The uprising started on October 3, 2019 after president Lenin Moreno announced IMF-backed decree 833.
By CSP-Conlutas Media Workgroup
That decree had five major attacks against people’s budget.
First: it doubles diesel prices and increases gasoline from US$ 1.85 to US$ 2.40 / gallon;
Second: it eliminates taxation on imports threating national economy and jobs;
Third: it reforms taxation on the benefit of major corporations;
Fourth: it cuts 20% of the wages of public employees together with reducing their holidays to half;
Fifth: it carries out a labor reform based on eliminating labor rights.
The uprising started when transit workers and truck drivers went on strike obliging Lenin-Moreno administration to increase fares and provide loans.
Then Native-Ecuadorians together with the urban youth took major cities including Quito, the capital of the country.
President Lenin-Moreno had to leave the city and to change the capital to Guayaquil, a more conservative center.
Furthermore he put the country under State of Siege and both the police and armed forces carried out strong repression, killing at least 7 protestors and hurting thousands.
Nevertheless, the decree 833 had its coup de grace when protestors took control of oil fields in the Amazon area and the oil-pipeline between these oil fields and coastal refineries and ports.
On October 13, 2019 President Lenin-Moreno announced the withdrawal of decree 833 after a meeting with the Native-Ecuadorian main organization, CONAIE.
In spite of the strength of the Uprising, CONAIE leaders refused to demand president Lenin-Moreno to resign.
The permanence of president Lenin-Moreno in power is a permanent threat against the working peoples as he works for big business and the IMF.
CSP-Conlutas congratulates the Ecuadorian workers, youth and Native peoples for their revolutionary upsurge which will be fulfilled only through workers’ power.
