What You Need to Know About The Crisis in Ecuador
By Sushmita Roy
Some have traveled miles on foot, others came riding trucks, squeezed between produce sacks and the people journeying down the same road. Many rely on bowls of stew prepared in communal pots for all their meals.
In Quito, Ecuador’s capital city, protesters are growing more frustrated than ever and have currently adopted an aggressive approach. A fear that history will repeat itself is lingering behind the closed doors of official buildings.
Hello, World!
On Friday, indigenous demonstrators paraded the police officers they had captured a day before, on stage in Quito before a crowd. Ahead of their release, the officers were made to carry the coffin of an indigenous activist allegedly killed during the unrest, according to BBC.
Protesters claim that the deceased activist, Inocencio Tucumbí, whose coffin was being carried to the center, died by hitting a tear gas canister fired by the police on Wednesday. According to the Interior Minister, María Paula Romo, Tucumbí, died of a fall. She said that three people have already died during the unrest and 650 have been detained by the police.
The uprising forced President Lenín Moreno to move the capital from Quito to a coastal city about 150 miles away late Monday in an attempt to protect his government from the large protests.
So how did it all begin?
The current protests in Ecuador erupted more than a week ago when the government announced an end to fuel subsidies as part of President Lenín Moreno’s bigger plan to save the flagging economy. The spending cuts are part of deal made in March with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in return for a loan that will allow Ecuador to borrow $4.2bn (£3.4bn).
Moreno said the fuel subsidies, introduced in the 1970s, cost $1.3bn annually and are no longer affordable. Protesters have different concerns.
“We’re defending the country. He (Moreno) is doing everything wrong,” Maria Lourdes Castillo, a 26-year-old broccoli picker from the highland province of Cotopaxi, told Reuters.
Hello, World!
Castillo said that an end to the four-decade subsidy on fuel had already started to push up prices on a wide range of products. “But our wages won’t go up. They never do,” she said.
How are people reacting?
Although, on the periphery it might seem that higher fuel prices only lead to higher individual spending at gas stations, but in reality, gas prices influence the entire economy. For instance, transportation costs immediately go up, forcing vendors to charge higher prices than usual.
Morena has refused to overturn his decision, blaming the growing unrest on his leftist predecessor Rafael Correa and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, without evidence.
“He can blame whoever he wants but he knows the people are right,” Pedro Aranga, a 60-year-old street vendor and a native Quichua Ecuadorean, told Reuters. “This is hurting me and it hurts all of us. We don’t have much money to spend.”
Aranga said that a sack of potatoes that used to cost $20 now costs $60 making it difficult for him and many others to purchase the basic commodity.
Moreno’s government has blamed retail vendors for misusing the situation and charging unnecessary prices.
What’s in store for the future?
No settlement has been reached so far. Public transport is stalled and roads are blocked. According to USA Today, Petroecuador warned that production losses could reach 165,000 barrels a day, nearly one-third of total production.
Hello, World!
Not far from the port city of Guayaquil, the interim capital Moreno chose, hundreds of protesters looted pharmacies, electronic stores and other buildings on Monday night.
Indigenous groups played a major role in 2005, when the then President Lucio Gutiérrez was forced to resign, though military tactic was the key to his removal.
Protesters are demanding that the deal with IMF be cancelled and fuel subsidies returned. Some have called for the resignation of the president, who has declared a two-month national emergency and refuses to step down or retract his decision.
The United Nations said it was ready to mediate after receiving a request from the government.