Ecuador 2004. Presentado en el Seminario Pueblos Ind\u00C3\u00ADgenas y Afrodescendientes CEPAL, Chile 2005. 661 Fundaci\u00C3\u00B3n Afro-ecuatoriana Az\u00C3\u00BAcar, Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras (CONAMUNE) y Cooperaci\u00C3\u00B3n Alemana al Desarrollo (GTZ) Ibid., 7. 222 4.1.1.2.1 Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations in Carchi Various women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations working on community development and women issues, such as the Missionary Group of Women, the Medallita Milagrosa Association of Women, the Light, Faith and Joy Association of Women, the Immaculate Conception Association, Bank of Women \u00E2\u0080\u009CJune 5th\u00E2\u0080\u009D 662 are present in Carchi and the Chota Valley region. However, the National Coordinator of Black Women (CONAMUNE) is one of the most active organizations, and it has advocated for poor rural Afro-Ecuadorian women since 1999. CONAMUNE\u00E2\u0080\u0099s aim is to combat violence, inequality, exclusion and lack of opportunities for Afro-Ecuadorian women in order to achieve the full exercise of their human rights. In Carchi, CONAMUNE has become the most influential women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organization. Its leader in Carchi Barbarita Calder\u00C3\u00B3n Lara, whom I got to know better through an interview and the organization of a workshop with local women for the Chota Valley region in the small rural parish of La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n. For Afro-Ecuadorian women, power is achieved collectively through social organizations that strive to improve their security conditions. In this sense, Afro-Ecuadorian leaders, members of the Black Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Movement of Ecuador, have clearly indicated the first steps required to improve their quality of life. \u00E2\u0080\u009C[...] to overcome poverty, firstly, an organizational process must exist. Strength is located within organizations. If Black women are not organized, we will continue to be manipulated, we will continue to be beneficiaries and not protagonists of our own processes.\u00E2\u0080\u009D663 The above testimony is imbued with a post-development feminist framework: women want to be the protagonists of their own development and security. Moreover, power is achieved collectively. 662 Sistema Integrado de indicadores Sociales del Ecuador (translated as Integrated System of Social Indicators of Ecuador) Organizaciones del Valle del Chota. http://www.siise.gob.ec/siiseweb/PageWebs/pubsis/pubsis_F048.htm 663 Fundaci\u00C3\u00B3n Afroecuatoriana Az\u00C3\u00BAcar, Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras y Cooperaci\u00C3\u00B3n Alemana al Desarrollo (GTZ). Ibid., 8. En CLACSO-CROP, Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales-Programa- Pobreza y desigualdad en Am\u00C3\u00A9rica Latina y el Caribe, Exclusi\u00C3\u00B3n, pobreza y discriminaci\u00C3\u00B3n racial en los afroecuatorianos, (mayo de 2011): 199-223. 223 In this sense, local social organizations allow them to accomplish this goal through joint agency and strategy; they find power as a social group. While agency is needed as a feature of mobilization efforts, the strategy can be expressed through public education, direct service and structural change664 in order to diminish the discriminatory circumstances that affect women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security locally. The several forms of discrimination that Afro-Ecuadorian women face on a daily basis need to be eliminated in order to increase their equality as a precondition for improving human security. For instance, for women members of the National Coordinator of Black Women (CONAMUNE), Afro-Ecuadorian women living in the Chota Valley region and in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n suffer a quadruple type of discrimination for being women, black, poor and living in a rural area; these conditions are expressed by a lack of support, services and opportunities.665 Hence, by identifying these forms of discrimination based on systems of oppression, such as patriarchy, colonialism and racism, Afro-Ecuadorian women through their own voices have sought to establish alliances and strategies with the public sector, with the private business sector and with the community in order to protect their culture and dignity. In order to improve the lives of Afro-Ecuadorian women in Carchi, specifically in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and the Chota Valley region, it is important to get to know the communities living on the border. A first priority is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the communities. A second goal is to make visible the historical contribution to the country's development made by those border communities.666 Understanding the contributions of those communities demonstrates 664 John D. McCarthy and Mark Wolfson, \u00E2\u0080\u009CResource Mobilization by Local Social Movement Organizations: Agency, Strategy, and Organization in the Movement against Drinking and Driving,\u00E2\u0080\u009D American Sociological Review 61, No. 6 (Dec., 1996): 1071-1072. 665 Fundaci\u00C3\u00B3n Afroecuatoriana Az\u00C3\u00BAcar, Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras (CONAMUNE) y Cooperaci\u00C3\u00B3n Alemana al Desarrollo (GTZ). Ibid., 8. See also interview conducted and translated by the author with Barbarita Lara, CONAMUNE on August 23, 2013. 666 Interview conducted and translated by the author with Barbarita Lara, CONAMUNE-Carchi, August 23, 2013. 224 respect for cultural, social and worldview differences. This great diversity has to be enhanced within policies that benefit everyone, but without neglecting differences or universalizing solutions.667 Policies must, therefore, acknowledge the particularities of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences. During the workshop that I conducted on August 31, 2013, in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n, local women from the Chota Valley region discussed three axes of action that need to be taken into account when seeking to improve women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security in their communities: border security, employment and equality. 4.1.1.2.2 Border Security Local women from La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and the Chota Valley region view security in the border zone in a non-traditional way. For them, the border is not a space of division, but one for integration of culture, history and communities. The following testimony expresses the perception of the border by the leader of CONAMUNE-Carchi, which is also shared by other local women. The last part of this leader\u00E2\u0080\u0099s testimony shows that viewing the border as a dividing line encourages inequalities. She refers to colonialism as a system of oppression that creates discrimination at the border. \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe border is a single line where the political interests of others come together [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] for those of us who live within the border, this boundary does not exist, because we share, those lines are strategies for unity. A vivid example is the border between Imbabura and Carchi [two provinces of the northern highlands of Ecuador] for us there is no border [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] The Chota-Mira river is used to divide these provinces. For us, however, [the river] is the backbone, the vein, and the artery that feeds and nourishes a community [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] and the same goes for the border between countries [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] and with Colombia, there is no difference. Yes, there are differences across the line, but in cultural aspects, there is no difference [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] so that's pretty much a perception from the outside, because from inside [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] it unites many ways. The border has been instrumental in fostering inequalities, on top of those already structurally present since the colonial slavery [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] There remain colonizers and colonized through this divisive politics. That's my perception, which has not helped us. Rather, it has weakened us as communities, as people.\u00E2\u0080\u009D668 667 Interview conducted and translated by the author with Barbarita Lara, CONAMUNE-Carchi, August 23, 2013. 668 Interview conducted and translated by the author with Barbarita Lara, CONAMUNE. August 23, 2013. 225 Afro-Ecuadorian women in rural areas struggle to achieve equality and security. Despite the recognition of their rights in the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008, Afro-Ecuadorian communities living in rural areas still face historical and structural discrimination, which is reflected in inadequate access to basic social services.669 In the Chota Valley, unequal access to good quality land and resources continues to impede the development of the community. In the region, Afro-Ecuadorians have reported that it is impossible to access credit, thwarting their attempts to achieve sustainable development in their territory and to enjoy their rights.670 Structural racism671 is a central barrier to the effective guarantee of the human rights for Afro-Ecuadorians as set up in the 2008 Constitution. In particular, the structural racism suffered by local Afro-Ecuadorian women in a border province such as Carchi affects their security and the fulfillment of their material needs. In Table 9, I have compiled the main human security demands and actions to overcome the problems discussed by local women during our group discussion. 669 The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Centre for Human Rights and Justice, Territorios olvidados, derechos incumplidos: Afroecuatorianos en \u00C3\u00A1reas rurales y su lucha por tierra, igualdad y seguridad, University of Texas at Austin, School of Law (Noviembre 2009), 3. https://law.utexas.edu/humanrights/projects_and_publications/afro-descendant%20reports/ecuador-esp.pdf (accessed October 8, 2015). 670 The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Centre for Human Rights and Justice, Ibid. 671 The term \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstructural racism\u00E2\u0080\u009D refers not only to direct discrimination based on race, but also to broad social and institutional practices resulting in the unequal distribution of resources and social opportunities. See more at Andrew Grant-Thomas and John a. Powell, \u00E2\u0080\u009CToward a Structural Racism Framework,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Poverty & Race: 15, no. 6 (2006): 3-6. 226 Table 9. Human Insecurity Problems of Local Women from La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and Chota Valley Problems Actions Food Security: More production and clean water. Economic security: There are not opportunities at the National Bank of Foment to get a loan because women do not qualify for them. This situation creates emigration. Create productive projects to reduce poverty and migration of the entire population of the Chota Valley, Salinas, and La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n. Health Security: Health is not for everybody, the local clinics lack specialties and the waiting list is too long. Change the way appointments are booked (by phone). Provide a sufficient supply of drugs and physicians in clinics. Personal Security: Suicide, drug trafficking, smuggling and child trafficking in Rumichaca and Chota Valley. Awareness campaigns to prevent these problems are necessary. Source: Workshop conducted by the author in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n on August 31, 2013. Although I have classified the human insecurity problems of the local women in the Chota Valley region as food security, economic security, health security and personal security, from a feminist critical human security perspective public policy aimed at this population needs to consider social location based on the intersection of gender, race, geographical location and socio-economic status. In particular, the fact that these Afro-Ecuadorian women live in rural areas affects their access to the health system, since better services and supplies are found in urban areas. Afro-descendent women have to wait several minutes or even an hour on a public phone just to book an appointment; once they finally get it, they have to travel outside their communities to receive medical care; according to a local woman, the closest hospital is located in Ibarra, which is one hour away from La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n. Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s family responsibilities and the lack of financial 227 resources to travel outside the parish discourage them from seeking medical services. Health care services need to be accessible to them in their own communities. 4.1.1.2.3 Employment Women attendees at the workshop in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n defined several demands and actions needed to improve their employment options and economic security as a dimension of the human security approach. Table 10. Employment Problems of Local Women from La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and Chota Valley Problems Actions Women working in nurseries of MIES672 with no professional qualification were fired. -Re-open the nursery. -A free education and implementation of the accelerated baccalaureate.673 Degrees in early childhood education, administration, finance and accounting. No jobs, people migrate to Quito and Ibarra. -Remuneration to the mother who raises a child (0-3 years old). Lack of market for local products. - Sustainable productive projects of beans and cassava. Transformation to add value. Lack of market research. Failure of previous projects due to lack of monitoring and of training in marketing strategies. - Training in project and public policy design. -Mapping productive projects. -Training women in political participation. Source: Workshop conducted by the author in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n on August 31, 2013. 672 Ministerio de Inclusi\u00C3\u00B3n Econ\u00C3\u00B3mica y Social del Ecuador (MIES). 673 The accelerated baccalaureate is a program designed for adults who could not finish their studies, it is ran by the Minister of Education of Ecuador. 228 While discussing the axis \u00E2\u0080\u009Cemployment,\u00E2\u0080\u009D women complained about the closure of a childcare center that was giving jobs to local women and providing a safe place for their children. \u00E2\u0080\u009CMost of the women that are here were working on the issue of childcare. Under the pretext of reorganization of nurseries, they were closed. Here women have to work, the child must be on the floor with lizards and snakes, eating dust.\u00E2\u0080\u009D674 According to local women, the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion requires that the women who take care of children in the local childcare center must have a degree in early childhood education. Unfortunately, most of the Black women in the area, who previously worked in the center have not even completed high school. For that reason, as noted in Table 9, the women propose the creation of an accelerated baccalaureate program in their community. They believe that the main issue to be solved in order to increase their economic security and to live with dignity is to have access to education that allows them to get a formal job.675 The lack of permanent access to education and employment for women affects women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s economic security in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and the Chota Valley region. Since there are no employment options in the zone, most people migrate to the big cities. To avoid migration, a local Afro-Ecuadorian woman mentioned during the workshop the need for sustainable productive projects to add value to agricultural products such as beans. \u00E2\u0080\u009CWe can make bean cookies but we have faced not only economic barriers. Men say that [bean] trees take too long to grow and they do not want to be involved with the project. We need training and equipment to produce products (flour, biscuits, jam).\u00E2\u0080\u009D In response to this, another woman replied saying that \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraining is not enough because we do not know where to sell our products.\u00E2\u0080\u009D676 674 Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s discussion during the Workshop conducted by the author in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n on August 31, 2013. 675 Workshops conducted with local women between July and August 2013 in Carchi and El Oro-Ecuador. 676 Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s discussion during the Workshop conducted by the author in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n on August 31, 2013. 229 Based on the workshops and the interviews, it is recommended that the Ecuadorian government should develop a program that provides productive rural lands to women and their families in the Chota Valley to ensure more equitable management of local resources. In addition, the government should support and promote local community development, ensuring fair lending and credit practices for rural Afro-Ecuadorian women. These microcredit programs must be planned and implemented with the full participation of the Afro-Ecuadorian community of La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and the Chota Valley region. Training regarding how to produce goods and services is fundamental, but it is also important that women receive training on how to put their local products into the markets. Local women also want to receive training in public policy design in order to be able to submit their own proposals to the local and national authorities. 