Protests in Ecuador: Lasso faces national mobilization led by powerful indigenous movement

The powerful indigenous movement of Ecuador, who participated in the overthrow of three presidents between 1997 and 2005, will lead this Tuesday a protest against the economic policy of the government of Guillermo Lasso, in a clear arm wrestling when a state of exception prevails due to drug trafficking violence.

The indigenous peoples, who in 2019 also took the lead in strong riots against the elimination of fuel subsidies – which left eleven dead – will once again take to the streets and highways to reject the monthly increases applied since 2020.

On Saturday, a gallon (3.8 liters) of diesel went to $ 1.90 compared to a dollar that cost more than a year ago, and regular gasoline climbed to $ 2.55, although the oil tanker Ecuador continues to be one of the countries with the cheapest oil derivatives prices in Latin America.

The president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (Conaie, opposition), Leonidas Iza, said that the base structures will be mobilized from midnight on Monday (0500 GMT on Tuesday) throughout the country, which lives in tension due to high crime and prison massacres with more than 2,000 dead.

The indigenous people, who represent 7.4% of the 17.7 million inhabitants, will leave their communities for the roads and will also march together with workers and students in Quito, demanding a decrease in fuel prices.

Conservative President Guillermo Lasso, who has called on citizens to defend Quito to avoid acts of vandalism such as the 2019 demonstrations that lasted 12 days, warned that he will not allow excesses.

“We are going to develop a whole device to prevent the closure of roads, so that the law prevails because the closure of roads and the obstacle to the free movement of people and goods is prohibited by law,” said the president on Monday.

The confrontations

The protests, which aim to be the largest since Lasso assumed power in May, they will take place under the 60-day state of exception decreed a week ago, which ordered the presence of the military in the streets to support the police in the fight against crime.

Despite the presence of soldiers outside the barracks, Olympic athlete Álex Quiñónez, one of the fastest in the world, was shot to death on Friday. The Police are investigating whether the crime is related to the war for power held by gangs at the service of drug trafficking.

The Executive has not suspended so far the freedoms to demonstrate or meet, despite being empowered to do so under the figure of emergency declared throughout Ecuador, located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest cocaine producers.

“The problem is when you don’t listen. Logically, the government puts the police, the military. Here comes the confrontations ”, warned Iza, an outspoken opponent of Lasso, to whom he proposes to set and freeze prices at $ 1.50 for diesel and two dollars for regular gasoline.

On Friday, Lasso It froze the new prices and suspended the monthly increases, but could not reduce the discontent, which was joined by opposition social sectors, who will also protest on Tuesday.

If Lasso “retreats to a position of classical neoliberalism, the consequence will unfortunately be a new social outbreak”political scientist Karen Garzón Sherdek, from the private Sek University, told AFP.

Failed strategy

For the economic analyst Alberto Acosta Burneo, from the Spurrier Group consultant, with the recent measure the president “at the end of the day did not manage to lower tensions”, pointing out that the State should continue to allocate millionaire subsidies to fuels in a country that exports oil but must import part of the fuel menu.

“You will have to allocate resources that will have to come from somewhere, either from more taxes or reduced expenses, to be able to finance “ subsidies, Acosta told AFP.

Ecuador faces an economic crisis exacerbated by the pandemic, which is reflected in an external debt of almost 46,000 million dollars (45% of GDP) and a fiscal deficit of close to 5% of GDP, in addition to 47% of poverty and misery, and 28% underemployment and unemployment.

The government will present to Congress, controlled by the opposition, tax and labor reforms with a view to reviving the economy, but which unions fear will be measures to make work precarious.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which agreed with the Lasso government to review Ecuador’s program with the agency, advocated last week for the gradual elimination of fuel subsidies.

In the 2019 protests, the indigenous people forced then-President Lenín Moreno (2017-2021) to backtrack on the elimination – agreed with the IMF – of subsidies, which for this year represented about 1,900 million dollars.

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