Five months after his inauguration, Lasso faced the most important protest not only because of the size of the cuts and the marches, but also because it came at a time of multiple open fronts.
The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) and the Unitary Front of Workers (FUT) contributed the largest groups that marched throughout the country, but the National Union of Educators (UNE) and the Federation of Students were also from the party. Universitarios del Ecuador (FEUE), among dozens of organizations.
The state of exception that put the military on the streets in the face of the wave of insecurity, Lasso added last week the freezing of the price of fuels, a point claimed almost unanimously from all social sectors, but the decree that ordered that measure also enabled a new increase before, which prompted these protests.
The president seemed concerned about today’s protest: in the last 24 hours he uploaded a dozen texts to his Twitter account, all with a similar content and with the hashtag #DileNoalParo, in which he basically questioned the cutting of routes and streets .
The official government spokesman, Carlos Jijón, remarked that “the country’s labor activities” developed “with relative tranquility” due to the work of the Public Force that prevented the closure of routes.
Jijón pointed out that the Executive kept “its hands open for a dialogue with all sectors, respecting the right to protest peacefully and guaranteeing that the disagreement of certain sectors, such as mobilizations, is carried out within the framework of the law.”
Although Jijón explained that only six roads had been blocked and that there were 18 people detained, both figures were difficult to confirm: many of the cuts were sporadic and brief, and the organizations reported more arrests, in some cases also for a short time.
In their social networks, Conaie denounced “police and military repression” in Cotopaxi and Imbabura and its head, Leonidas Iza -who was in Saquisilí- reported seven protesters arrested in Guayas, one in Sucumbíos and one in Cotopaxi.
“Here we are to demand rights, we are not internal enemies to declare war on us; listen, President: we are all living this poverty, including the fiscal coffers, but we cannot take the money from the poorest people but freeze (fuels) at the prices raised and go to a more comprehensive discussion on the targeting policy, “warned Iza in his speech.
“The wealthy sectors should be those who pay for fuel without subsidies and not go out to insult the protesters,” added the leader, according to the daily El Comercio.
The Primicias site reported a scattering of road blockades in much of the country, with burning tires, crossed trees and stones.
On Quito, meanwhile, the Police cordoned off all accesses to the Carondelet Palace, the government headquarters, within a radius of hundreds of meters around, with two lines of agents behind interlocking fences.
And closer to the Government Palace, less than 100 meters away, were the Armed Forces, with special groups.
Leaders and militants of the FUT, the teachers’ union and other unions and organizations marched through the historic center of the capital.
The president of the WAS, Messiah Tatamuez, said the main request was the repeal of the decree that froze fuel prices but after increasing them, and evaluated that the values should, yes, be frozen but at the level prior to the decrees.
The indigenous peoples already showed in 2019 their ability to mobilize, when they led the fight against the elimination of fuel subsidies.
On Saturday, a gallon (the measure used in the country, equivalent to 3.8 liters) of diesel went to $ 1.90 compared to a dollar that it cost more than a year ago, and common gasoline climbed to $ 2.55 .
The protests took 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, and the Executive did not suspend the freedoms to demonstrate or gather, despite being empowered to do so.
“The stoppage represents economic losses for small businesses, which are the livelihood of thousands of Ecuadorian families and households. Tell #NoAlParo, for the reactivation and prosperity of the entire country,” Lasso wrote on Twitter.
In another message, he highlighted: “The reactivation is already underway. Ecuadorians seek to get ahead, live in peace and grow in a country of opportunities, without stoppages.”
In addition, he relied on another message on a number of job creation that his government usually shows: “For those 275 thousand Ecuadorians who finally got a job: let them work. Ecuador is a country of working people. The stoppages affect the economy of thousands of families and truncate development at the national level. “
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