The eighth day of the national strike in Ecuador has been hit with the confirmation of the first deceased in the context of the demonstrations. Despite the fact that the Government announced a series of new measures to stop the social struggle. The indigenous sectors maintain that the Executive is only looking for a way out for its own benefit and not for the most vulnerable sectors of the country. Given this, the indigenous bases have begun to mobilize in the Ecuadorian capital.
Cuts in the main avenues of the country, clashes between protesters and the police, repression, vandalism, looting and shortages of certain foods in Ecuador, have been part of this eighth day of national strike.
The largest indigenous movement in the country, CONAIE, decided to move to the Ecuadorian capital as a de facto measure to achieve compliance with its demands, which are based on 10 demands. Among these, setting a fuel price, refinancing debts for the agricultural sector, improving product prices, among others.
From the communities of the main Andean provinces of the country, hundreds of people set out on their way to Quito, where several communes that live in the city’s income have been paving the way to receive them.
Roadblocks with burning tires and tree branches have prostrated themselves in the main entrances to the north and south of the capital, blocking the way.
The National Government, as a measure to stop the advance of the indigenous mobilization, deployed the police and military to the streets to clear the roads, causing different confrontations. One of those ended up becoming one of the most violent since the start of the strike.
The first deceased in the context of the national strike
Although the Government has denied that the protest is being repressed, and has been reiterative in that it supports a dialogue. Today human rights organizations denounced the first death in the context of the mobilizations.
This is a 22-year-old man who fell into a ravine in the Collas sector, north of Quito. The young man was part of the groups of protesters who were heading to the capital, four more people fell with him, two of them are in a serious state, the organizations assured.
From the spokespersons of the main rights defenders, such as the Alliance of Organizations for Human Rights, the repression ordered by the Government has been condemned, arguing that the actions are part of its strategy to “protect” the Andean capital.
Likewise, 86 arrests have been recorded, according to the Alliance, which warns that these figures do not include the arrests of people “who are taken several hours to various places, intimidated, forced to make calls to intimidate their family, and then they leave them lying around in different sectors”.
For its part, the National Police declared that the death of the citizen was an accident. “They were climbing the mountainside to look for a better space, and at that time, in the darkness and the topography of the place, you can’t see what obstacles and unevenness there are, and that’s how these people rush,” he described. a police colonel.
Raid to the House of Culture
During the 2019 social protests in Ecuador, the Ecuadorian House of Culture played a fundamental role in welcoming thousands of outraged indigenous people, at that time against the policy of former President Lenin Moreno.
On this occasion, the House of Culture experienced an unprecedented moment, which had not occurred since the dictatorship of the 1960s.
Its director woke up with a search warrant due to an anonymous complaint that would have known that the cultural space would be storing war weapons to support social protest.
The Government justified the taking of the artistic place arguing that they must attend to said complaint. And therefore, to stop the House of Culture once again sheltering the hundreds of indigenous people who are entering the capital.
However, this touched the deepest fibers of the artists, who since Sunday have been protesting outside the facilities of the House of Culture, denouncing the arbitrariness of the Government and the persecution against art.
Lasso’s response to the national strike
President Guillermo Lasso, in response to CONAIE’s demands, announced a series of measures such as doubling the budget for intercultural education, raising the Human Development bonus from $50 to $55, declaring public health an emergency, among others.
In addition, he announced a curfew that governs the provinces where the main mobilizations take place, which are: Pichincha, Imbabura and Cotopaxi. These measures were not well received by the indigenous sectors, nor by the National Assembly, which has called a session to repeal the State of Exception.
Lasso has also denounced that since the national strike began, the most important indigenous sector in the country wants to “throw” him out of office.
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