Ecuador: Legislators Call For March to Defend Correa, Rights

Followers of Ecuador’s former president Rafael Correa have organized a march for Thursday under the banner “Indígnate Ecuador,” which roughly translates into " Be Outraged Ecuador," to reject president Lenin Moreno’s latest economic reforms and in defense of Correa Legacy after he was linked to a case of attempted kidnapping.

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Legislator Gabriela Rivadeneira, of the Citizens’ Revolution Movement, said Monday “we hope that in this march we have the participation of those citizens whose rights are being violated.”

On Twitter, Rivadeneira called on Ecuadoreans to “not allow the regression in labor rights, educations, health, wealth redistribution, and sovereignty.”

On Monday, Correa went to Ecuador’s consulate in Brussels, Belgium instead of traveling to the court in Quito, that had summoned him. According to the Citizens’ Revolution Movement, Correa is the victim of political persecution.

On June 18 the general attorney’s office requested Correa be linked to the kidnapping case, and asked for his periodical presence at the consulate in Brussels. Daniela Camacho, the judge hearing the case, decided to demand Correa’s appearance in a court in Quito.

According to Rivadeneira, the judge overstepped her authority with that decision, which has led Correa’s supporters to believe he is facing a real threat.

Correa was president between 2007 and 2017. After the presidential campaign won by his former ally Lenin Moreno, Correa went back to Belgium, where his wife and family live.

Rivadeneira also explained the march would be peaceful and lamented that state security forces had repressed them in previous occasions. Finally, she said that the rally seeks to show Moreno’s government “there is an organized people and a people ready to mobilize itself.”