Ecuador: Dialogue on Strike Demands Enters New Phase

The Government of Ecuador and the indigenous organizations that called for the recent national strike plan to establish the ten thematic tables this Wednesday to address the pending issues of the popular mobilization.

RELATED:
Ecuador: Violent Deaths in 2022 Exceed 2021

According to local media, the tables will be named Focalization of Fuels, Public and Private Banking, Productive Development, Employment, and Labor Rights, and Energy and Natural Resources. The tables in charge of Collective Rights, Higher Education, Price Control, Access to Health, Security, Justice, and Rights completed the list.

It was learned that the Executive scheduled a follow-up of the work of the State portfolios responsible for the roundtables, and it was ratified that the term for implementing the ten points is 90 days. The process supervision will be in charge of the Minister of Government, Francisco Jiménez.

The leaders, delegates, technical teams, and specialists will be responsible for coordinating with the representatives of the indigenous movements the actions, strategies, and plans that will allow the accomplishment of the demands addressed in each roundtable.

This Wednesday starts the dialogue between MinGobiernoEc and CONAIE_Ecuador Each thematic table will be in charge of each responsible State Portfolio in the area of influence. The thematic tables will have delegate facilitators from several Universities.

Organizational work is advancing amid accusations by Lasso and certain ministers that the national strike protests were allegedly financed illegally.

Days ago, the leader of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), Leonidas Iza, rejected the alleged link with drug trafficking and recalled that the mobilization was sustained thanks to the immense solidarity of the Ecuadorian people.

Leaders of the Council of Peoples and Evangelical Indigenous Organizations of Ecuador (Feine) and the National Confederation of Indigenous and Black Organizations (Fenocin), also organizers of the strike, made similar statements.

Iza accused Lasso of maintaining a discriminatory and criminalizing protest discourse and said that the president does not help the dialogue process with this attitude.

While this was happening, these organizations demanded that the ministers of the Interior, Patricio Carrillo, and of Defense, Luis Lara, resign from their posts and that the National Assembly initiate an impeachment trial against them for the repression during the national strike.

In a resolution approved this weekend, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (Confeniae) demanded the Government assume responsibility for the excessive use of force, which resulted in the death of five demonstrators, thousands of injured, arrests, persecution, and criminalization.