4.1.1.2.4 Women and intersectional inequalities Inequality is reproduced through systems of oppression such as classism, racism and patriarchy. These systems, which are interconnected and interdependent, have decreased the security of Afro-Ecuadorian women in Carchi Province. The traditional division of labor in the household has contributed to a feminization of poverty that simultaneously affects access to education and employment and the achievement of equality for women in the Chota Valley region. \u00E2\u0080\u009CWomen are the most disadvantaged due to the lack of education [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] lack of job opportunities. Women are still un-paid domestic workers; their work is not valued [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] The state should definitely appreciate the work of women to solve the problem of inequality, because it still views women as working tools, without pay [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] Especially a rural woman, she works in domestic activities, and she also works in productive activities. They work for the family but they don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t get paid\u00E2\u0080\u00A6When I talk about this topic, I give you an example: the woman is the one who raises the pig, and the man sells it and puts the money in his pocket. That is economic violence\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 Well, at least, I think about a proposal, which is not a crazy proposal [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] a basic salary should be established. A basic salary for women working at home. I have no technical words. I always question this issue. Then a good policy will give access to social insurance to housewives.677 677 Interview conducted and translated by the author with a local leader. August 23, 2013. 230 During the discussion about \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgender equality,\u00E2\u0080\u009D women attendees at the workshop were asked if they thought that they have had the same opportunities as men to find work in a parish such as La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n. Carlota answered the following: \u00E2\u0080\u009CMen are machistas, they think we [women] can only be wives and moms. I decided to work and to get into political life because I am concerned about the development of the community. I hope we do not only discuss among women. It would be good that men listen to us and see that we are not only good for parir [giving birth] and to be in the chacra\u00E2\u0080\u009D [within the Andean culture, chacra is the space where vegetables and fruits are grown and animals are raised].678 Carlota\u00E2\u0080\u0099s testimony acknowledges the need to involve men in discussions about equality as a significant step towards creating awareness and then transforming unequal gender relations. Gender equality in the community can be achieved if men \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgive importance to women, respect their voices and their decisions.\u00E2\u0080\u009D679 The women suggested that men also need to be included in women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s discussions for equality as a way to improve dialogue and understanding and to achieve changes to gender roles. Women in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and the Chota Valley region do not face inequality based only on their gender, but also on their race. Gender inequality is not the only source of discrimination that Black women deal with in their everyday lives. Racism is another source of inequality that Afro-descendant women and men who live in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and the Chota Valley region face daily. Racism is internalized within legal institutions and the education system, thereby perpetuating discourses and practices of discrimination at the community level. 678 Woman\u00E2\u0080\u0099s testimony during the Workshop conducted by the author in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n on August 31, 2013. 679 Workshop conducted by the author in August 2013 in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n, Carchi. 231 \u00E2\u0080\u009CPeople think that we [Black people] are thieves. The law has also discriminated against us. If a White person commits a crime, a Black person is blamed for it. If a White or Mestizo assaults a black, there is no justice. Once a Mestizo hit a Black man with a horse, stabbed him and threw him in the river. The culprit was caught, but the prosecutors released him. Black people are the ones to be imprisoned.\u00E2\u0080\u009D680 \u00E2\u0080\u009CAfro-descendant people are devalued as human beings [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] the problem is structural, is part of the colonial structure, in which Mestizos are above Afro-descendants who were viewed as an object, as property. Racism is institutionalized in educational institutions, but it should be the space for solving that problem [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] Policies need to serve as a tool to disarm [deconstruct] what is established and to re-arm. Take note that this is a structural, historical, cultural problem. Colonialism has been the basis for encouraging such inequalities.\u00E2\u0080\u009D681 Table 11 illustrates women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s demands regarding equality based on gender and race. Table 11. Equality Demands of Women from La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and Chota Valley Demands Actions Decrease machismo. Men believe that women are good only to be mothers and wives. Women are also machistas. Educate community members through: workshops with men and women about the equal division of roles in the household; creative games such as volleyball or card games; workshops about empowerment, leadership and equal rights; TV, radio and theater campaigns with messages such as \u00E2\u0080\u009CLove me, Respect me\u00E2\u0080\u009D to teach values against violence and to attack indifference. Boys and girls cannot view more violence in their households. Encourage a good role model that does not reproduce gender- and race- based violence. Fewer violent TV programs. Check TV programs that children watch. Decrease racism. Non-discrimination campaign. Ethno-education through formal and popular education. Source: Workshop conducted by the author in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n on August 31, 2013. 680 Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s discussion during the Workshop conducted by the author in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n on August 31, 2013. 681 Interview conducted and translated by the author with Barbarita Calder\u00C3\u00B3n Lara, CONAMUNE, August 23, 2013. 232 The northern border area presents several challenges for policy makers. It is noteworthy that the actions identified by women in Table 11 are more concerned with the discursive level and with changes in values and roles as a fundamental step towards achieving equality. From a feminist critical human security perspective, public policy sensitive to the intersections of race, class, gender and geographical location is required to deal with the material needs faced daily by women in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and Carchi. Structural inequalities are reinforced, in Patricia Hill Collins\u00E2\u0080\u0099 terms, by a matrix of domination682 that reinforces discourses and practices of discrimination based on the race, gender, socioeconomic status and place of residence of women. From a feminist critical human security perspective, public policy must hear and include in security planning the voices of those experiencing intersectional inequalities. By doing so, discriminatory social constructions that prevail in systems and discourses of oppression can be challenged and transformed to potentially promote social change, dignity and respect for women. Such a policy must commit to finding solutions relevant to the whole person, and not just to a single dimension of his/her experience of discrimination, such as gender. Affirmative action policies based on race and class respect diversity and improve women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-economic conditions. Thus, a policy that promotes equality in the border areas must provoke systemic change. Applying feminist critical human security approach in the border zones requires data that includes the effects of the intersections of gender, race, class and geographical location. It also entails local communities\u00E2\u0080\u0099 participation and political engagement. In order to gather data from the various groups that face inequalities, policy makers must work collaboratively with different representatives of society such Afro-Ecuadorian, Indigenous and women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations. 682 Patricia Hill Collins. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990). 233 4.1.2 Southern Border In this final section, I shall analyze how the southern border also presents national security challenges for the Ecuadorian government and structural inequalities that affect women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security despite the discourse of binational integration and peace. The southern border is considered by many Ecuadorian development and security officials to be a less problematic zone than the northern border and a space of binational integration. After signing the peace accord with Peru on October 26, 1998, the Ecuadorian and Peruvian governments created the Binational Ecuador-Peru Plan. According to one official of the National Secretariat of Planning and Development (SENPLADES), the Binational Plan has been successful.683 This plan, as an International Public Law, was established following the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on Border Integration and Neighborhood Development. According to the Ecuadorian Government, the Binational Plan is an unprecedented experience. Through the implementation of the Strategy for Economic and Social Cohesion and Culture of Peace in the Border Region, both countries co-finance projects in such areas as highways, drinking water and sanitation, watershed management, basic infrastructure, health and education, bilingual education and the creation of a binational city, namely Huaquillas (Ecuador)-Aguas Verdes (Peru).684 Moreover, since Correismo,685 there has been continuous monitoring of the commitments agreed upon in the peace accords with Peru, and bilateral meetings at the level of ministers of state and Presidents have taken place. By recognizing the importance of binational planning in the border zones, the Ecuadorian government has discussed a mechanism to carry out a similar initiative with Colombia, as shown in the following testimony: 683 Interview translated and conducted with representatives of the National Secretariat of Planning and Development-SENPLADES region 1, Ibarra- Ecuador, August 14, 2013. 684 Secretaria Nacional de Planificaci\u00C3\u00B3n y Desarrollo, \u00E2\u0080\u009CPlan Binacional de Desarrollo de la Regi\u00C3\u00B3n Fronteriza Ecuador-Per\u00C3\u00BA,\u00E2\u0080\u009D http://www.planbinacional.gob.ec/informacion-general/pb-desarrollo-region-fronteriza-ec-pe/quienes-somos.html (accessed on July 7, 2014). 685 I use the term Correismo to refer to the current Ecuadorian government of Rafael Correa. 234 \u00E2\u0080\u009CThrough the Binational Plan there has been an investment, there has been a better relationship with the border that has to do with Peru. So you could say that the investment made in development is more in the south than the north [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] The Presidential Declaration of the Presidents of Ecuador and Colombia [has given] a period of 120 days to set out the structure of a binational agenda, in which areas of intervention can be proposed depending on the agreements that have been carried out through the Andean Community of Nations [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] So the responsibility has been given to SENPLADES to elaborate this Binational Plan, to identify issues in the border zone.\u00E2\u0080\u009D686 Within the official discourse, there is still the belief that the southern border is less conflictual than the northern border. A former functionary of Plan Ecuador687 explains how threats to Ecuadorian security come from outside the state, mainly from neighboring countries and from the armed conflict that has affected Colombia for several decades. \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe northern border has a particular feature, which is Colombia's armed conflict that has continued for 50 years, making it different from the southern border [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] However, this war in the neighboring country gives the northern border some special characteristics that affect the human rights of the population and leads to the strengthening of certain activities that are not being fully recognized as legal, fostering an alternative economic development, that is far away from becoming a complete social development [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6]involving the intrinsic respect for human rights. On the northern border, everybody knows that there is the influence of smuggling of arms and drugs and of human trafficking, the Ecuadorian people being the most affected by the influence of these activities.\u00E2\u0080\u009D688 According to this testimony, the human rights and the security of the population of the northern border are affected exclusively by the consequences of the Colombian conflict, denying in my view the failure of the Ecuadorian state to achieve human security in zones that are distant from the capital city, Quito, where decisions regarding security and development issues are made. A lack of human security in border zones does not occur only in the northern border zones, it also affects the southern border zones, where a discourse of peace and integration prevails. Moreover, 686 Interview translated and conducted with representatives of SENPLADES Region 1, Ibarra- Ecuador, August 14, 2013. 687 Plan Ecuador was a plan launched by the Ecuadorian government in April 2007 aimed to increase the human security of the population at the northern border. 688 Interview translated and conducted by the author with a Plan Ecuador former official on July 1, 2013, Quito-Ecuador. 235 smuggling fuel and propane cylinders as a national security issue is not a problem exclusive to the northern border area, since it also occurs in the southern border zone. An interview conducted in Machala, the capital of El Oro Province demonstrates how smuggling affects both borders in Ecuador. \u00E2\u0080\u009CBoth [the northern and southern borders] are similar in the sense that there is a large amount of informal trade [smuggling]. In the specific case of fuels, both borders are pretty similar\u00E2\u0080\u00A6fuel prices are subsidized throughout the country; a big difference with Colombia and Peru is the large price differential. On the northern border, the principal activity is the smuggling of gas [propane cylinders for domestic use]. And at the southern border, the main product, which most people who seek to engage in this illegal activity, is diesel. And this can be explained by how productive the different areas are. Both El Oro [Ecuador] and Tumbes [Peru] have higher production than Carchi, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and part of Ipiales in Colombia. So here [province of El Oro] diesel is used in the shrimp industry [camaroneras]; and there are also many camaroneras on the Peruvian side.\u00E2\u0080\u009D689 Human insecurity is experienced in both border zones. Smuggling and other insecurity problems cannot be blamed only on the effects of the Colombian conflict, which evidently is an issue in the northern border zone. The absence of the state through a human security approach in both Ecuadorian border zones has created an insecurity crisis that cannot be addressed only within a national security framework, including the presence of security forces\u00E2\u0080\u0099 operatives to tackle smuggling. Despite the discourse of integration and the good bilateral border relations between Ecuador and Peru, it cannot be denied that the lack of human security characterizes both Ecuadorian border zones. Focusing on women, specifically in El Oro Province, in the southern border zone, women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security is critical. Some 45% women there have suffered gender-based violence,690 clearly affecting their wellbeing. The following testimony illustrates a local woman\u00E2\u0080\u0099s 689 Interview translated and conducted by the author with the Economist Cesar Emilio Bravo Ib\u00C3\u00A1\u00C3\u00B1ez, Regional Director of the Agency for Hydrocarbon Control ARCH-Machala-El Oro province. August 2013. 690 INEC y SENPLADES, Encuesta Nacional de Relaciones Familiares y Violencia de G\u00C3\u00A9nero en contra de la Mujer, (translated as National Survey of Family Relations and Gender Violence against Women), November 2011. 