Social and union organizations met on Wednesday in Quito in a mobilization that was poorly received and that seeks to reject a possible elimination of fuel subsidies which would be announced in the coming weeks, according to government authorities.
About 250 workers, merchants, activists, among others, walked through some streets of the capital without causing confrontations with the police and amidst shouts in against President Daniel Noboa and the International Monetary Fund, which they accuse of demanding that the government raise fuel prices.
In light of the protests announced yesterday, the security of the Carondelet palace – the seat of the government – was reinforced early with fences to prevent any possible approach by the protesters.
“Unite people, join the fight against this neoliberal government,” the protesters harangued during the march, in which banners such as “The IMF orders, Noboa complies” were also read.
“We mobilize throughout the country to stop the anti-popular policies of a lying government like Noboa’s,” said Nelson Erazo, president of the Popular Front, which called for the protests.
Erazo asserted that the mobilizations are beginning and will continue on Thursday until “the measures are overturned,” he said.
Through its ministers, the government has announced that it is preparing to eliminate the fuel subsidy, which in 2023 represented 644 million dollars in the state budget.
The Minister of Economy, Juan Carlos Vega, said in statements to the Teleamazonas channel that the price of Extra gasoline, the most widely consumed, will increase by 25 cents, that is, it will cost about $2.72 per gallon.
Without specifying an exact date, he assured that the mechanisms for the delivery of compensation to some 84,000 transporters and the socialization of the measure remain to be refined. “The important thing is that we are attacking the most inequitable subsidy in the country” which, according to him, benefits about 300 million dollars “to the 20% of the population with the most resources.”
Klever Hidalgo of the United Workers Front in the province of Pichincha, to which Quito belongs, asserted that they are demanding that this “great package” not be approved, which, he said, will affect 80% of the population, while Cristina Caguana, president of the group Women for Change stated that “these neoliberal measures mean, for women, more precariousness.”
The two governments that preceded Noboa’s also tried to eliminate this subsidy and in both, Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023) and Lenín Moreno (2017-2021) had to back down, pressured by violent protests that threatened the stability of their governments. .
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