Ecuador Opposition Trade Union Announces Illegal Road Blockades

The Ecuadorean opposition trade union are planning to close down major highways around the country at midnight, Wednesday, as part of national anti-government actions, the organization’s leader has warned.

Pablo Serrano, head of the Workers Unitary Front (FUT), said that the midnight protest to block roads will take place on a national level. Obstructing of the free movement of people, through blockades or otherwise, are illegal under the Ecuadorean Constitution.

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“From 00:00 a closure of highways at a national level has been planned,” Serrano told Radio Sonorama on Wednesday, before the leader arrived in Cutuglagua, a town south of the Ecuadorean capital Quito.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa hit out at the planned action and encouraged his supporters to reject the “abuses.”

“What gall!” he posted on his official Twitter account. “Are we going to allow this, Ecuadoreans? Everyone reject these abuses! In Ecuador no one is stopped!”

¡Ya es el colmo! http://t.co/B1Jszuh1KF ¿Lo vamos a permitir, ecuatorianos? ¡Tod@s a rechazar estos abusos! ¡A Ecuador no lo para nadie!

— Rafael Correa (@MashiRafael) August 12, 2015

The move comes as part of a broader series of actions by Indigenous groups and trade unions, organized by opposition factions.

Leading up to Thursday’s planned strike, called for by opposition factions, Correa urged his supporters to defend democracy and the progress achieved under the Citizens’ Revolution.

“They want to provoke political divisions of the past, but they do not have the political legitimacy or strength to do so,” President Correa told reporters Monday.

Correa has defended the right to protest, but has accused those organizing the march and the strike of “lacking legitimacy” and seeking to destabilize the country.

“Thursday will be a challenge not to the government, but to the entire country. Will we allow these remnants of the past to continue hurting our country or will we overcome them once and for all?” he added.

Supporters of Correa’s left-wing government marched through the capital on Wednesday arriving at a plaza in front of the presidential palace in the city’s historic centre. The demonstrators will maintain a permanent presence in the plaza to showcase their opposition to the march.

Pablo Vivianco, teleSUR's correspondent in Ecuador, reported from Quito that opposition groups, aware the low turnout thus far, have tried to play down expectations about the amount of support they hope to receive. Vivanco added that the opposition continues to be quite divided, with numerous and incongruent demands.