Human Rights and Free Market Rights Facing the State Crisis in Latin America

This interdisciplinary research project aims to analyze the repercussions of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Ecuador and the European Union on the Ecuadorian peasant livestock economy and the sustainability of its production chains. The study focuses on contrasting the agreement's effects with Ecuador's 2008 constitutional principles, specifically the recognition of Good Living (Sumak Kawsay) and the popular and solidarity economy as an alternative development model. It will examine the tensions between public policy defending the solidarity economy and the business practices of European transnational corporations benefiting from the treaty. The methodology combines a historical-conceptual approach, hermeneutics of meaning (following Gadamer and Ricoeur) to understand the meanings of human rights, and Enrique Leff's Political Ecology. The latter framework is crucial for studying the conflict between the monist metaphysics of the free market (which commodifies nature) and the struggle for territoriality, cultural diversity, and human rights, especially within the context of plurinational states like Ecuador. The ultimate goal is to expose the contradictions in the relationships between human rights and free market law, utilizing concepts such as David Harvey's 'accumulation by dispossession.'<br/><br/><b>Goal</b>: <br/>To estimate the foreseeable impacts of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed between Ecuador and the EU on the Ecuadorian peasant livestock economy and the sustainability of peasant production chains. The analysis must highlight the contradictions between this agreement and the constitutional declarations of Good Living (Buen Vivir) and the popular and solidarity economy.<br/><br/><b>Research lines</b>: <br/>Social responsibility, redistribution of wealth and quality of life