236 perception of the lack of improvement in women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s wellbeing after the peace agreement with Peru was signed. \u00E2\u0080\u009CIn 98, following the signing of the peace agreement with Peru, women at the border wondered: What will happen to women and development? And peace for whom? During the war, we put our children, our families at risk and lived in unstable economy\u00E2\u0080\u00A6Each year, every February the war was coming. Women have experienced the impact of the war; now we are entitled to live the impacts of peace. The resources that are allocated to the border zone are mainly dedicated to expanding infrastructure or to investing in certain sectors, but not to women.\u00E2\u0080\u009D691 In sum, the Peace Accord between Ecuador and Peru created hope among women in El Oro Province, but a comprehensive improvement of the security and quality of life of women and their communities has not been achieved yet. The objective of the next section is to identify the structural inequalities that create insecurity in Huaquillas, El Oro Province. It suggests that through the design and implementation of public policies that address the multiple sources of inequality experienced by women due to their social location, their insecurity in their communities can be challenged and transformed. 4.1.2.1 Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Insecurity in Huaquillas- El Oro At the provincial level, access to the social security system is still limited in El Oro. According to the 2010 Census, in El Oro 69.5% of women and 71.6% of men are not registered with IESS.692 As in Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, a significant percentage of women and men have no access from benefits of the social security system, such as a pension plan, public health and loans. In El Oro, 691 Interview conducted and translated by the author with an active member of the El Oro Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Movement July 4, 2013. 692 INEC, Resultados del censo 2010 Poblaci\u00C3\u00B3n y Vivienda del Ecuador. Fasc\u00C3\u00ADculo provincial El Oro. In Ecuador, it is mandatory for employees to pay a personal contribution of 9.45% of their salary to the social security system, employers pay 11.15%. The employer must provide to the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security-IESS the total amount of the two contributions described (20.60% of pay). 237 only 24.4% of women and 18.2% of men contribute to this system. 693 Probably, in my view, those who work as bureaucrats form the main group receiving the benefits of IESS. El Oro Province includes cities such as Arenillas, Atahualpa, Balsas, Chilla, El Guabo, Huaquillas, Las Lajas, Machala, Marcabel\u00C3\u00AD, Pasaje, Pi\u00C3\u00B1as, Portovelo, Santa Rosa and Zaruma. Map 5. El Oro Province Source: Cantones de El Oro 2011. http://www.zonu.com/America-del-Sur/Ecuador/El-Oro/Politicos.html Permission given on March 2016 (accessed on September 2015). Huaquillas is one of the smallest cities in the province. It is located in the south coastal area; its territory represents 1.1% of El Oro Province and it has 48,300 inhabitants. Some 98.8% of the population lives in urban areas and 1.2% lives in rural areas.694 Huaquillas is located on the border with Peru. An international bridge that spans the Zarumilla River connects the town with the Peruvian district of Aguas Verdes; currently the binational authorities have built a new 693 INEC. Ibid. 694 INEC, Censo de Poblaci\u00C3\u00B3n y Vivienda 2010. http://app.sni.gob.ec/sni-link/sni/Portal%20SNI%202014/FICHAS%20F/0707_HUAQUILLAS_EL%20ORO.pdf (accessed October 21, 2015). 238 international bridge located on the outskirts of the city. Street vendors and small business illustrate the intense commercial activity in this border region. Although Huaquillas\u00E2\u0080\u0099 economy is based on trade and tourism, poverty reaches 9.7%, and the illiteracy rate among men reaches 3.7%, and that of women 4.6%.695 These conditions aggravate the security conditions for women and their communities, decreasing opportunities to get better-paid jobs. Strong public policies must increase literacy programs targeted at both men and women as a way to promote equal access to education within the population. Huaquillas has been identified by the border security authorities as a location where smuggling of fuel, propane cylinders and other goods takes place. I conducted an interview with a local official at the City Hall and a group interview and a workshop with local women there. Interviews with border security officials and non-participative observations were also carried out in other cities in El Oro Province, such as Machala and Chacras, in the latter of which a Customs office is located. In one of the interviews conducted in Machala, the Regional Director of the Agency for Hydrocarbon Control (ARCH) for El Oro mentioned that Huaquillas is the city with most complex security issues in the province, such as drug trafficking, smuggling and murders related to sicariato. \u00E2\u0080\u009CIn both, the southern and the northern border areas, all these processes of informal trade are also linked to drug trafficking. Much of the money that finances the purchase of these products [smuggled goods] comes from mafias engaged in drug trafficking. So this is most noticeable in Esmeraldas [province in the northern border coastal area] where even the fuel is used as the basis for the preparation of cocaine. Here in the south the issue of drug trafficking is also [present] as are contract killings [sicariato]. Every month, in Huaquillas there are murders. Then, the state faces numerous problems that are caused by all this traffic, all this informal and illegal trade of products that the state intends to consider strategic products.\u00E2\u0080\u009D696 695 INEC, Ibid. 696 Interview translated and conducted by the author with the Economist Cesar Emilio Bravo Ib\u00C3\u00A1\u00C3\u00B1ez, Regional Director of the Agency for Hydrocarbon Control ARCH-Machala-El Oro province, August 2013. 239 The insecurity experienced in Huaquillas is being addressed through national security initiatives. Local newspapers and the official website of the National Police of Ecuador demonstrate the efforts made by a specialized unit of the police to tackle smuggling in Huaquillas. On June 18, 2014, agents of the Energy and Hydrocarbon Crimes Investigation Unit (UIDEH), together with personnel of the Intervention and Rescue Group (GIR), of the Special Operations Group of the Huaquillas Sub-area, raided a warehouse that functioned as an illegal fuel storage facility. They arrested two persons and confiscated 600 gallons of fuel.697 Although this operation seemed \u00E2\u0080\u009Csuccessful\u00E2\u0080\u009D from a border security perspective, the insecurity experienced in this border town cannot be addressed only within a national security framework that includes the presence of security forces\u00E2\u0080\u0099 operatives to tackle smuggling. In contrast, a feminist critical human security perspective understands that insecurity is the result of multiple inequalities. In more concrete terms, inequality, which is sustained through powerful systems of domination, creates insecurity in the border zone towns. Therefore, a feminist critical human security approach embedded within public policy seeks to eliminate the numerous sources of inequality faced by women smugglers. In order to mitigate inequality, advocacy organizations seek to influence public opinion and policymakers in order to achieve women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security in the province. 4.1.2.1.1 Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations in El Oro The women's organizations representing the different ethnic, social and geographic sectors of El Oro have as a common goal, the improvement of the lives of women and the active participation in actions that can benefit the province. In this sense, these organizations exercise power as a 697 Polic\u00C3\u00ADa Nacional del Ecuador, \u00E2\u0080\u009CPolic\u00C3\u00ADa evita contrabando de combustible en El Oro,\u00E2\u0080\u009D June 19, 2014. http://www.policiaecuador.gob.ec/policia-evita-contrabando-de-combustible-en-el-oro/ (accessed on July 20, 2014). 240 collective force,698 empowering themselves as a movement, but also as local women in their communities. Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organization exercise power daily to resist and challenge the patriarchal, racist, and classist system at the border region. For instance, the Committee for Development of Women of the Border Region (CODEMUF) was established in Vilcabamba in April 1999, one year after the peace accord between Ecuador and Peru was signed.699 CODEMUF is a regional organization made up of women from the five southern provinces that share a border with Peru: El Oro, Loja, Zamora Chinchipe, Morona Santiago and Pastaza. CODEMUF encourages local women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s activism and political participation in positions such as Vice-Prefect, Vice-Mayor, councilors, women leaders of Afro-Ecuadorian organizations and women representatives of sexual diversity.700 Thus, this organization seeks to promote the coordination and integration of women from various political, ethnic and economic sectors in the southeastern border region of Ecuador. By strengthening its identity as a border region organization, CODEMUF promotes policies, plans and projects that benefit local and regional development. It also seeks to enhance the socio-political leadership of women in the region. Another significant organization in El Oro is the Women's Movement-El Oro which is characterized by diversity and the goal of tackling various types of oppression. It has become an umbrella organization of various social and ethnic groups and, in recent years, of sexual diversity, questioning completely the heterosexual political subject that gave identity to the feminist movement in Ecuador.701 Since its formation in 1998, the Women's Movement-El Oro has been 698 For further discussion about power as a collective force refer to Hannah Arendt\u00E2\u0080\u0099s On Violence (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970). 699 Agencia P\u00C3\u00BAblica de Noticias del Ecuador y Suram\u00C3\u00A9rica (Andes), \u00E2\u0080\u009CMujeres Fronterizas de Ecuador y Per\u00C3\u00BA integran gremio para defender sus derechos,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Abril 5, 2013. http://www.andes.info.ec/es/regionales/mujeres-fronterizas-ecuador-peru-integran-gremio-defender-sus-derechos.html (accesed July 20, 2014). 700 Interview conducted and translated by the author with an active member of El Oro Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s movement on July 4, 2013. 701 Cecilia Manzo, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMovimiento de Mujeres El Oro: Acci\u00C3\u00B3n Colectiva basada en la diversidad,\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Tesis de Maestr\u00C3\u00ADa G\u00C3\u00A9nero y Desarrollo: FLACSO-Ecuador, 2011), 6,9. 241 characterized by bringing together women with different socioeconomic statuses, such as politicians, professionals, housewives and sex workers, including Afro-descendent women from low-income neighborhoods.702 The Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Movement-El Oro has become a political platform for its members. On the one hand, it prioritizes the individual and collective needs of women in terms of gender and class. On the other hand, it is used as a political platform, as women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s participation in it allows greater visibility and recognition at the local level.703 Hence, women who started in politics found access to the public space in the women's movement, achieving a relationship with the low-income neighborhoods and an identification with the struggle of women.704 Nevertheless, once women, trained in political participation by the Women's Movement-El Oro, achieve positions of power in the public sphere, they neither reciprocate back to the movement nor fully advocate for the establishment of public policies that benefit women,705 forgetting key points for which they were trained in political affairs. The male-dominated political system tends to ignore proposals from public policies coming from feminists. Gender inequality is still present at the level of decision-making in this province. Therefore, the possibility for improving the security of local women is limited even with the presence of women politicians at the city hall in Huaquillas. An interview with the Vice-Mayor of Huaquillas, a young woman, revealed that there are no significant municipal activities targeted at increasing the security of women and reducing the multiple inequalities to which they are exposed. 702 Manzo. Ibid., 12. 703 Manzo, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMovimiento de Mujeres El Oro: Acci\u00C3\u00B3n Colectiva basada en la diversidad,\u00E2\u0080\u009D 51-52. 704 Manzo. Ibid., 51. 705 Interview conducted and translated by the author with Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Movement-El Oro on July 4, 2013. 242 \u00E2\u0080\u009CHere in Huaquillas, I'm the first woman who has become Vice-Mayor. Here [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] you can say that women have not participated as candidates for Mayor. I participated in Woman's Day, Mother's Day\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 for four years, I have led the Committee of Queens [female beauty contest at the local level]. Everything about women. I have the unconditional support of the Mayor [an older Mestizo man] who allows us to do projects related to women. For example, he adopted a by-law in gender equality\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 The Department of Culture delivers free workshops to women in first aid, nursing, beauty salon and tailoring.\u00E2\u0080\u009D 706 Despite the good intentions behind the activities led by the Vice-Mayor, these activities reinforce those traditional gender roles according to which women are only good to participate in a beauty contest or to attend workshops that require skills considered feminine. These initiatives reflect a misunderstanding of gender equality at the local level. Moreover, this misunderstanding has paralyzed a tangible commitment to tackling multiple sources of inequality. The above testimony even shows the Vice-Mayor's gratitude to the Mayor for allowing some activities targeted at women. The patriarchal foundation of the political system needs to change the relationship between men and women in positions of power, de-masculinizing the gender order by being more inclusive, more collaborative and less hierarchical and oppressive. A post-masculinized political system views gender equality as a right that needs to be executed in order to improve the security of all women. The workshop conducted with local women in Huaquillas on July 13, 2013, was benefited from the support of the Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Movement El Oro.707 Some of the characteristics of the women attending the workshop were that they did not finish high school and that they had between two and five children. Most of the women attendees had participated in leadership and volunteer programs in their communities. During the workshop, the women attendees discussed three 706 Interview translated and conducted with Vice-Mayor of Huaquillas. July 15 2013. Huaquillas-El Oro, Ecuador. 707 I want to specially thank Margarita Ramos representative of the Women's Movement El Oro and her daughter Karen who contributed to the organization of the workshop with local women in Huaquillas. 243 thematic areas designed to improve the security of local women: border security, employment and equality. They defined what needed to be done in order to solve the problem of each thematic area. 4.1.2.1.2 Border Security In order to understand the dynamic of border security, the attendees at the workshop in Huaquillas explained what the border means in their everyday lives. \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe border is a boundary with another country; it is the end of one country and the beginning of another; it is where the homeland begins and ends. But it is also considered as a trading zone, where food and other products can be bought for less. And second, the border is the space where the populations of both countries shares traditions, language and culture. At the border, there is a strong link among binational families, because Peruvians marry Ecuadorians and vice-versa.\u00E2\u0080\u009D708 Although the idea of a homeland is still strong among women in the community more than a decade after the signing of the peace agreements with Peru, the perception of the border among women in Huaquillas is not limited to understand it as a dividing line. Like local women in Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, for women living in this border town the main economic activities of which are related to trade and the service sector, it is common to view the border as a trading zone and as a space where culture and traditions meet one another. Moreover, for binational families, crossing the border allows them to visit each other. During the workshop, I realized that, for them, a conversation about border security needed to recognize that Huaquillas has become a city where many assaults, robberies and murders take place. One participant pointed out that the insecurity conditions in Huaquillas are so severe that the only feature missing is the presence of Colombian guerrilla groups in the southern border zone. Another woman claimed that security means a place where she can live without fear and where 708 Workshop with local women in Huaquillas on July 13, 2013. 