In view of the days of mobilisations that began on the 13th of June, where the peoples and nationalities of Ecuador in the legitimate exercise of social protest, drew a list of demands that attempted to put a stop to the neoliberal policies intensified by the government of Guillermo Lasso, representative of the Ecuadorian and regional oligarchy. Here we detail the following points:
1. Reduction in fuel price with no more increases
2. A one-year moratorium in the financial system so that families can pay their debts.
3. Fair prices for agricultural products
4. Employment and labour rights
5. No mining in indigenous territories
6. Respect for collective rights
7. No privatisation of strategic sectors
8. Policies of price control and speculation
9. Urgent budget for health and education
10.Generation of public policies for security and protection.
We denounce the publication of decree 455 of the state of exception to be applied in the provinces of Pichincha, Cotopaxi and Imbabura, announced on Friday, June 17 by President Guillermo Lasso and we demand the revocation of the same decree through the parliamentary function.
Despite this concrete list of demands and after 5 days of protest, the Ecuadorian state does not seek ways of dialogue but presents in this decree extraordinary measures such as the suspension of the right to freedom of association and assembly, the disposition of the armed forces, as well as the restriction of the right to freedom of information through which it even intends to restrict or suspend fixed mobile telecommunications and internet services. These measures would not only block the legitimate right to protest but also reveal the intention of an escalation of state violence similar or worse to those that occurred during the mobilizations of October 2019, in which 11 people lost their lives and more than 1507 people were injured by the indiscriminate use of police force. This situation has only managed to be denounced thanks to the presence of alternative media active in social networks that allow the democratization of voices not aligned to the government.
We denounce the media siege of the events that took place and the complicity of the private media that in alliance with sectors allied with the government, the banks and the Ecuadorian oligarchy use discourses of racial hatred and classism to create an image of the internal enemy in the country, in this case personalising the indigenous leader Leonidas Iza Salazar.
We denounce the arbitrary and illegal detention of the president of CONAIE, Leonidas Iza, on June 14, 2022 at 00:45 in the province of Cotopaxi by the government and the military, provoked the people to come out with more force to demand his freedom. Leonidas Iza was released 24 hours later with an appointment in court on the 4th of July.
We denounce the implementation of the law called “Progressive Use of Force” approved on June 7 of this year, days after the announcement of the day of indefinite mobilisations called by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and social sectors. The law is not in force and yet it is already being applied.
We denounce the criminalisation of social protest by the government of Guillermo Lasso, and we denounce the disappearances and detentions on 14. 06, 15.06 2022 within the framework of the mobilisations in the different territories of the country. We also demand access to truthful and accurate information about the whereabouts of political prisoners to their relatives and communities, and finally, we demand reparation for the exacerbated uses of violence.
Ecuadorian migrants in Germany and Europe, together with various international organisations, demand an end to the repression and criminalisation of social protest, a right enshrined in the Constitution of Ecuador, Art. 98, and in the Magna Carta of the United Nations (UN).
We call on the international human rights community to echo this communiqué and request its prompt dissemination. And finally, we stand in solidarity with all expressions of resistance and social protest by the popular sectors. We recognise the historic role of the indigenous movement against neoliberalism, which currently, in alliance with various urban sectors, is in agreement with the national strike currently underway.
For us the joyful rebellion!
FREEDOM FOR THE POLITICAL PRISONERS
NEITHER FORGIVING NOR FORGETTING
This Statement by Ecuadorminka is supported by the following organisations:
- Bloque Latinoamericano Berlín
- Mujeres en Movimiento Hamburg
- Voz Latina
- Abya Yala Anticolonial
- Movimiento Nuevo Perú-Comité Hamburgo
- Ventana al Sur, Hannover
- gira zapatista red hamburgo
- Inti Taklla Hamburgo
- Gira zapatista Berlin
- Perrxs del futuro Berlín
- Vernetzung der Gira Zapatista Hamburgo
- Britches, Hamburgo
- Red de solidaridad con America Latina RESOCAL Suecia
- Niunamenos Berlin
- Sor Juanas 9M
- Ende Gelände Berlin
- Die LINKE Berlin LAG Internationals
