Ecuador: President Lasso Discredits the 2019 Social Outburst

In Ecuador, the Coordinator of Social Organizations of Guayas (COSG) rejected President Guillermo Lasso's statements aimed at delegitimizing the social protests that ravaged the country in October 2019.

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COSG expressed that Lasso intends to leave in impunity serious human rights violations committed by police officers against demonstrators. 

The organization recalled that women, students, the LGBTIQ+ community, and Indigenous people organizations took to the streets to defend social rights and reject the neoliberal policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during ex-President Lenin Moreno's administration (2017-2021). 

Likewise, the social organization announced that Ecuadorians would remain "in permanent resistance" to any arbitrary and regressive act hampering rights in the health, education, economic sectors.

On Friday, Lasso expressed a "non-tolerant" position towards groups "trying to destabilize the country", while congratulating police officers for their repressive response to the 2019 protests. 

COSG warned that Lasso's position reaffirms his intention to strengthen a police state in the Andean Nation. 

In October 2019, Ecuadoreans staged nationwide demonstrations to reject  Moreno's neoliberal measures which included the elimination of fuel subsidies and the negotiation of a US$4.2 billion loan from the IMF.