244 she has a secure and stable job to survive with her family without fear of being kidnapped. She also mentioned that nowadays there have been even killings in Huaquillas.709 In further discussions during the workshop, I was able to find out that these killings were gang-related and resulted from the unequal distribution of merchandise to be smuggled. This situation provoked between 15 and 20 murders per week, affecting deeply the security of women and the community. Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security is also affected by a matrix of domination that prevails when women who cross the border are stopped by the border control authorities in Huaquillas and its surrounding areas. An active member of EL Oro Women Movement\u00E2\u0080\u0099s response to one of my questions demonstrated the presence of racism and sexism among the border control authorities, perpetuating several systems of oppression. \u00E2\u0080\u009CI think that the treatment of customs authorities\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I had to cross the border, for example, it is differentiated. If you are a Mestizo woman with glasses [she describes herself] they [border control authorities] believe that you are an authority [a government official] or an academic. But if you're Black\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 and here we have a Black colleague, you can also ask her about that situation. We have a very strong racism. There is a quite strong discrimination against that condition [being Afro-Ecuadorian]. The treatment given to female sex workers in the border has been extremely brutal, more abuse, more violence. And here in the movement, some members are female sex workers, the treatment given depends on their ethnicity, age and appearance.\u00E2\u0080\u009D710 Similar to the two previous provinces, in Huaquillas, Chacras and its surroundings, systems of domination sustained by discrimination based on age, race and even the profession of local women are closely interconnected to border security disciplinary practices. The border security practices framed in a national security discourse punish women who become involved in smuggling. During an interview with a local woman, I asked her about the most important security issues in El Oro Province that affect women, and if smuggling is a matter of border security in the province. Her response referred too the power dynamic based on gender and class within smuggling and drug 709 Discussion with local women during workshop in Huaquillas, July 13, 2013. 710 Interview conducted by the author with a member of the Movimiento de Mujeres Machala- El Oro. July 4, 2013. 245 trafficking networks. Women in the lower levels of the network are the ones that get caught and then incarcerated by the border security authorities. \u00E2\u0080\u009CIf you go to jail you will see women who have been caught because they are mulas. They were transporting drugs at very low levels. The big smuggling is not in the hands of women. The big drug trafficking is not in the hands of women\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 The more important smuggling and drug trafficking cross in a different way\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 If you want to know how smuggling works...go to the border to see what happens with the fuel issue: for example, women or men pass the fuel from one pump to another, sucking it themselves, getting sick\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 But the big trucks that cross, nobody knows how they pass the propane cylinders.\u00E2\u0080\u009D711 Another important issue that was mentioned by a local woman was that the border security operations control the smuggling of propane cylinders by authorizing the distribution of one propane cylinder per month per family. In this context, the Agency for Regulation and Control of Hydrocarbons (ARCH) in the Province of El Oro has identified 16,985 families in Huaquillas. Therefore, this agency controls the distribution of the same number of propane cylinders.712 According to an interview with this local woman, this policy increases women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s workload in the household. \u00E2\u0080\u009CYou know, right now we have a shortage. Who is affected by the shortage of propane cylinders? Women and their families. In Huaquillas, the situation is even worse. Because one propane cylinder is assigned to each family per month, the women are forced to cook on charcoal and firewood. That increases our workload too.\u00E2\u0080\u009D713 Border security practices of surveillance affect women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s everyday life. According to my conversation with local women in Huaquillas, it is more important to capture the bigger smuggling networks than the small scale smugglers who become involved in this activity in order to survive 711 Interview conducted and translated by the author with a local woman in El Oro, July, 2013. 712Ecuador Immediato, \u00E2\u0080\u009CAvanza la entrega de tarjetas inteligentes para compra de cilindros de gas en Huaquillas,\u00E2\u0080\u009D http://ecuadorinmediato.com/index.php?module=Noticias&func=news_user_view&id=2818758646&umt=avanza_entrega_tarjetas_inteligentes_para_compra_cilindros_gas_en_huaquillas (accessed December, 2015). 713 Interview conducted and translated by the author with a local woman in Machala, El Oro, July 4, 2013. 246 and to improve minimally their economic security.714 Based on the discussion with local women in Huaquillas, it is possible to conclude that border security creates more insecurity for women. Moreover, a matrix of domination perpetuates the intersected inequalities of local women living in Huaquillas based on their gender, race and class. Based on the workshop conducted in Huaquillas, it was possible to compile Table 12, which summarizes women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s demands for improving border security in their community. Table 12. Border Security demands of Local Women in Huaquillas Demands Actions Stop the corruption among police and judges. Grievance system without retaliation. Awareness campaigns to prevent smuggling and drug trafficking. Monitoring crime. Source: Workshop conducted by the author in Huaquillas in July 2013. In conclusion, the workshop attendees suggested that the border security practices provoke more insecurity than security for women. For that reason, they believe that awareness campaigns in the mass media are extremely important to prevent locals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 involvement in smuggling and drug trafficking. Through the discussion in the workshop, it was possible to demonstrate that women in Huaquillas are against smuggling, because the profitable smuggling is done by powerful local networks. Meanwhile, the small-scale smugglers practising hormiga type smuggling are the ones that get caught by the border control authorities. Unlike the case of Afro-Ecuadorian smugglers in the Chota Valley region in Carchi, where men and women collaborate with each other to improve the community\u00E2\u0080\u0099s economic security, in Huaquillas women perceive that the benefits of smuggling 714 Workshop conducted and translated by the author with local women in Huaquillas, July 13, 2013. 247 are not distributed fairly. Moreover, women are located at the lowest level of the smuggling network. The next section analyzes the discussion regarding employment. Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s perception of economic security links the lack of employment in Huaquillas to the involvement of men and women in smuggling. 4.1.2.1.3 Employment The attendees at the workshop in Huaquillas defined employment as an activity done in exchange for a fair remuneration, in which extra hours need to be recognized and paid accordingly. One woman mentioned that a job should cover their needs, but it has to be honest and transparent. Women in Huaquillas want jobs where they feel respected and appreciated.715 One attendee at the workshop was a lawyer and provided legal support to women in the Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Movement El Oro (MMO). The other women were housewives, domestic workers or part-time employees involved in selling clothing or beauty products. During the discussion of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cemployment\u00E2\u0080\u009D axis, the women were asked if they thought that they had had the same opportunities as men to find work in a small town like Huaquillas. Several topics were discussed: for instance, some women claimed that they had faced job discrimination. Many of the participants used to work cleaning and packing shrimp in the camaroneras (shrimp industry), but the owners told women that they preferred to hire men. For the attendees, machismo encourages the belief that only men are good for better-paid positions.716 Unemployment and under-employment affect women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s economic security in Huaquillas. Another woman\u00E2\u0080\u0099s response links the lack of employment to the presence of smuggling 715 This concept of employment was defined by women during the workshop \u00E2\u0080\u009CHuman Security of Women in border areas\u00E2\u0080\u009D conducted by the author with local women on July 13, 2013 in Huaquillas, El Oro-Ecuador. 716 Workshop conducted in Huaquillas on July 13, 2013. 248 networks and illustrates how smuggling is a source of the domination of women rather than their empowerment. \u00E2\u0080\u009CI think for us women, here in Huaquillas, it is hard to work [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] Huaquillas is characterized by trade. Years ago, sales were great, you earned a lot for food, but not anymore. Right now, Huaquillas lives off the smuggling. It's a fight with the state, with officials, men and women. There was a time that women became pregnant\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 It was a terrible mess and that was the only way she, as the sole provider, was able to buy a meal for her children and stay at home. Since there was no other source of income, or was the only source of work [fuel smuggling] \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 it was easy [to smuggle fuel] because the state installed several gas stations [laughs] in Huaquillas. The problem is that the state always got the defenseless people, not the true millionaires in Huaquillas. The true millionaires [members of the big smuggling networks] made more money than the poor and humble people. Many have gone to jail for it. Why? Because they [the members of the smuggling networks] give you a car, make your work easier, you get paid the day and get engaged in work\u00E2\u0080\u00A6And the poor is to blame for and what about the one who has the money? The powerful one is the one who exploits men and women looking to make enough money on a daily basis. That's the story of Huaquillas. Those who are selling [fuel] there are the only people who survive. This is a mafia\u00E2\u0080\u009D717 This participant\u00E2\u0080\u0099s testimony reveals clearly the power relations based on class and gender within smuggling networks in Huaquillas; these relations keep women under conditions of domination. Similar to the cases of Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, in Huaquillas-El Oro smuggling has been viewed as a mean of survival for local women. Nevertheless, it is considered as a crime by the border authorities. In this case, smuggling dominates women rather than empowers them. The only ones who succeed are the one located in the upper levels of the smuggling network. Moreover, testimonies from local women and that from border security authorities agree that women get pregnant in order to conceal contraband, to avoid being imprisoned and to provide for their children. In particular, the border security authorities believe that women have purposely decided to get pregnant as a way to dissuade the border control authorities and to cross the border; if caught, 717 Discussion during the workshop conducted in Huaquillas on July 2013. 249 the security authorities must release pregnant women.718 This situation occurs in the case of low-income Afro-Ecuadorian women smugglers in the Chota Valley region and among low-income Mestizo women smugglers in Huaquillas. The lack of permanent job opportunities for women in Huaquillas affects their economic security. Table 13 presents the main demands of the women when they discussed how employment options could be improved in their border town. Table 13. Employment demands of Local Women in Huaquillas Demands Actions Being able to be your own boss [self-employed] Training in small business creation. Formation of small businesses. Government bond of solidarity invested in the creation of small business for women. Have easy access to micro credits. Being able to complete studies through distance learning or in the evenings. Training in finance, human relations, leadership and marketing. Extended hours of child care Request a non-standard schedule Source: Workshop conducted by the author in Huaquillas on July 13, 2013. During the workshop, several women referred to an initiative such as sewing development [translated as Hilando el Desarrollo]. This governmental initiative was founded in 2011 and 718 Interview conducted and translated by the author with a Custom officer on July 1st, 2013. Quito-Ecuador. According to article 537 of the Penal Code of Ecuador, pregnant women who commit crimes are subject to house detention. In the article 525 is stated that a person under house arrest, not necessarily be subjected to constant police surveillance but must wear an electronic monitoring device. See at C\u00C3\u00B3digo Org\u00C3\u00A1nico Integral Penal-COIP, February 10, 2014. http://www.correosdelecuador.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2015/05/CODIGO_ORGANICO_INTEGRAL_PENAL_COIP.pdf (accessed February, 2016). 250 became a successful policy that linked the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education and the Institute of Popular and Solidarity Economy (IEPS).719 This program promotes the economic inclusion and social mobility of thousands of artisans in the textile sector of the Popular Solidarity Economy (EPS), who seek to achieve decent and fair economic and living conditions.720 Through this initiative, women sew school uniforms and sell them to the public schools. The implementation of a similar program, through a joint effort of the District office in Machala and the El Oro Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Movement, would be one important way to begin improving local women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s wellbeing in Huaquillas. Women's opportunities to work cannot be subject to traditional perceptions of their proper role in society. Therefore, any public policy in this regard requires that the Ecuadorian state takes additional steps aimed at modifying the social constructions that determine the roles and behaviours of men and women, including the design and implementation of educational programs, in order to counteract stereotypes and practices based on perceptions of the superiority of men over women. Finally, public policies aimed at improving employment options for women in Huaquillas need to simultaneously improve child care accessibility and schedules, as well as education and training for less advantaged mothers. 719 Instituto de Econom\u00C3\u00ADa Popular y Solidaria, Hilando el Desarrollo un proyecto que genera trabajo para artesanos de la econom\u00C3\u00ADa popular y solidaria en Ecuador, 14 de septiembre, 2013. http://www.economiapopular.coop/hilando-el-desarrollo-un-proyecto-que-genera-trabajo-para-artesanos-de-la-econom%C3%ADa-popular-y (accessed September 17, 2014). 720 Instituto de Econom\u00C3\u00ADa Popular y Solidaria, Hilando el Desarrollo ciclo Sierra 2015-2016 priorizar\u00C3\u00A1 el trabajo asociativo, 29 de mayo, 2015 http://www.economiasolidaria.gob.ec/hilando-el-desarrollo-ciclo-sierra-2015-2016-priorizara-el-trabajo-asociativo/ (accessed October 26, 2015). 251 4.1.2.1.4 Women and intersectional inequalities For local women in Huaquillas, inequality is strongly affected by machismo. Unfortunately, machismo is not only a social behavior among men. Rooted in the values of society at large, patriarchy is also deeply engrained among local women, thereby perpetuating traditional gender roles. When we began to talk about equality, one participant complained that women are also machistas. From her perspective, that is one of the first issues that must be transformed. \u00E2\u0080\u009CThere is no equality in Ecuador; there are still many women who are machistas [laughs]. For example, when choosing political candidates, men always receive support, the same doesn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t occur with women, because we think that women are not capable. If we want to elect a community leader, we say that she will not be able to do it, then we choose a man. We are creating machismo...We need to create awareness among women that we also create machismo.\u00E2\u0080\u009D721 During the discussion, conservative thoughts rooted in the local patriarchal culture emerged, showing a misunderstanding of what equality means. One woman mentioned that it is good to talk about equality and freedom, but doing so lead to immorality. \u00E2\u0080\u009CThere are women who have confused freedom with immorality. Women do not ask permission from their husbands anymore; they just go to parties and do whatever they please.