About the Assembly of Vilcabamba

VIEW

Vilcabamba is treasured as one of the jewels in the crown of Ecuador by
its wealth of natural biodiversity and unique human community, which is “Plurinational”, “Intercultural” and “International”.

Our community actively collaborates interculturally to ensure peaceful harmony and respect between people and nature. Due to the great diversity of Ecuador, our Constitution recognizes the need to honor and protect the integrity of these diverse elements that make Ecuador unique.

Our community embraces the authority and power vested in the people through
of the Constitution and the State. Recognizing that knowledge is power,
Our people are well educated and committed to defending their God-given Natural Rights, as well as those granted to all under the Ecuadorian Constitution, the rights of citizen participation, human rights, and other rights enshrined in the Magna Carta.

We actively participate and assume the responsibility of co-governing and guiding the well-being of our community, empowering ourselves, influencing and leading the solution to problems.

Our guiding principles are clearly outlined in the Ecuadorian Constitution and include the rights granted to nature and to all living men, women and children; expressed as Sumak Kawsay (The Good Living).

This vision of good living defends the foundational rights of peace, harmony, justice, freedom, security, sustainability, protection and the pursuit of happiness, as well as freedom of mobility and the right to make personal decisions. in education, health, including the use of alternative and ancestral medicine.

MISSION

The local assembly assumes from the territory an active role in the State to
catalyze the participation of people in safeguarding their constitutional rights and the implementation of positive changes in the community.

This will be done through the mechanisms of participation and social control, such as accountability that empowers people to express their voice and the power of their vote, in the decision-making of the leaders and rulers; to form and influence local planning councils, participatory budgets, public hearings, open councils, take our place in the "empty chair" (reserved for citizen participation). 

The assembly also includes specialized commissions that meet the needs of the people in compliance with the "Sumak Kawsay / El Buen Vivir" (Title 2, Chapter 2 of the Political Constitution of the
Republic of Ecuador, 2008)

ABOUT US

The basis from which our local citizen assembly is formed is the
Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador. 


The first constitutional quote below explains that ALL AUTHORITY and
SOVEREIGNTY lies in the will of the people:
Article 1 – Ecuador is a constitutional State of rights and justice, a social, democratic, sovereign, independent, unitary, intercultural, plurinational and secular State. It is organized like a republic and is governed with a decentralized approach.


Sovereignty resides in the people, whose will is the basis of all authority, and
It is exercised through public bodies in the direct participation forms of government provided for in the Constitution.


Our local citizen assembly is within one of the 5 functions of the State called "the Function of Transparency and Social Control" that is found in the Ecuadorian Constitution in articles 204 to 216.

A specific quote that refers to this is:

Article 204 – The people are the principal and first comptroller of public power, in the exercise of their right to participation.   

The Power of Transparency and Social Control of the Government will promote and foster
the surveillance of public entities and agencies and natural or legal persons in the private sector that provide services or carry out activities for the general welfare, so that they carry them out responsibly, transparently and fairly; it will encourage citizen participation; will protect the exercise and fulfillment of rights; and will prevent and combat corruption.