On Oct. 12, proclaimed as the Day of Indigenous Resistance [7], the Kichwa [8] organization ECUARUNARI [9] announced that its president Carlos Pérez Guartambel [10] succeeded in entering Ecuador with a passport issued by the Kichwa Nation. Border authorities initially held Pérez, saying the document was "illegal," but ultimately let him pass. ECUARUNARI said the passage "marks an historic precedent at the juridical level for all Abya Yala," using the pan-indigenous name [11] for the Americas (adopted from the Kuna [12] people of Panama). The statement also hailed the passage as another "step towards a pluri-national" state in Ecuador. (Pueblos en Camino [13]) The report does not state what country Pérez entered from, but it was presumably Peru. The Peru-Ecuador border divides the territory of the Kichwa and several other indigenous peoples [14].