\u00E2\u0080\u009D722 This comment provoked astonishment among some members of the group. In order to clarify the connection between freedom/equality and immorality, I asked the group what they understood by immorality. The response of one participant showed internalized patriarchal values. \u00E2\u0080\u009CFor example, the husband gave permission to the wife to come to this workshop. But once the workshop is over, this woman, instead of going back home, she meets with another person, that\u00E2\u0080\u0099s immorality [\u00E2\u0080\u00A6] there have been many women who have confused leadership with degeneracy.\u00E2\u0080\u009D723 721 Workshop conducted by the author in Huaquillas on July 13, 2013. 722 Workshop conducted by the author in Huaquillas on July 13, 2013. 723 Workshop conducted by the author in Huaquillas on July 13, 2013. 252 The reaction of another participant attempted to clarify the confusion between equality and immorality. \u00E2\u0080\u009CI think that degeneracy is not what has been said, because if I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t do what I like, I am violating my personality, because what I do with my life is my responsibility.\u00E2\u0080\u009D724 To some extent, the women attendees at the workshop in Huaquillas seemed to have internalized messages about the inferiority of women and their roles as mothers and wives; they had struggled with new possibilities and understandings of gender relations, going as far as to confuse equality with immorality. Once it was clarified that equality is not equivalent to immorality, the attendees were able to explain that gender equality involves \u00E2\u0080\u009Cno male superiority, no discrimination against women, the same opportunities and responsibilities in society.\u00E2\u0080\u009D725 In order to overcome inequality, local women in Huaquillas wanted to learn the skills that would enable them to participate in and to transform their communities. If they were able to receive a quality education that encouraged their autonomy and agency, they would be in a very strong position to contribute to their societies. Table 14 summarizes the women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s demands for equality. 724 Discussion about equality and immorality during the workshop conducted in Huaquillas on July 13 2013. 725 Discussion during the workshop conducted in Huaquillas on July 2013. 253 Table 14. Gender Equality demands of Local Women in Huaquillas Demands Actions Creation of awareness among women of our value as women. Workshops and campaigns rejecting sexual, physical and psychological violence or situations of discrimination against women. Share household responsibilities. Equal respect between wife and husband/joint decision-making. Workshops with men and women to address the issue of mutual respect. Reject all forms of violence Educate our children, boys and girls. Source: Workshop conducted by the author in Huaquillas on July 13, 2013. Educational workshops aimed at transforming gender relations should explain that differences between men and women are not something natural; rather, they are supported by traditions and machismo. Such workshops needed to increase the self-esteem of women. It is also important that men attend the workshops proposed by local women in Huaquillas. Workshops and media campaigns to tackle machismo need to be permanent in order to create awareness about the value of women at home and in society. Women want these workshops to teach men that household chores must be shared in order to create a harmonious relationship. Monitoring and evaluation By monitoring and evaluating the implementation of equality policies sensitive to the intersections of race, gender, class and geographical location, it is possible to ensure the success of initiatives aimed at the well-being of women. The formation of oversight committees is relevant for the monitoring and control of equality policies with the support of women's organizations. In this sense, it is important to identify 254 indicators that take into account ethnic, class, geographic (urban-rural) and gender differences. The following are some measurable indicators that I propose based on the discussion with local women in Huaquillas: % of low-income women attending post-secondary education in Huaquillas; % of low-income women completing post-secondary education; number of Black, Mestizo, Montubio, White, and Indigenous men attendees at gender relations workshops in urban and rural areas; number of Black, Mestizo, Montubio, White, and Indigenous women attendees at gender relations workshops in urban and rural areas. 4.2 Summary of the Chapter By using a feminist critical human security perspective sensitive to the particularities of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s daily experiences, this chapter was able to examine the complexity and diversity of the intersectional inequalities that women experience in three Ecuadorian border provinces. The application of a feminist critical human security approach to analyzing the case includes a consultative dialogue that empowers women to articulate their own needs and agendas. Thus, responsibility for fulfilling the aspirations of local women to improve their lives cannot be exclusively assumed by public policy makers. Rather, these aspirations are discovered and constructed on the basis of these women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s multiple experiences affected by the intersections of gender, race, class and geographical location. In this chapter, I discussed how some local women view smuggling as a way of living linked to the lack of economic security and inequality in the border zones. While women in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and the Chota Valley region might be empowered by smuggling activities \u00E2\u0080\u0093when they help family and community members- in Huaquillas, the situation is different. The women there recognized that this activity does not empower them in the long term; rather, they argue that it increases domination and inequality based on gender, race and class. Only the big smuggling networks that use local women from Huaquillas benefit and profit 255 from smuggling. For this reason, a public policy informed by a feminist critical human security approach acknowledges that planning equality policies must include the voices of women facing multiple inequalities based on their gender, race, class and geographical location; such inclusion has to be accompanied by effective implementation. To summarize, the three provinces where the study was conducted revealed similarities and differences. Regarding the similarities, in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Carchi and El Oro, a significant percentage of women and men have a limited access to the social security system, such as pension plan, public health and loans. In particular, in the communities of the three provinces studied Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian women are the most discriminated against due to negative racist stereotypes. The systems of domination sustained by discrimination based on age, race and even the professions of local women are closely connected to border security disciplinary practices. However, for local women in these three communities, the border is a trading zone and space where diverse cultures and traditions meet one another. Moreover, for binational families, crossing the border allows them to visit each other. Unlike the northern border zone, the southern border zone is considered by many Ecuadorian development and security officials to be a less problematic zone, since it is perceived as a space of binational integration. Nevertheless, human insecurity also affects this border zone. A main difference between the communities where this study took place is that, although smuggling has been viewed as a mean of survival for local women, in Huaquillas smuggling dominates women (the only ones who succeed in this activity are the ones located in the upper levels of the smuggling network) while in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n it is a source of empowerment. Regarding the local women attendees at the workshops, I was able to assess that Black women in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n are more empowered and more aware of their sources of discrimination than are Mestizo women in Huaquillas. 256 The Ecuadorian government has to carefully rethink the public policies that have been implemented in the border zones. State feminism, being the advocacy of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s demands inside the state, 726 is still weak in Ecuador. In my view, the minor inclusion of gender issues achieved to date has been due to the pressure exerted by the women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s movement rather than emanating from a real concern with gender equality among government officials. The roots of discrimination based on gender, race, class and geographical location need to be eliminated in order to achieve the goal of decent human security conditions for all women. For instance, women attendees at the workshops in Huaquillas and La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n clearly identified, using their own words, the dimensions of the human security approach that need to be improved the most. Local women at the northern and southern Ecuadorian border zones want more economic security, personal security, health security and community security. They want access to education and training in order be able to access jobs and opportunities in the formal sector. In order to achieve fair work for women, it is necessary to design and implement labor policies aimed at equality within an intersectional framework in the labor market. The respect and protection of the rights of women who do not work outside the home and those who do work in the formal and the informal sectors requires the removal of structural insecurities so as to enhance women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s access to quality jobs. Ecuadorian initiatives to achieve equality cannot be limited to political agendas or to discourses that do not include a clear action plan. The women in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones want policies that solve their everyday life needs and that overcome systems of inequality such as sexism, classism and racism. An optimal action plan cannot be limited to another diagnostic of the situation of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s inequality and the formulation of general policy guidelines. An acceptable plan must identify in great detail and with considerable clarity strategic objectives, targets, 726 Johanna Kantola and Joyce Outshoorn, \u00E2\u0080\u009CChanging State Feminism,\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Changing State Feminism, eds. Joyce Outshoorn and Johanna Kantola (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007), 2. 257 indicators and those responsible for implementing the tasks needed to achieve these strategic objectives. Particularly attention must be directed to implementing mechanisms for monitoring compliance with the objectives by the institutions responsible for implementing the plan. Progress reports must be submitted regularly by the institutions in charge of achieving those objectives for ensuring equity. In the next chapter, I present the analytical conclusions of the dissertation, the theoretical implications and the policy recommendations. 258 Chapter 5. Analytical Conclusions This chapter presents the theoretical implications and the policy recommendations arising from my research. The recommendations can be used for policy makers, NGOs, teachers and students interested in women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security from an intersectional perspective as proposed by a feminist critical human security approach. 5.1 Theoretical implications Several concepts were analyzed in order to propose a feminist critical human security approach to tackling women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity in border zones. First, the concept of national security was analyzed in order to explain a state-centric vision of security studies based on national interests and values. According to the Realist school of thought, security emanates from the state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s survival in an anarchic international system in order to preserve its sovereignty.727 The joint presence of a state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security and national interests has fostered a national security approach that accepts a permanent state of war encouraged by a state\u00E2\u0080\u0099s own interests. This approach has been used to protect state political and economic interests and values, using military strategies to battle local, national, regional and global threats. By analyzing the concept of national security, my study was able to explain Ecuador's current security policies, which view the smuggling of fuel and propane cylinders as a critical new threat to national security in border zones. Currently, in Ecuador, conflicts between states are less relevant than those provoked by non-state actors such as smugglers in the border zones. Despite the multidimensional characteristics of this new threat, smuggling is still confronted through a national security approach that is insufficient to solve the root causes of a complex security scenario. For most local women in Huaquillas, Lago Agrio and 727 Bj\u00C3\u00B6rn Hettne, \u00E2\u0080\u009CDevelopment and security,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Security Dialogue 41, no. 1 (2010): 33, DOI: 10.1177/0967010609357040 259 La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n/Chota Valley Region, a feeling of insecurity arises primarily from worries about daily life, such as economic security. Security studies require a broader framework of analysis. For this reason, another concept that was reviewed in this study was human security, which locates security at the personal and community levels. Human security, as a security paradigm, challenges the national security approach; specifically, it encourages states to protect the security of the individual and the community. Despite attempts to narrow the definition of human security, the concept's strength lies in its holism and inclusiveness. Therefore, the inclusion of more topics in security studies also involves other non-state actors. These actors can influence the local, national and international agendas. Human security acknowledges that threats and vulnerabilities have multiple dimensions. Furthermore, an alternative and multidimensional approach to security studies, such as human security, implies a change in the concept of armed conflict, peace and security. Certainly, human security has become a strategic project involving development, cooperation, human rights and conflict prevention and resolution. This study follows the broader definition of human security; 728 this definition includes a preventative approach, which addresses threats to human life, livelihood and the dignity of people within a policy framework sensitive to the intersections of race, gender, class and geographical location, especially in high risk areas such as borders. In its application human security generates an improvement in people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s quality of life by reducing levels of violence, inequality and exclusion. Currently, the human security approach complements national security in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border areas. The attempts of the Ecuadorian government to develop a human security approach through Plan Ecuador were promising, but the main concern relates to the need to strengthen human 728 Japan, the Human Development Report (1994), and the Human Security Now Report (2003) foster a broader agenda focusing on development. On the contrary, the narrow definition of human security is more reactive in cases of human rights violations and interventions post-conflict. 260 security for women within the development planning agenda, especially during a period of reform within the main institution dedicated to gender equality in Ecuador. Starting in June 2014, the former Transition Commission for Gender Equality became the Council for Gender Equality. The expectation is that the recently created Council will contribute to the design of the institutional structure to ensure equality between women and men729 within public policies sensitive to the intersections of race, class and location of residence. Another concept reviewed in this study is intersectionality, which made it possible to analyze the diversity of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences of insecurity in the Ecuadorian border zones. In this sense, inequality in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones was studied as a matrix of domination that includes discrimination based on race, class, gender, nationality and the dichotomy between urban and rural. In the border zones, in particular, the construction of gender identities and the politics of masculinities are shown through border control practices, but also by women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s roles as secondary smugglers. This study has proposed feminist critical human security as a progressive approach for rethinking security issues. The dissertation draws on a broad notion of a human security approach from a critical perspective, feminist critiques of national security, Kimberl\u00C3\u00A9 Williams Crenshaw\u00E2\u0080\u0099s idea of intersectionality and Patricia Hill Collins\u00E2\u0080\u0099 concept of the matrix of domination. Thus, this dissertation advances the concept of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfeminist critical human security\u00E2\u0080\u009D to examine women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones, specifically in El Oro, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and Carchi provinces. A feminist critical human security approach is attentive to power relations and understands how insecurity is related to people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s daily lives in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones in gendered, racialized, 729 Consejo Nacional para la Igualdad de G\u00C3\u00A9nero. http://www.igualdadgenero.gob.ec/ (accessed on November 13, 2014). 