Version imprimableAfter nine days of mobilisation, the indigenous activists arrive in Quito. CONAIE has raised its ten demands on the crucial life issues for Ecuadorians. The government has responded with a few measures none of which touch on fundamental aspects, and has unleashed repression. CONAIE demands that dialogue should not serve to detain and demobilise people but to apply concrete policies.
Now the struggle continues in Quito despite the police siege. The government extends the state of emergency and the scale of repression is escalating: 52 injured, 2 murdered, and 84 detained. Meanwhile, unemployment grows. The FUT [Frente Unitario de Trabajadores/ Workers United Front is the main trade union federation] and the popular organisations call for a general mobilisation for tomorrow, Wednesday, June 22. The universities, in an act of elementary humanity, have opened their doors to receive indigenous people while calling for dialogue.
A democratic solution to the conflict is urgently needed: repeal the state of emergency, denounce police brutality and arbitrary arrests, call on the Armed Forces and the police not to direct their weapons against their people, bring before before the international public the agression of the forces of order against the social struggle.
Those of us who live in the city have to open our doors and our hearts to welcome our brothers from the countryside and the provinces. It is essential we coordinate all posible support with the main social movements and activists who have been fighting in the streets
We must respond to the call of CONAIE to organise an Unitary Popular Assembly. We demand that the FUT call on the popular urban sectors to respond to this initiative. We demand the immediate release of ALL political prisoners, including the Guevarists who were detained in the days prior to the strike.
This is the hour for unity to defeat the neoliberal programme and the attempt to establish a repressive pólice state.
Quito, June 21, 2022
Translated by David Fagan for International Viewpoint.
