I condemn the violation of the legitimate right to protest of the Ecuadorian people.

TO THE WORLD'S CIVIL SOCIETY
TO THE WORLD PRESS
TO THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD
TO SUPRANATIONAL ORGANISMS
TO THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE WORLD

We denounce and strongly condemn the violation of the Ecuadorian people's legitimate right to protest. The National Strike that began on June 13, 2022, is the result of the will of the Ecuadorian people, a diverse group that includes Indigenous movements, social organizations and movements, the Afro-Ecuadorian movement, rural and urban workers, healthcare and education professionals, and students. These broad sectors of Ecuadorian society publicly presented their just demands for a national, popular, and plurinational mobilization.

The strike was called by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and 53 other groups – such as FEINE, FENOCIN, and FEI – who decided to make this call after exhausting all avenues and attempts at dialogue with the government of President Guillermo Lasso. There were many attempts at dialogue prior to the National Strike: June 11, 2021 (Latacunga, March for Dignity, Cotopaxi Province); August 5, 2021 (submission of a petition to the Presidency with demands and proposals to mitigate the crisis); October 4, 2021 (First dialogue at Carondelet Palace, Quito); November 10, 2021 (Second dialogue at Carondelet Palace, Quito).

The crisis currently being experienced by Indigenous, Afro-Ecuadorian, and mestizo communities in Ecuador is the result of a long process of colonization of their bodies, lands, and territories, driven by the interests and profits of global capitalist elites. The struggle unfolding in Ecuador affects all of us who live in and yearn for equity, justice, and dignity in Abya Yala / Ladino America / Our Latin America and the Caribbean.

Regional context. Following the defeat of Uribismo's paramilitary groups in Colombia, hegemonic powers have turned their attention to controlling Ecuador. Economic and political empires are reacting strongly as they lose their dominance over internally colonized states and territories.

The current uprising, expressed in the National Strike that has now lasted fifteen days, is an expression of profound dignity. The dire conditions for survival explain the decision of hundreds of communities across the country who peacefully gathered to sustain the strike in the city of Quito: 30% of the Ecuadorian population suffers from material poverty, and 7 out of 10 lack formal employment; the income of at least 50% of households is below $547 per month, which prevents them from purchasing a basic food basket, valued at $728.68 (INEC, 2022). 32% of Ecuadorians live on less than $2.8 per day, 27% of children under 2 years of age suffer from chronic malnutrition, and poverty in rural areas of Ecuador affects 42.4% of the population.

Meanwhile, the first half of 2022 saw the lowest public investment in the history of the Republic of Ecuador, 82% less than in the first quarter of 2021. The impoverishment of large sectors of the population is an intentional project driven by the neoliberal government of President Guillermo Lasso's desire to follow the policies dictated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), leading to cuts and layoffs in the public sector, especially in health and education. In fact, CONAIE has denounced Guillermo Lasso's involvement in the Pandora Papers, due to his transfer of business assets from Panama to tax havens in South Dakota, USA, in 2017.

The National Strike of the Ecuadorian people is a politically and territorially decentralized act, manifesting itself in Quito—the capital—as well as in all the provinces of Ecuador, especially in the Amazon. It is not an isolated act in the history of the Ecuadorian people's struggle, but rather part of a transformative social force that the Indigenous movement has maintained to confront structurally capitalist, neoliberal, racist, classist, and patriarchal governments. If we look back, we will recall the mobilizations of the national strikes of 1986 and 1987; the first strikes in the 1990s for the recognition of the Plurinational State; and those during the government of Sixto Durán.
In Ballén, a new indigenous uprising against the Agrarian Law occurred; in 1997, the Patriotic Front for the Defense of the People was formed; in 2000, another mass mobilization overthrew the government of Jamil Mahuad. In 2005 and 2006, protests led to the overthrow of President Lucio Gutiérrez and widespread rejection of free trade agreements (FTAs). Between 2007 and 2017, Correísmo seemed poised to deal a death blow to the strength of social and popular movements, but no, they are here and now with renewed strength, a presence in the streets, and new proposals.

