The lessons that left 11 days of crisis in Ecuador

[Akrapovic]

Although the indigenous people laid down a decree that removed fuel subsidies, there is no winner.

In the outcome of the crisis in Ecuador nobody won. That is the general feeling of the po[CENSORED]tion that had to face 11 days of fear, blockage of streets, absence of transport, stoppage of activities and shortages.

Nine dead, more than 1,300 injured and 1,187 arrested are the balance sheet figures that consolidated the Ombudsman's Office.

(It may interest you: Ecuador gradually regains normality after twelve days of protests)

This Monday, before returning to their communities, thousands of indigenous people who bet in the center of Quito celebrated the triumph of repealing decree 883, which eliminated the fuel subsidy, which signed on Monday night on Monday President Lenin Moreno.

This while the leadership wrote a new decree with representatives of the Government that on Tuesday would establish formulas to rationalize subsidies without affecting the poor.

Jaime Vargas, top leader of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), told EL TIEMPO on Monday that the dialogues are on track and that by Tuesday there will be a consensus document.

The content of the new document worries the economic analysts, who assure that the country, when maintaining the subsidies, would lose an opportunity to reduce the fiscal cost, that borders the 5,000 million dollars to the year.

"We would be losing all Ecuadorians," economist Alberto Acosta Burneo told EL TIEMPO, because in his opinion the adjustment agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is about five percent of gross domestic product (GDP), gradually in three years, and the decree allowed to collect 1,300 million dollars that together with other measures managed to alleviate 2,200 million a year.

This is undoubtedly a difficult and complex scenario for the dollarized Ecuadorian economy, which already records a debt that represents 48 percent of GDP and that only has the possibility of borrowing or raising taxes.

To this already difficult situation are added losses by the paralysis, that would arrive at 1,500 million dollars, according to spokesmen of the cameras of the production.
Despite having put into play the fiscal adjustment and the question of what economic model can be launched in the future, the professor of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (Flacso) Felipe Burbano de Lara believes that in political terms the government of Moreno "is weak to act, govern and make decisions in the economic field," but he rescues that a consensus emerged around him to remain in power and end his term.

"Only correísmo asked for Moreno's departure and early elections," Burbano said. In effect, former President Rafael Correa requested from Belgium the resignation of Moreno while his assembly members raised the impeachment of the president.

Immediate reason why from the power point the leaders of that sector as responsible for vandalism and attempts to destabilize the country.
This Monday, the most important leaders and the prefect of the province of Pichincha, Paola Pabón, were arrested after the search of their home, as was the former Assemblyman Virgilio Hernández, who will be investigated for the crime of "rebellion."

Alexandra Arce, another leader of the coastal city of Durán, is also in prison accused of "illicit association" for allegedly inciting protest.

Burbano believes that this political sector under Correa's leadership still has the capacity to mobilize, a strategic political objective, but by itself it does not have the capacity to produce the latest events.
Citizen Union

While peace gradually returns to the country, thousands of Quito gathered on Monday to a general minga to clear the rubble of central and northern Quito, the epicenter of hard confrontations between the indigenous people and the military and police forces.

Despite these signs of citizen solidarity, socially “the country loses,” security expert Mario Pazmiño told EL TIEMPO.

Only the correísmo requested the exit of Moreno and elections
anticipated

“There is a loss on the part of the State, weakening of the Government, the division of society and a confrontation between citizens,” says the expert.

Ana Lucia Román
For the time
Quito