Institute for the Study of the Americas

The majority of the materials held in this collection date from the country's last period of military dictatorship (1972-1979) and its subsequent return to democracy following the introduction of a new constitution in 1979. The dictatorship had overseen the growth of the country's external debt to record levels, which exacerbated the effects of the economic crisis of the 1980s, when global recession coupled with a fall in petroleum prices forced Ecuador to adopt stringent austerity measures in order to meet debt-rescheduling requirements. It is these economic conditions and the continuing inequality of Equadorian society which dominate the materials held here, which originate mainly from univerisities and institutes, trade unions (notably the Central Ecuatoriana de Organizaciones Clasistas(CEDOC)) and peasant and indigenous organisations rather than from the established political parties. Their concerns range from rural conditions and the need for agricultural reform, across the struggles of the trade union movement, to the situation of the Indian population of Ecuador.