Rebuilding Together Through Buen Vivir : Democratic Collectives and Ecuadorian Liberation Theologies in the Face of the IMF and Disaster Capitalism

ABSTRACTDisaster capitalism and shock doctrine have come to the fore in Ecuador after the 2016 earthquake and 2022 economic crisis and national strike. In opposition to the form of shock doctrine these two disasters highlight are theological anthropologies and praxis of religious alternatives to care and rebuilding. A disrupted research trip explores the competing visions of development, governance, and flourishing between the International Monetary Fund’s presence in Ecuador with shock doctrine and local economic collectives’ and the national solidarity movement’s liberative pastoral responses through Buen Vivir, an indigenous praxis of interdependence. The formation of democratic economic collectives and the validation of solidarity in large-scale national strikes demonstrate the power of pastoral theological responses holding to an expansive vision of Buen Vivir and theological anthropologies insisting on interdependent practices of care, justice, and liturgy to bring about fundamental shifts to our understanding of good living and subjectivity of all living things.KEYWORDS: Shock doctrineDisaster capitalismBuen VivirEcuadorLiberation theologyLeonidas Proaño Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Martinho, “Artisanal Fisheries.”2 Klein, The Shock Doctrine; Valdés, Pinochet’s Economists; and Fernández-Armesto, A Hemispheric History.3 Hiskey, Montalvo, and Orcés, “Democracy, Governance, and Emigration Intentions”; Hiskey and Orces, “Transition Shocks and Emigration Profiles”; Hiskey and Moseley, Life in the Political Machine. Over the past several years political science researchers Jonathan Hiskey and Diana Orcés have traced the impact that democratic practice and participation have on migration intention. Hiskey and Orcés reviewed Latin America’s processes of uneven democratization, severe civil disturbances, and ‘transition shocks’ that drove unprecedented numbers of migration from and through the region. They found that ‘during precisely the same period that the area’s countries were transitioning to more democratic political regimes, theoretically becoming more open and accessible to citizens in the process, a historic number of individuals were making the difficult decision to leave their native country for an extended period of time.’ So much of migration intention relates to the level a person feels they can participate in the formation of their industry, society, and political life. Hiskey and Orcés found ‘that the extent to which an individual perceives [their] political system to be defective with respect to its democratic quality and governance capacity will influence [their] willingness to consider leaving [their] home country in the near future.’ Citations from “Democracy, Governance, and Emigration Intentions,” 90–91.4 Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, 4–8, 14–17, 195–200; Rogers-Vaughn, Caring for Souls in a Neoliberal Age, 16–18.5 Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, 4.6 Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, 195.7 Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, 133. See also: Friedman, “The Social Responsibility of Business.”8 Rogers-Vaughn, Caring for Souls in a Neoliberal Age, 17.9 Smith, The Relational Self. See also: Pamela D. Couture, Blessed Are the Poor?; Pattison, Pastoral Care and Liberation Theology; Rogers-Vaughn, Caring for Souls in a Neoliberal Age; and LaMothe, Care of Souls, Care of Polis.10 Valdés, Pinochet’s Economists, 85, 128, 185–98.11 Friedman, “The Promise of Vouchers.”12 Friedman, “The Promise of Vouchers.”13 Dingerson, “Narrow and Unlovely.”14 Friedman and Friedman, Two Lucky People, 391–408; Kornbluh, The Pinochet File.15 Valdés, Pinochet’s Economists, 99, 132–61.16 Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, United States Senate, Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, December 18, 1975), 30. CIA, “Secret Cable from Headquarters [Blueprint for Fomenting a Coup Climate],” September 27, 1970. Papers printed in Kornbluh, The Pinochet File.17 Cristóbal Madero, “Milton Friedman: How Responsible is He? A Required Preamble to Understanding His Influence on the Chilean Educational System 1950–2010.”18 Friedman and Friedman, Two Lucky People, 400.19 Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, 8.20 Klein, The Shock Doctrine, 57.21 Friedman and Friedman, Two Lucky People, 403.22 Letelier, “Economic ‘Freedom’s’ Awful Toll,” 142.23 International Monetary Fund, “IMF Executive Board Approves US$4.2 Billion.”24 International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept., “Ecuador,” 9. Bold text is original to report.25 IMF, “Ecuador,” 10.26 IMF, “Ecuador,” 29–30.27 Klein, Shock Doctrine, 204–5.28 Joseph, “Buy Our Bodies and Our Land That We Might Live,” 25.29 Pinochet was wont to utilize this quasi-economic and social science to impose a police state and repression replicated throughout Latin America across the right-left ideological divide.30 Joseph, “Buy Our Bodies and Our Land That We Might Live,” 25.31 Klein, Shock Doctrine, 139.32 Alves, Theology of Human Hope, 154–55.33 Epistemicide is the elimination and invalidation of ways of knowing, knowledge acquisition, and systems of knowledge often in reference to non-Western modes of epistemology. Feminicide is the intentional killing of women based on gender and often tied to state violence and profit producing gender roles through dangerous unpaid labor and a lack of access to power or channels of protection.34 Walsh, “Decolonial Praxis,” 7.35 Acosta, “Extractivismo y Derechos de La Naturaleza,” 162.36 Acosta, “Extractivismo y Derechos de La Naturaleza,” 175.37 Altamirano-Flores, “Social and Solidarity Economy in Pursuit of ‘Buen Vivir’.”38 The progressive president Rafael Correa went on record to claim that to not promote extractivist contracts was “absurd.” See Altamirano-Flores, especially 153 ff.39 Altamirano-Flores, “Social and Solidarity Economy in Pursuit of ‘Buen Vivir’,” 146–47.40 Velásquez, “Tracing the Political Life of Kimsacocha,” 157.41 Acosta, “Extractivismo y Derechos de La Naturaleza,” 172.42 Translation and interpretation of Rabbi Rami Shapiro of Proverbs 3:19–22 from The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature, 169.43 Rieger and Henkel-Rieger, Unified We Are a Force, 92.44 Estermann, “Indigenous Theologies in Abya Yala,” 127.45 Walsh, “Decolonial Praxis.”46 Estermann, “Indigenous Theologies in Abya Yala,” 120. See also: Hoskins, “Ecuador.”47 Althaus-Reid, Indecent Theology, 4–6.48 Tobar Solano, “La Teología de La Liberación Del Ecuador.”49 Müller, “Caridad, Justicia y Representaciones de Lo «indígena».” Müller’s article is an excellent history of the interaction of liberation theology, church hierarchy, and the formation of CONAIE and the Indigenous Movement, a Movement that hoped to keep communism, Protestantism, and neoliberalism out of indigenous communities.50 Solano, “La Teología de La Liberación Del Ecuador,” 394.51 Solano, “La Teología de La Liberación Del Ecuador,” 401.52 Bingemer, Latin American Theology, 121.53 Althaus-Reid, Indecent Theology, 176.54 Guerrero Arias, Corazonar, 164–89.55 Müller, “Caridad, Justicia y Representaciones de Lo «indígena»,” 15.56 Pattison, Pastoral Care and Liberation Theology, 214, 216–17.57 For more on communal care with Latin American roots see: De La Torre, “Pastoral Care from the Latina/o Margins”; and Goizueta, Caminemos Con Jesús, especially 101–31.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by Vanderbilt University.Notes on contributorsChristopher M. HoskinsChristopher M. Hoskins is a doctoral candidate in Religion, Psychology, and Culture at Vanderbilt University researching the intersections of spiritual care, migration, and pastoral theology. He is also a fellow in the Theology and Practice Program.