261 geographical and class ways. In addition, this research established women smugglers as referents of security rather than as criminals, as the border security discourse views them. In employing the concept of feminist critical human security, the originality of this dissertation lies in the application of this adapted approach to an under\u00E2\u0080\u0093researched case study. This concept contributes to the analysis of what comprises the web of power relations that has led women in Huaquillas, the Chota Valley Region and Lago Agrio to become smugglers. It also addresses to what extent do public policies related to human security at Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s northern and southern borders include a focus on women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s well-being from an intersectional perspective. This dissertation combines critical human security and feminist security to analyze human security as an emancipatory approach for women and their local communities in the three border provinces where the study was carried out. Thus, the study proposed feminist critical human security as a theoretical framework. Within this framework, the border is not viewed as a dividing line between states; rather, it is understood as a space of integration, social interaction, cultural encounter and a way of life, where the intersecting identities of women and the security forces interconnect in everyday life. Feminist critical human security policies must consider all the interconnected factors that create insecurity in the zone of intervention. For instance, intersecting systems of inequality such as sexism, racism and classism have provoked women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s insecurity. Thus, this dissertation questions the intersectional relations of domination and subordination within state-centric perspectives of security. In contrast, the dissertation understands that equality based on race, gender and class must be seen as the main component of a feminist critical human security approach. Such a perspective understands that unequal access to education, healthcare and political and economic participation is affected by negative stereotypes based on race, gender, class and geographical location, thereby undermining women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security. For this reason, the achievement 262 of material needs is insufficient to overcome inequalities; what is needed is to transform the socially constructed power relations that have fostered structural inequalities and exclusion on allegedly undisciplined bodies. Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security, within a feminist critical human security approach, is assured only through feminist policy initiatives within an approach to development planning that is aimed at decreasing the intersecting factors of inequality. My analysis of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (in) security in Ecuadorian border zones understands feminist critical human security as an emancipatory concept that fosters strong community participation and engagement while repositioning women and their potentialities at the center of security objectives. A feminist critical human security approach is enriched by post-development that recognizes and incorporate local knowledge and people-centered development models. Such a conception encourages the agency of local communities and local women in the area where this research was conducted. It also emphasizes the idea of group solidarity as a social process that fosters women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s efforts and joint work for the benefit of themselves, their families and their communities. 5.2 Policy Recommendations The study has shown that smuggling cannot be tackled successfully by means of national security approach. Border security initiatives aggravate women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security conditions, which are already adversely affected by inequality based on the intersections of race, class, gender and geographical location. At the borders, asymmetry refers to the differences in the relationship of each country. But these differences also entail the need for integration by complementarity, typical of the unity in diversity.730 In concrete words, the complementary asymmetries that are structuring border 730 Fernando Carri\u00C3\u00B3n, Asimetr\u00C3\u00ADas en la frontera Ecuador-Colombia: entre la complementariedad y el sistema, FLACSO-Ecuador, IDRC- Canad\u00C3\u00A1 (2013), 10. 263 relations are possible to build and sustain due to the fact that governments of the countries have the following three features. First, a strictly national vision of development rather than a binational vision; this denies the understanding of the border as an integrated region where development policies should converge. Second, the defense of sovereignty and territorial integrity leads to an increase of the military presence on each side of the border. In other words, the neighbor is seen as an enemy and not as a friend to cooperate with.731 Third, governments\u00E2\u0080\u0099 centralist policies that concentrate power in few hands. The mere consideration of the need for public safety, the promotion of development from the locals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 perspectives and the strengthening of local institutions would be a remarkable paradigm shift.732 Therefore, decentralization becomes an excellent security strategy as long as financial and technical resources are allocated to improve the development and security conditions of the border region. Moreover, integration should be viewed as a security policy that can decline what has been considered by border security authorities as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cillegality\u00E2\u0080\u009D and not a way of living of the inhabitants of the border zone. This study has used empirical findings to demonstrate that current human security policy and National Development Plan do not result in a significant impact at the borders. The theoretical arguments suggest the need for policy review, which will enable the Ecuadorian government\u00E2\u0080\u0099s public policies related to the security of women and their communities. In this dissertation, I have demonstrated that insecurity, poverty, racism and patriarchy in Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border zones have been influenced by relations of domination. I argue that the achievement of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security and equality within an intersectional framework requires that the Ecuadorian government pursues feasible strategies and workable alliances through state-society partnerships. Local women want to be involved in public policy design and to be able to 731 Fernando Carri\u00C3\u00B3n, Ibid., 10. 732 Fernando Carri\u00C3\u00B3n, Ibid., 10. 264 oversee the allocation of financial and technical resources to projects that are needed in their communities. Representatives of the public sector must collaborate in public policy design led by women, sharing their technical skills with them. The study has also demonstrated a clear necessity to sensitize leaders and decision makers at the political, technical and administrative levels to the importance of strengthening their understanding of the critical place of equity within an intersectional framework. Therefore, it is extremely important to implement an action plan and to produce a diagnosis of the institutional capacity to mainstream intersectionality. Participatory diagnosis including members of public institutions can enable the identification of critical issues to be processed in order to move forward. In order to improve coordination with the recently created Council of Gender Equality, there is a clear need for technical skills in intersectional mainstreaming to support the creation of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s units sensitive to the intersections of gender, class, race and geographical location. Once the political will of the leaders is ensured, internal institutional changes can be promoted. Currently, most of the technical staff in state institutions are not familiar with the different needs of women and men depending their social location. Unfortunately, technical staff do not always have the necessary tools to analyze the differential impacts that their decisions and projects might have in improving or worsening conditions of inequality.733 Thus, public servants need to attend workshops about equality and non-discrimination, based on gender, race and socio-economic status. Additionally, a close interaction with potential beneficiaries of public policies needs to be strengthened in order to address this potential practical limitation. As shown throughout my study, despite their participation in several workshops conducted by governmental authorities, Afro-Ecuadorian, Mestizo, and Indigenous women from Carchi, El 733 Saskya Lugo, An\u00C3\u00A1lisis de la incorporaci\u00C3\u00B3n del enfoque de g\u00C3\u00A9nero en los proyectos p\u00C3\u00BAblicos de desarrollo. Quito: Fundaci\u00C3\u00B3n Friedrich Ebert, FES-ILDIS (2010), 15. 265 Oro and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos provinces do not believe that their voices, demands and interests were included within security and development plans.734 It is important to guarantee the full inclusion of the voices of the women living in the border zones in order to ensure their full representation. Moreover, the Ecuadorian authorities cannot work in isolation on gender equality diagnosis such as the Agenda Nacional de las Mujeres y la Igualdad de G\u00C3\u00A9nero [translated as National Agenda for Women and Gender Equality]. It is important to analyze potential policy impacts before the policies are implemented. This should include a prior consultation with potential beneficiaries and the development and application of indicators based on intersections of race, class, gender, and geographical location. SENPLADES, the provincial government, the municipalities and local women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations must all be involved in monitoring. For this reason, the Council for Gender Equality needs to enable intersectional mainstreaming in plans and projects to be implemented locally. It needs also to foster a plan of action, including identifying actors involved and establishing deadlines, which is highly recommended in order to improve the implementation of public policies that seek equality and non-discrimination. Since gender cannot be included as the only axis of discrimination, it is important to acknowledge the place of residence, the socio-economic status and the race of women. Thus, intersectional policies must guarantee economic security, access to education and employment and the elimination of domestic violence. Another relevant policy implication is the need for greater support for women involved in the informal economy. Women in Carchi, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and El Oro provinces have found an alternative to unemployment in the informal economy. In this context, informal economic cross-border activities such as smuggling have been legitimized and accepted by locals as a way to secure a livelihood in these Ecuadorian border provinces. However, the small-scale, or hormiga 734 Interview conducted by the author with Delia Malbay and Alicia Garc\u00C3\u00A9s, Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos. Also Interview with Rosa L\u00C3\u00B3pez, Movimiento de Mujeres El Oro and Interview with Barbarita Lara, CONAMUNE-Carchi. July-August, 2013. 266 type, smuggling considered as a \u00E2\u0080\u009Clow-status job,\u00E2\u0080\u009D does not enable women to lift themselves out of poverty or to provide fully for their families. Women in the three provinces in which my study focused on need education and training that permit them to get and to keep a job in the formal sector. The pervasive job discrimination against women locates them in low-productivity jobs with fewer responsibilities, which directly affects their salaries. In order to discover structural intersectional inequalities, data related to the unemployment rate by gender, race, ethnicity and geographical location at the provincial and canton level must be collected and analysed. If such data are not collected, the structural factors that affect different segments of the population differently due to their social location will be hidden, leading to more inequalities. For this reason, there is a substantial need to increase jobs options in the Huaquillas, Lago Agrio and La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n areas. Formal jobs will improve the economic security of local women. In this context, an employment policy that includes an intersectional perspective sensitive to the intersections of race, class, gender and geographical location must be inserted into the national development policy. By doing so, public policies will contribute to improving the quality of life of women and their families, thereby strengthening their self-esteem and autonomy. The unpaid work performed by women limits their options to remain in formal employment. Family responsibilities force women to keep an informal employment,735 particularly in the case of single mothers, who assume the sole responsibility for providing economic sustenance and caring of children. Poor women are forced to bring their children to work because they cannot afford to pay for daycare,736 limiting even more their employment options. It is 735 Naomi Cassirer y Laura Addati, \u00E2\u0080\u009CAmpliar las oportunidades de trabajo de la mujer: los trabajadores de la econom\u00C3\u00ADa informal y la necesidad de servicios de cuidado infantil,\u00E2\u0080\u009D http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---travail/documents/publication/wcms_145655.pdf (accessed November 19, 2014). 736 Cassirer, Ibid., 3-4. 267 important to promote and implement community services such as day care and activities for women workers with family responsibilities. A subsidized system of child care consistent with the needs of working mothers in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n-Carchi, Lago Agrio-Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and Huaquillas-El Oro provinces should be a policy priority. Public policies aimed at improving employment options for women need to simultaneously ameliorate child care accessibility and schedules, as well as education and training for less advantaged mothers. El Buen Vivir (Good Living) as a new development regime in Ecuador builds a model of economy based on solidarity as an alternative to the capitalist economy. This new development regime seeks a different economy that is more social and inclusive. Thus, this regime is different from that characterized by free competition, which encourages economic cannibalism among humans.737 Therefore, the redistribution of wealth, the distribution of income with equity and access to economic resources should be the goals of this new development regime. In this sense, the Ecuadorian government has several responsibilities regarding women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s security in order to foster the so-called Buen Vivir within the framework of the social and solidarity economy. Thus, it is highly recommended that the government designs public policies that promote the eradication of occupational segregation and income gaps, affirmative action programs for occupational training and qualification programs for female labor and empowerment from a rights perspective. Moreover, all acts of discrimination and harassment on account of gender, ethnicity, age, class, sexual orientation, disability or maternity have to be punished by law. The government has to encourage proposals that generate mutual responsibility between women and men in the reproductive sphere. It also needs to provide social security benefits for all women workers, regardless of the forms of work they perform. Finally, there is a need to strengthen and promote 737 Mar\u00C3\u00ADa Jacinta Zea, G\u00C3\u00A9nero y trabajo justo, digno y solidario en el marco del Buen Vivir, ILDIS. Documento de Trabajo. (Octubre 2010), 11. 