We join the demands of the insurgent people for the fulfillment of the ten points established during the National Strike and for the government of Guillermo Lasso Mendoza to face its political and legal responsibility for the brutal criminalization of social protest, the repression that violates the human rights of protesters, and the police and military abuses that have been encouraged under the “Organic Law on the Progressive, Appropriate, and Proportional Use of Force.” The still-serving “president” calls the protesters “vandals” and “criminals.” His rhetoric resonates in the mainstream media and among the far right, which organizes counter-protests against the National Strike and uses social media to spread hate speech and fake news about “non-citizens,” “uncivilized” people, and the supposed cause of disorder and economic and political destabilization. The Indigenous population has been treated with xenophobia, experiencing racial and ethnic hatred. This is the result of a long and violent colonial history of control over Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and Montubio (coastal peasant) populations. It is this hatred of the people that dehumanizes the protesters in the National Strike, which is expressed in the ongoing massacre in Ecuador. According to the Alliance for Human Rights – Ecuador, as of June 24, 2022, there were 5 deaths, 64 human rights violations, 123 arrests, 166 injuries – three of them critical, six with serious injuries, six with eye damage, and one with a partial arm amputation – and 6 people missing.

We call on everyone to pay attention to the popular struggle in Ecuador, to activate solidarity in our communications and actions by demanding:

– That the ten points of the National Strike be fulfilled.
– Respect for grassroots organizations of indigenous peoples and nationalities
according to their ancestral forms of government and decision-making for the construction of the
dialogues about the present and future of Ecuador
– To organize acts of solidarity at the headquarters of the State of Ecuador in the respective
countries where we are located.
– Demand the freedom of all political prisoners in Ecuador
– To denounce all arbitrary use of state power, for example, illegal raids
carried out by the National Police of Ecuador at university Peace Centers, to the
The House of Culture and the Salesian Polytechnic University, in Quito, amidst
a popular assembly convened as a condition for dialogue with the government, the
23 June
– To communicate and oppose any authoritarian decree that imposes a state of
exception or restriction of fundamental rights.
– To denounce any and all violations of human rights
– To strongly condemn all persecution of leaders of the movements
social movements that have risen up against the government of Guillermo Lasso
– We urge everyone to disrupt the escalation of state violence in a thousand creative ways.
in Ecuador

The strike continues! We stand in solidarity with the righteous anger of the people of Ecuador who are fighting for justice from their bodies, lands, and territories of life.

From Abya Yala / Latin America / Our America

June 26th, 2022
CLACSO Working Groups
Bodies, territories, resistances
Emancipatory feminist economics
Indigenous peoples and extractive projects
Education and interculturality
Indigenous peoples, autonomies and collective rights

Authors
University of the Earth in Oaxaca, Mexico
The Union of Indigenous Communities of the Northern Zone of the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec (Oaxaca, Mexico)
Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste, AC (Mexico)
National Committee for the Defense and Conservation of Los Chimalapas (Mexico)
Leandro Bonecini de Almeida (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Xochitl Leyva Solano (Chiapas, Mexico)
Sonia Gau (Uruguay)
Aline de Moura Rodrigues (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)
Pablo Uc (Chiapas, Mexico)
Carlos Tornel (Mexico City)
Lylia Palacios (Monterrey, Mexico)
Patricia Ames (Peru)
Gabriela Czarny (Mexico)
Noelia Enriz (Argentina)
Mariana García (Argentina)
Ana Carolina Hecht (Argentina)
Elsie Rockwell (Mexico)
Gisela Hadad (Argentina)
Diana Itzu Gutiérrez Luna (Mexico)
Elisa Cruz Rueda (Mexico)
Luciana García Guerreiro (Argentina)
Santiago Bastos (Mexico)
Waldo Lao Fuentes Sánchez (Mexico-Brazil)
Sebastián Levalle (Argentina)
Malely Linares Sánchez (Mexico)
Natalia Boffa (Argentina)
Aracely Burguete Cal y Mayor (Mexico)
Fatima Monastery Market (Bolivia)
Rafaela Nunes Pannain (Brazil)
Armando Haaro (Mexico)
Lina Alvarez (Colombia)
Guadalupe Santaella (Mexico)
More people can join the “The Strike Doesn’t Stop” campaign on the change.org platform

This statement expresses the position of the aforementioned Working Groups and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.