Version imprimableThe police and army have been using brutal force, tear gas, stun grenades, pellet shot, to stop thousands of peaceful indigenous protesters from entering the capital, Quito. At least one protester has died, three are reported to be in a critical condition, dozens more have been wounded or arrested. The army and police have sealed off the House of Culture and several university campuses in an attempt to deny the indigenous protesters their traditional places of shelter in the capital. An immense citizen effort is underway, from students, women’s groups, neighbourhood organisations and the population in general, to collect food, blankets and basic provisions for the protesters who have made it into Quito.
• Massive mobilisations and road blocks continue in indigenous territories across Ecuador. The local Governor’s offices have been occupied in at least three provinces.
• Secondary school and university students, teachers, health workers, trade unionists, neighbourhood organisations and the feminist movement are mobilising in towns and cities.
• Bus drivers, taxi drivers and truckers have either promised stoppages or already joined in the road blocks.
We the undersigned, demand an immediate end to the violent repression of peaceful protesters in Ecuador. We call on President Lasso and the government of Ecuador to lift the state of emergency, release those still in detention and drop all charges against the movement’s best known leader, Leonidas Iza, President of Conaie, who was illegally detained on 14 June and released 24 hours later, but who still faces charges that carry a possible prison sentence of 1-3 years.
In place of a military response, we urge President Lasso to engage in serious negotiations with the indigenous movement and other social movements, to address their just demands.
These include the 10 points put forward by Conaie – including fair prices for agricultural products; freezing of fuel prices because this generates price increases; respect for the collective rights of indigenous peoples and nationalities; a budget for health and education; an end to the voracious extractivism in indigenous territories; stop speculation and rising prices of basic food basket items; stop the privatisation of strategic sectors; public policies to curb the wave of violence.
These have since been enriched by other social movements incorporating their own demands, for example for public polices to curb gender violence and femicide.
The victory of Gustavo Petro and Francia Marquez in the presidential elections in neighbouring Colombia, show that the people of the region want to turn the page on decades of neoliberal economic policies that only generate poverty, violence, racial exclusion and the destruction of mother earth. We stand in solidarity with all their struggles and with the indigenous-led strike in Ecuador.
Initial signatories
Eurodiputado Miguel Urbán. Anticapitalistas
Martín Mosquera (Argentina)
Senador Rafael Bernabe (Puerto Rico)
Luis Bonilla. Otras Voces en Educación. (Venezuela)
Olmedo Beluche por el Polo Ciudadano (Panamá)
Josefina Chávez (México)
Eduardo Lucita , EDI, (Argentina)
Eric Toussaint, Portavoz de CADTM (Bélgica)
Edgard Sánchez (México)
Manuel Rodríguez Banchs. Democracia Socialista (Puerto Rico)
Joao Machado Borges Neto (Brasil)
Tárzia Maria de Medeiros (Brasil)
Stalin Pérez Borges. LUCHAS (Venezuela)
Ana Cristina Carvalhaes Machado. (Brasil)
Fernanda Melchionna (diputada federal/PSOL Rio Grande do Sul)
Sâmia Bomfim (diputado federal/PSOL São Paulo)
Vivi Reis (diputada federal/ PSOL Pará)
Luciana Genro (diputada estadual/ PSOL Rio Grande do Sul)
Roberto Robaina (dirigente del MES/PSOL /concejal de Porto Alegre)
Israel Dutra (Secretario general del PSOL)
Pedro Fuentes (dirigente del MES/PSOL)
Bruno Magalhaes (dirigente del MES/PSOL)
Philippe Pierre-Charles Groupe Révolution Socialiste (Martinica)
Daniel Libreros. Movimiento Ecosocialista (Colombia)
