With the partial paralysis of activities and large mobilizations, citizen sectors and social movements are pressing for the departure of Colonel Lucio Gutierrez from the presidency of the Republic.

 “That they all leave, first off the dictator,” was the desire that was most heard in the manifestations that developed all day in Quito in the outskirts of the National Congress.

 The police suppressed the marches very hard using anti-riot tanks and tear gas. Fifteen people suffered symptoms of asphyxia due to the tear has and another citizen was hurt by the impact of a bomb on his head. On the police's side, they had three wounded, according to a report by the Ecuadorian Red Cross. From the night of April 12, the government of Gutierrez organized a great military display around the presidential House that impeded any citizen from approaching the area.

The protests developed in the context of a strong institutional crisis that included all of the State powers: a president of the Executive function that held power in an authoritative manner and that has been accused of nepotism, incapability and corruption, of deepening the neo-liberal model and of having converted Ecuador into a neo-colony of the US, whose only objective is to maintain power at any cost; a judicial system paralyzed and in crisis, presided over by Guillermo Castro, a friend of the ex-president Abdala Bucuram, whom he absolved for the theft of State money; a Congress that lost its prestige, that has changed the art of politics into that of merchandising (and that shows its inability to fix the problem of the Supreme Court of Justice, when, on December 8, 2004, the legislative majority – armed by Gutierrez and supported by the Socialist Party and the MPD among others – unconstitutionally dismissed the magistrates and appointed new functionaries).

Despite military and police operatives, and the intense and costly propagandist official campaign against it, the strike decided by the Quito Assembly was a success, said Ramiro Gonzalez, the prefect of the province of Pichincha, who is part of the Democratic Left Party, of the socio-democratic tendency. “We are very happy because the strategy we used of making focal groups in different points of the city has given fabulous results. The city has been chaotisized, the freeways of the province have been closed, there is no public transportation,” said Gonzalez.

The Assembly of Quito is presided by the mayor of the city, Paco Moncayo, adherent of the Democratic Left, that groups together very diverse organizations, from the Chamber of Business Studies and NGOs to neighborhood organizations and small tradesmen.

The Pachakutik indigenous movements participate in the party as well. Another leader of the Assembly of Quito, the Councillor of the Pachakutik, Agusto Barrera, said that it has been a good participation with many actors. “We have al said enough of the dictator and that the period of rectifications is over; As of now, we must initiate a process of protest much more profound and radical,” emphasized Barrera.

 In various provinces of the Sierra region like Carchi, Azuay, Imbabura, Pichincha, Loja, and Canha, they closed freeways and stopped vehicular traffic. Furthermore, in Quito, in the cities of Cuenca (the third most populated of the country) and Ibarra, they demonstrated as well. The social movements took an active part in the protests. On the morning of April 11, representatives of those affiliated with the Farmers' Social Insurance, of urban and migrant organizations, took the church of the Cathedral situated a few meters from the Presidential Palace. The next day, hundreds of members of the CONAIE took the Ministry of Education from where they were evicted. “Among the opposition to the Gutierrez government, they have considered various ways to confront the actual crisis. Meanwhile for some sectors – including the Mayor of Quito, Paco Moncayo and adherents of the Democratic Left – they tried to fundamentally change the Parliament and stop the social movements. Their objective is the creation of a polar political entity against all of the oligarchical factions and their party politicians.”

 “We are fighting on our feet, and we will continue indefinitely. We have said that they all need to go in order for the Ecuadoran communities and social sectors to start to refund the country,” said Luis Macas, president of CONAIE. “The state is dirt cheap, it doesn't work at all in these moments. Who can say if democracy exists; so we say let it collapse in one go, and here we will create new institutions among all of us, among the mixed, the blacks, and the indigenous peoples. The fundamental idea of the bringing together of this country is that we have to recover dignity and sovereignty, because in this moment the country is vulnerable to the Columbia Plan and the Free Trade Agreement that the tyrant wants to sign; we want, moreover, to construct a distinct and multi-national Ecuador,” added Macas.

 The ex-priest Eduardo Delgado, director of the Coordinator of Social Movements, questioned the 'great leading' of the mayor, Paco Moncayo, who 'lamentably isn't recognizing the popular feeling. He wants to capitalize on the protest towards creation of a party and towards the next election, but now is the time to break any particularity and egoism and respond to national interests." Another sector that joined the mobilizations was the Unitarian Workers Front (FUT).

German Arciniegas, leader of the FUT, denounced the politics of "labor flexibility" that Gutierrez supported and the intent to sign the TLC with the USA “because we(in this country) aren't in the condition to compete against a giant that has developed higher technologies and with elevated productive processes.” In our country, he added, “we haven't even dealt with the situation we face with imports, a theme that was spoken about in the 60's. We don't have incentives on the part of the State in terms of being able to compete. Our agriculture doesn't even have technical assistance.”

https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/112839