268 economic initiatives at small and medium scales to create new and sustainable local jobs for women. This dissertation proposes specific recommendations for each province. In Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, it is important that the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) collects cantons and parish statistics by gender, class, race, ethnicity and geographical location in addition to provincial statistics. These would inform the design of public policy concerned with issues of intersectionality as a way of tackling multiple inequalities in urban and rural areas. It is also necessary to have access to information about social investment broken down by race, ethnicity and gender in order to combat better poverty, exclusion and inequality, which are generated by systems of domination such as racism, classism and sexism. For instance, statistics regarding health in Ecuadorian official documents are not classified by ethnicity and gender at the provincial level. If these statistics can be broken down by race and gender, they can demonstrate disparities between the health of Blacks, Indigenous, Mestizo, and Whites in urban and rural areas. In addition, the health sector in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos needs public policy to be targeted mainly at poor women in rural areas where services are limited. Health care infrastructure and the permanent presence of medical doctors in the walk-in clinics are required. Regarding domestic violence in Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, local women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organizations have proposed several strategies to tackle this type of violence. The first strategy involves ensuring that women's organizations include domestic and gender-based violence in their agendas as the top-priority theme.738 The second strategy encourages the training of institutional staff working on education, health, police, and the justice system, on Law 103739 and its application mechanisms, in addition 738 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 22. 739 The Law against Violence to Women and the Family was originated at the National Directorate for Women; it is the result from the collaboration between lawyers, judges, organized women's groups, NGOs, the Commission for Women, Children and the Family of the National Congress and the support of international agencies. It is known as Law 103. It was adopted on 29 November 1995 and published in the Official Gazette No 839 of 11 December of the same year. 269 to the legal framework that deals with sexual offenses.740 This strategy also needs to be targeted at families through community activities that inform them of the social and legal consequences of domestic violence. The third strategy looks at monitoring the authorities responsible for the implementation and application of Law 103 and the legal framework that deals with sexual offenses.741 The fourth strategy encourages widespread acknowledgement of domestic violence as a public health problem. The fifth strategy suggests the establishment of police stations to serve women at the local level, adapting the services to the sociocultural conditions of the population. Finally, the agenda of Women of Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos seeks to improve specialized health care service delivery for victims of violence.742 All these initiatives need special support from the state through technical and financial resources and continuous political commitment. To improve the lives of Afro-Ecuadorian women in Carchi, specifically in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and the Chota Valley region, it is important to get to know the communities living on the border by looking at their strengths and weaknesses. For this reason, it is indispensable to make visible the historical contribution to the country's development by those border communities.743 Understanding the proposals of those communities would demonstrate respect for cultural, social and worldview differences. Local women in La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and the Chota Valley region proposed the creation of an accelerated baccalaureate program in their community. They believe that the main issue to be solved in order to increase their economic security and to allow them to live with dignity is to have access to education so as to be able to get a formal job.744 The lack of permanent access to 740 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 22. 741 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid., 22. 742 Movimiento de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, Ibid. 743 Interview conducted and translated by the author with Barbarita Lara, CONAMUNE-Carchi, August 23, 2013. 744 Workshops conducted with local women between July and August 2013 in Carchi and El Oro-Ecuador. 270 education and employment for women in Carchi Province affects their economic security. Since there are no employment options in the zone, most people migrate to the big cities. The Ecuadorian government should develop a program that provides productive rural lands in the Chota Valley region to women and their families in order to ensure a more equitable management of local resources. During the workshop, a local Afro-Ecuadorian woman suggested the need for sustainable productive projects to add value to agricultural products such as beans. In addition, the government should support and promote local community development, ensuring fair lending and credit practices for rural Afro-Ecuadorian women. These microcredit programs must be planned and implemented with the full participation of the Afro-Ecuadorian community of La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n and the Chota Valley region. Training regarding how to produce goods and services is fundamental, but it is also important that women receive training on how to put their local products into the markets. Local women also want to receive training in public policy design in order to be able to submit their proposals to local and national authorities. Women's opportunities for work cannot be subject to traditional perceptions of their \u00E2\u0080\u009Cproper role\u00E2\u0080\u009D in society. Workshops conducted with local women in Huaquillas and La Concepci\u00C3\u00B3n clearly showed the need to change these type of social constructions. Engaging men around issues of gender equality will foster alternative attitudes and actions around the social construction of masculinity and femininity. A strategy that seeks social transformation and incorporates public awareness through publicly campaigns and education programs is required to tackle larger social issues, such as the low self-esteem of women. Such a strategy will in the long term put an end to the history of women and men reproducing patriarchy in Ecuadorian society. Such transformative programs that challenge gender stereotypes in the household, the community and the workplace can contribute to a decrease of gender-based violence, which in Ecuador also intersects with discrimination based on race, class and geographical location (rural-urban). 271 Therefore, any public policy in this regard requires that the Ecuadorian state takes additional steps aimed at modifying the social constructions that determine the roles and behaviours of men and women. This should include the design and implementation of educational programs aimed at counteracting stereotypes and practices based on perceptions of the inferiority or superiority of men over women. Involving men in discussions about equality would be a significant step towards creating awareness and then transforming unequal gender relations. Educational workshops aimed at transforming gender relations should explain that the differences between men and women are not something natural; rather, they are supported by traditions and machismo. Workshops and media campaigns need to be permanent to tackle machismo in order to create awareness about the value of women at home and in society. Women want these workshops to teach men that household chores must be shared so as to create harmonious relationships. To summarize, this section has recommended that specific policies and programs for the three provinces (El Oro, Carchi and Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos) must respond to the lived experiences of women where gender, race, ethnicity and geographical location intersect. Government programs are designed with the entire population as the target group; these programs are also directed towards alleviating inequalities based on a single identity marker. Consequently, programs designed to alleviate poverty among women may not work as well for Indigenous women given that the intersection of Indigenous status is not built into these programs. Additionally, poverty programs directed at women may have a greater impact on the lives of Mestizo women than on impoverished Indigenous or Afro-Ecuadorian women, because they may overlook the unique problems that these last two groups may face. There are, of course, practical limits to these policy recommendations. First, if continuous political will and an established budget are not guaranteed, it will be impossible to carry out the initiatives that have been recommended. Second, if the human security policies aimed at the border 272 zones are not implemented as targeted programs aware of the intersections of race, class, gender, and location, the historically discriminated populations will continue to be excluded. If the policies do not reflect this uniqueness, they will remain largely ineffective in solving the human security problems of marginalized groups. Third, strong state-society partnerships might be affected if there is not enough cooperation and mutual trust among the partners to achieve a common goal. Trust can be hard to obtain if there are shifts of security priorities and a permanent power inequality between the partners. Therefore, addressing the unequal power relations between the partners can be a great challenge. Usually, the actors in partnerships bring their own values, skills and organisational resources, influencing power relations. In this case, new mechanisms of trust and commitment need to be created through power sharing that avoids hierarchical relationships. Finally, if the viability and impact of intersectional mainstreaming are not tested through a pilot project of public policies aimed at women and their communities in the three border provinces studied, the implementation of this approach will likely fail, which will in turn create doubts about the effectiveness of the feminist critical human security perspective. Approaches such as feminist critical human security to improving women's security require transformative measures at the local and national levels. Open exchange, dialogue and state-society partnerships could substantially enhance the conditions of security among women. Moreover, agreement must be reach in the ideological understandings of the purpose of security in general, and the importance of security for women in particular. 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(Junio, 2003) http://www.explored.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/udenor-ejecuta-120-proyectos-fronterizos-en-el-norte-150049.html Hoy, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMillones de Gasolina Incautados.\u00E2\u0080\u009D 29 de febrero 2012, http://www.hoy.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/millones-de-galones-de-gasolina-incautados-535743.html (accessed March 14, 2013). 298 Hoy. \u00E2\u0080\u009CGobierno controlara venta de gas en las fronteras.\u00E2\u0080\u009D 29 de abril, 2012. http://www.hoy.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/gobierno-controlara-venta-de-gas-en-las-fronteras-544739.html La Raz\u00C3\u00B3n. Usaid sale de Ecuador tras los desacuerdos con el Gobierno. December 20, 2013. http://www.la-razon.com/mundo/Usaid-sale-Ecuador-desacuerdos-Gobierno_0_1964803534.html Rosero, Amparo. \u00E2\u0080\u009CProtesta mantiene cerrada la v\u00C3\u00ADa entre provincias de Imbabura y Carchi,\u00E2\u0080\u009D El Universo September 22, 2014. http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2014/09/22/nota/4019991/protesta-mantiene-cerrada-provincias-imbabura-carchi (accessed September 20, 2015). 299 Appendices Appendix A: Contact letter for key informant October 24, 2013 Dear \u00E2\u0080\u00A6., I am a PhD candidate from the University of British Columbia-Okanagan in Canada, but I was also a security consultant and advisor for the government of Ecuador between 2007 and 2010. In this moment I am working in my PhD's Dissertation- research fieldwork. My focus is on Ecuador, a country in which I have many years of experience in my field. This work is carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada. Information on the Centre is available on the web at www.idrc.ca The objective of this research is to assess the extent to which the Ecuadorian government\u00E2\u0080\u0099s border policies related to human security include a concern for gender issues such as policies to facilitate the participation of women on safe and productive employment and child care. I also want to determine the extent to which Canadian international cooperation in these policies and projects take into account the reproductive, productive, and community leadership roles of women on the Ecuadorian borders. In this way, due to your position as Senior Media Advisor, I will like to kindly request arrange an interview with Francisco Cos-Montiel and/or Susanne Szabo in which I will explain in detail my project, but I will also like to include in this project their opinion concerning international cooperation in developing countries and how Canadian International Cooperation can be increased and improved at Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders zones specifically projects involving gender issues in Carchi, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, and El Oro provinces. I will be visiting Ottawa from November 5th until November 6th 2013. Therefore, for this interview I am able to fit my time according to your availability. I will really appreciate if you can let me know date and time of the interview to the following email claudia.donoso@ubc.ca or 250 300 0738. Sincerely, Claudia Donoso, PhD. Candidate University of British Columbia-Okanagan, Canada 300 Appendix B: Consent form for key informant The University of British Columbia Irving K Barber School of Arts and Sciences Unit 8 Economics, Philosophy, & Political Science Okanagan Campus 3333 University Way Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 1V7 \u00E2\u0080\u009CWomen\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Human (In) Security on the Ecuadorian Borders\u00E2\u0080\u009D INTERVIEW CONSENT FORM I. Study Team Who is conducting the study? Principal Investigator: This project is conducted by Dr. James Rochlin, Political Science Professor from the University of British Columbia- Okanagan Campus in Canada. 250-807-9388 Co-Investigator: Claudia Donoso, PhD. Candidate, Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, Canada. This research is conducted in order to undertake field research on \u00E2\u0080\u009CWomen\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Human (In) Security on the Ecuadorian Borders\u00E2\u0080\u009D in partial fulfillment of the Co-Investigator\u00E2\u0080\u0099s PhD Degree. II. Sponsor Who is funding this study? This work is carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada. Information on the Centre is available on the web at www.idrc.ca III. Invitation and Study Purpose Why should you take part in this study? Why are we doing this study? As an investigator or administrator regarding development, international cooperation and gender specific public policy in Ecuador, we would like to kindly invite you to participate in this interview of the current state of Canadian International Cooperation and gender equality in this country. This will consist of an interview, centered upon one principal discussion point. That is, how do you see the role of international cooperation and Canadian International cooperation as a mean to develop and contribute to the interests of local women who live in the border provinces in Carchi, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, and El Oro in Ecuador? This study will form the basis of a PhD. Dissertation regarding 301 to the address the concerns and benefit local women in the border provinces of Carchi, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and El Oro in Ecuador. III. Study Procedure This study will consist of gathering information from individuals with vested interests in international cooperation, public policy making, and gender. This information will be obtained through interviews of approximately 30 minutes each. Individuals will be asked for their opinions regarding how such strategies might be developed and implemented. IV. Study Results The results of this study will form the basis for a graduate thesis in Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies at UBC. Copies of this thesis will be provided to all institutions of those who participated in interview and focus groups. Results may also eventually be published. V. Potential Risk of the Study We do not believe there is anything regarding the results of this interview which may be used to harm your personal integrity or that of your institution. VI. Potential Benefits of the Study Your opinion as a participant is valuable due to your professional position and experience regarding international cooperation in developing countries such as Ecuador. This study may help you, as well as your institution, improve and more efficiently include gender as planning issue to increase equality and human security for women living in areas such as border zones in Ecuador. VII. Confidentiality All information collected during the interview will be confidential. Notes from the interview will be transcribed and stored in a password protected, personal database at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. All files will be destroyed after five years in accordance to UBC Okanagan institutional policy. VIII. Contact for Information about the Study If you, as a participant, have any questions regarding this study, you may contact the Co-Investigator, Claudia Donoso, at the e-mail address listed on the footer of this consent form. If you wish to contact the Principal Investigator, Dr. James Rochlin, you may do so using the following e-mail address: james.rochlin@ubc.ca. IX. Contact for Complaints If you have any concerns about your rights as a research participant and/or your experiences while participating in this study, you may contact the Research Subject Information Line in the UBC Office of Research Services at 1-877-822-8598 or the UBC Okanagan Research Services Office 302 at 250-807-8832. Alternatively, you may email the Research Subject Information Line at: RSIL@ors.ubc.ca Taking part in this study is entirely up to you. You have the right to refuse to participate in this study. If you decide not to take part, you may choose to pull out of the study at any time without giving a reason and without any negative impact on you. If you wish to withdraw from the interview, you may also ask for any information collected up to that point is deleted as well. By signing below, you will consent to being interviewed and participate in this study; and accepting that the information gathered can be used in a PhD\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Thesis, preliminary reports and publications arising from this research. Please print your name:_____________________________________ Participant signature:________________________ Date: ______________________ \u00EF\u0082\u00B7 Your signature above indicates that you have received a copy of this consent form for your own records. 