Ecuador is under attack

In recent weeks, President Daniel Noboa has escalated the neoliberal assault on the country’s working people. Most controversially, he eliminated Ecuador’s long-standing diesel subsidy, causing sharp increases in fuel prices, which are already devastating transport workers, farmers, and the most vulnerable sectors of the population. These measures — adopted without a democratic mandate — have unleashed a wave of mobilizations across the country.

Noboa’s government responded with a vicious campaign of state repression against the people of Ecuador. Since the protests broke out, the government has declared a state of emergency, imposed curfews in five provinces, deployed the military to Indigenous territories, and unleashed a campaign of harassment and police brutality against the population. 

In cities such as Otavalo and Cotacachi — two key centers of Indigenous mobilization — reports have emerged of war tactics such as the deployment of military convoys to disperse protesters, along with electricity, internet, and telephone blackouts, preventing both communication among communities and the documentation of abuses committed by state forces. 

These abuses are increasingly severe. To date, there is one confirmed killing of an Indigenous protester by military forces. At least 48 people have been injured and nearly one hundred detained. Human rights organizations have reported six cases of disappearances during military and police operations — and denounced incidents of blatant disproportionality in judicial processes. 

In several cases, terrorist designations have been deployed against protesters, many of them farmers and peasants, leading to their confinement in maximum security prisons. These incidents add to a pre-existing pattern of forced disappearances and abuses of power that have characterized Daniel Noboa’s presidency.

The Progressive International Observatory remains vigilant of Ecuador’s ongoing authoritarian drift. It stands by the legitimate demands of Ecuador’s people, who are resisting an escalating assault on their economic, social, and political rights and freedoms. 

The Government of Ecuador must end the repression, guarantee the safe return of the disappeared, release those arbitrarily detained, and open a genuine process of dialogue with Indigenous peoples, workers, and affected communities.

Photo: Alexander Crespo