Eucador :

Ecuador was freed from Spanish rule in 1822 but retains a heavy colonial burden, as the place of Indians in agriculture shows. This has not changed much since independence, despite the abolition in 1964 of the huasipungo system, which obliged indigenous people to serve big Creole landowners, the haciendados. Many Indians are still employed on the haciendas on the Pacific coast, whose owners still have title to the best land, where bananas, cocoa, and coffee are grown for export. Others try to survive on a few unproductive plots in the Andes, which they have inherited as a result of agricultural reforms. There is a clear social divide between Creoles and indigenous people, not just in agriculture but in all other sections of society. The economic crisis in the country, as well as natural disasters (such as volcanic eruptions and el Niño), periodically act as a reminder of the depth of this divide, as the poorest people are always most vulnerable to them.