The National Development Council of Nations and Peoples of Ecuador is seeking consensus from among different political parties in support of the “Ley de Nacionalidades y Pueblos Indígenas del Ecuador”. Observers expect the new law to be passed by the National Congress in an upcoming second, and most likely definitive, debate. Valerio Grefa, an Ecuadorian indigenous leader, has said that the main objections to the law relate to legislators’ fears that indigenous peoples could take over sources of water and drainage, and that they might be able to declare the territories they currently occupy as off-limits.