303 Appendix C: Poster-Invitation for participants in workshop Seguridad Humana de las Mujeres en la Zona de Frontera [S\u00C3\u00A1bado 13 de Julio], 2013 9h30-15h00 Lugar: [Huaquillas] Entrada libre Informaci\u00C3\u00B3n al claudia.donoso@ubc.ca La Universidad de British Columbia-Okanagan tiene el agrado de invitar a mujeres de la provincia de [El Oro] a un taller de trabajo y/o entrevista que constituyen parte del estudio\"(In) Seguridad Humana de la Mujer en las Fronteras Ecuatorianas\" conducido por el Investigador principal Dr. James Rochlin y la Co-Investigadora Claudia Donoso. Este estudio es parte de la tesis doctoral de la co-investigadora. Este trabajo se lleva a cabo con el apoyo financiero del Centro para la Investigaci\u00C3\u00B3n para el Desarrollo Internacional (IDRC), Ottawa, Canad\u00C3\u00A1. Informaci\u00C3\u00B3n sobre el Centro est\u00C3\u00A1 disponible en la p\u00C3\u00A1gina web www.idrc.ca En este estudio se discutir\u00C3\u00A1n sus experiencias como habitante de frontera, los mayores problemas de desarrollo y equidad de g\u00C3\u00A9nero en su provincia con el objeto de plantear una propuesta de seguridad humana en la zona. As\u00C3\u00AD, el estudio pretende contribuir a la planificaci\u00C3\u00B3n de pol\u00C3\u00ADticas p\u00C3\u00BAblicas para aumentar la igualdad y la seguridad humana de las mujeres que viven en \u00C3\u00A1reas tales como las zonas fronterizas de Ecuador, reconociendo la capacidad de agencia de estas mujeres. 304 Appendix D: Consent form for participants in workshop The University of British Columbia Irving K Barber School of Arts and Sciences Unit 8 Economics, Philosophy, & Political Science Okanagan Campus 3333 University Way Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 1V7 \u00E2\u0080\u009CWomen\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Human (In) Security on the Ecuadorian Borders\u00E2\u0080\u009D WORKSHOP CONSENT FORM I. Study Team Who is conducting the study? Principal Investigator: This project is conducted by Dr. James Rochlin, Political Science Professor from the University of British Columbia- Okanagan Campus in Canada. 250-807-9388 Co-Investigator: Claudia Donoso, PhD. Candidate, Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, Canada. This research is conducted in order to undertake field research on \u00E2\u0080\u009CWomen\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Human (In) Security on the Ecuadorian Borders\u00E2\u0080\u009D in partial fulfillment of the Co-Investigator\u00E2\u0080\u0099s PhD Degree. II. Sponsor Who is funding this study? This work is carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada. Information on the Centre is available on the web at www.idrc.ca III. Invitation and Study Purpose Why should you take part in this study? Why are we doing this study? As a representative or member of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s organization regarding gender inequality and gender specific public policy in Ecuador, we would like to kindly invite you to participate in this interview of the current state of Canadian International Cooperation and gender equality in this country. This will consist of an interview, centered upon one principal discussion point. That is, how do you see the role of international cooperation and Canadian International cooperation as a mean to develop and contribute to the interests of local women who live in the border provinces in Carchi, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos, and El Oro in Ecuador? This study will form the basis of a PhD. Dissertation regarding to the address the concerns and benefit local women in the border provinces of Carchi, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and El Oro in Ecuador. 305 III. Study Procedure This study will consist of gathering information from individuals with vested interests in international cooperation, public policy making, and gender. This information will be obtained through interviews of approximately 30 minutes each. Individuals will be asked for their opinions regarding how such strategies might be developed and implemented. IV. Study Results The results of this study will form the basis for a graduate thesis in Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies at UBC. Copies of this thesis will be provided to all institutions of those who participated in interview and focus groups. Results may also eventually be published. V. Potential Risk of the Study We do not believe there is anything regarding the results of this interview which may be used to harm your personal integrity or that of your institution. VI. Potential Benefits of the Study Your opinion as a participant is valuable due to your professional position and experience regarding gender inequality in developing countries such as Ecuador. This study may help you, as well as your institution, improve and more efficiently include gender as planning issue to increase equality and human security for women living in areas such as border zones in Ecuador. VII. Confidentiality All information collected during the interview will be confidential. Notes from the interview will be transcribed and stored in a password protected, personal database at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. All files will be destroyed after five years in accordance to UBC Okanagan institutional policy. VIII. Contact for Information about the Study If you, as a participant, have any questions regarding this study, you may contact the Co-Investigator, Claudia Donoso, at the e-mail address listed on the footer of this consent form. If you wish to contact the Principal Investigator, Dr. James Rochlin, you may do so using the following e-mail address: james.rochlin@ubc.ca. IX. Contact for Complaints If you have any concerns about your rights as a research participant and/or your experiences while participating in this study, you may contact the Research Subject Information Line in the UBC Office of Research Services at 1-877-822-8598 or the UBC Okanagan Research Services Office at 250-807-8832. Alternatively, you may email the Research Subject Information Line at: RSIL@ors.ubc.ca 306 Taking part in this study is entirely up to you. You have the right to refuse to participate in this study. If you decide not to take part, you may choose to pull out of the study at any time without giving a reason and without any negative impact on you. If you wish to withdraw from the interview, you may also ask for any information collected up to that point is deleted as well. By signing below, you will consent to being interviewed and participate in this study; and accepting that the information gathered can be used in a PhD\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Thesis, preliminary reports and publications arising from this research. Please print your name:_____________________________________ Participant signature:________________________ Date: ______________________ \u00EF\u0082\u00B7 Your signature above indicates that you have received a copy of this consent form for your own records. 307 Appendix E: List of Key Informants Contacted 27 Interviews y 2 Workshops 63 participants in the study in Ecuador and Canada. Folder A (15 participants) A1 Interview Plan Ecuador 43m50s, 1 person. A2 Interview Centro de Vigilancia Aduanera 1h00m08s, 1 person. A3 Interview Secretaria T\u00C3\u00A9cnica de Cooperaci\u00C3\u00B3n Internacional-SETECI 29m27s, 1 person. A4 Workshop Huaquillas 2h35m41s, 8 participants. A5 Interview Vice-alcaldesa de Huaquillas 39m16s, 1 person. A6 Interview Oficial de Aduanas Chacras-El Oro 13m28s, 1 person. A7 Interview Ambassador of Canada in Ecuador Pamela O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Donnell 41m39s, 2 participants. Folder B (6 participants) B1 Interview Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n 1h16m17s, 1 person. B2 Interview Comisi\u00C3\u00B3n de Transici\u00C3\u00B3n 54m00s, 2 participants. B3 Interview ONU Mujeres 32m16s, 1 person. B4 Interview Former Development Planning Officer for the Northern border 1h08m23s, 1 person. B5 Interview Consejo Nacional de Mujeres Negra-Carchi (CONAMUNE) 49m34s, 1 person. Folder C (9 participants) C1 Interview FLACSO-Ecuador 32m02s, 1 person. C2 Interview Federaci\u00C3\u00B3n de Mujeres de Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos 1h28m29s, 2 participants. C3 Interview Fondo Canadiense para Iniciativas Locales 46m56s, 1 person. C4 Interview ONU Mujeres 13m10s, 1 person. 308 C5 Interview Senior Program Specialist Social and Economic Policy, IDRC, 1 person. C6 Interview Ambassador of Ecuador in Canada, 1 person. C7 Interview North-South Institute, 1 person. C8 Interview North-South Institute, 1 person. Folder D (28 participants) D1 Interview Gabriela Rosero, first section 37m07s, 1 person. D2 Interview Afro-Ecuadorian woman 27m35s, 1 person. D3 Interview SENPLADES planning zone 1 / 47m22s, 2 participants. D4 Interview follow up interview ONU mujeres 37m48s, 1 person. D5 Workshop Carchi 2h11m4s, 25 participants. Folder E (5 personas) E1 Interview local women in Huaquillas 54m04s, 2 participants. E2 Interview Movimiento de Mujeres El Oro 57m06s, 1 person. E3 Interview Profesora Universidad Central Experta en temas de G\u00C3\u00A9nero 39m21s, 1 person. E4 Interview Director Regional de la Agencia de Control Hidrocarbur\u00C3\u00ADfero El Oro (ARCH), 37m46s, 1 person. 309 Appendix F: Interview Guides for Key Informants Questions for human security and border security experts 1. What is your understanding of the concept of a border? 2. How do the northern border and the southern border of Ecuador differ or resemble between each other? 3. What are the most significant border security issues faced by Ecuador? 4. Is smuggling a relevant topic for the border security agenda? Could you please explain to me the economic losses generated by smuggling in the country? 5. What are the products that are smuggled into the borders? Are the smuggled goods similar or different between the northern border and the southern border? 6. Has your institution identified smuggling networks within the country? 7. Are smuggling networks constituted by men or are also women involved? 8. What is the role of these women within the smuggling networks? 9. Do border authorities give privileged treatment for women who engage in smuggling? Or do women get the same treatment as men? 10. How is smuggling penalized in Ecuador? 11. What are the steps initiated by the Government of Ecuador to improve border security? 12. How many members of [the armed forces, national police, immigration agents or customs control agents] control smuggling at Ecuador\u00E2\u0080\u0099s borders? 13. How do you evaluate the success of the patrolling and confiscation operatives? 14. Is the border security approach focused on the militarization of the border enough to combat security problems in the area? 15. Which security and development plans include the human security approach in Ecuador? 310 16. Does the human security approach involve a gender perspective within public policy? Questions for experts in gender and public policy 1. What is the nature of gender inequality in Ecuador? What are its causes? 2. What is necessary to improve the lives of all women in Ecuador, specifically in the border zones? 3. What is the proper role of the state in the struggle to overcome gender inequality? 4. What are the limitations and potential dangers of using policy to resolve problems of gender inequality? 5. How is gender mainstreaming ensured in public policy? 6. When have gender issues become institutionalised in Ecuador? Do gender issues really matter in the Ecuadorian society? 7. How are public policies for gender equality promoted within the Ecuadorian government? 8. Could you please tell me which have been the main challenges in the application of a gender perspective within public policies in Ecuador? 9. Which is the responsible institution for ensuring that a gender perspective is applied? 10. What public policies with a gender perspective have been planned at the national level? 11. Are there any public policies with a gender perspective in the border areas? 12. What specific policies are implemented in the provinces of Carchi, Sucumb\u00C3\u00ADos and El Oro? 13. What is the role of [the academia/ your institution] in the promotion of gender equality in Ecuador? 311 Appendix G: Interview Guide for Participants Questions for women who live in the border during discussion group 1. How long have you been living in Huaquillas/ La Concepcion? 2. How many of you have a husband? 3. Do you live with your husband? Who is the head of household? Where does your husband / father of your children lives? 4. How many of you have children? 5. Are you full-time mothers or what other activities do you do in a daily basis? 6. Have you engaged in other activities in your community? Are you a member of an organization? Which one? Why did you choose to become a member of that organization? 7. Do you think you have had the same opportunities as men to find work in a small town/parish like Huaquillas/ La Concepcion? 8. Do you earn the same or less than men in the same position? 9. Is it enough what you earn in your job or need to find another source of income? 10. Do you have family on the other side of the border? 11. Do border authorities are cordial with you when crossing the border? 312 Appendix H: Certificate of Approval The University of British Columbia Okanagan Research Services Behavioural Research Ethics Board 3333 University Way Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7 Phone: 250-807-8832 Fax: 250-807-8438 CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL - MINIMAL RISK AMENDMENT PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: DEPARTMENT: UBC BREB NUMBER: James F. Rochlin UBC/UBCO IKE Barber School of Arts & Sc/UBCO Admin Unit 8 Arts & Sci H12-02980 INSTITUTION(S) WHERE RESEARCH WILL BE CARRIED OUT: Institution Site CO-INVESTIGATOR(S): Claudia V Donoso SPONSORING AGENCIES: International Development Research Centre - \"Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Human (In) Security in Ecuadorians borders\" PROJECT TITLE: Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Human (In) Security in Ecuadorians borders Expiry Date - Approval of an amendment does not change the expiry date on the current UBC BREB approval of this study. An application for renewal is required on or before: May 22, 2014 AMENDMENT(S): AMENDMENT APPROVAL DATE: June 18, 2013 Document Name Version Date Consent Forms: Consent Form Workshop and individual interviews with local women English Version 2 June 17, 2013 Consent Form Workshop and individual interviews with local women Spanish Version 2 June 17, 2013 Advertisements: Poster Spanish Version 2 June 16, 2013 Poster English Version 1 June 16, 2013 Questionnaire, Questionnaire Cover Letter,Tests: Question for individual interview with local women Spanish and English Version 2 June 16, 2013 Other Documents: Recruitment letter Spanish and English Version 1 June 11, 2013 Other: N/A The amendment(s) and the document(s) listed above have been reviewed and the procedures were found to be acceptable on ethical grounds for research involving human subjects. Approval is issued on behalf of the Behavioural Research Ethics Board Okanagan and signed electronically by: Dr. Carolyn Szostak, Chair "@en . "Thesis/Dissertation"@en . "2017-02"@en . "10.14288/1.0320937"@en . "eng"@en . "Interdisciplinary Studies"@en . "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International"@* . "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"@* . "Graduate"@en . "Feminist critical human security : women's (in) security and smuggling on Ecuador's borders"@en . "Text"@en . "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/59656"@en .