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News > Latin America

Ecuadorian Teachers on Hunger Strike

  • Teachers on hunger strike at the National Assambly, Quito, Ecuador, July 16, 2021.

    Teachers on hunger strike at the National Assambly, Quito, Ecuador, July 16, 2021. | Photo: Twitter/ @GKecuador

Published 20 July 2021
Opinion

Their protest is currently taking place in the cities of Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, Portoviejo, Latacunga, Ibarra, and Santo Domingo.

Fifty-six members of the National Union of Educators (UNE) are staging a hunger strike to demand that Ecuador's Constitutional Court (CC) ratify the Intercultural Education Law (LOEI).

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Supported by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), the teachers' protest is currently taking place in the cities of Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, Portoviejo, Latacunga, Ibarra, and Santo Domingo.

UNE Vice President Rosana Palacios said the hunger strike will not be lifted until Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso and the Constitutional Court ratify the LOEI, a law that would improve the quality of education for Indigenous youth.

Parents and students are also backing the teachers' protest in the Cotopaxi and Imbabura provinces, according to UNE president Isabel Vargas Torres.

The LOEI law, which was approved by the previous legislature and favorably sanctioned by President Lenin Moreno (2017-2021), calls for an increase in teachers' salaries and the reinstatement of workers who were dismissed during the COVID-19 health emergency.

Besides updating the high school curriculum, the law also establishes norms against sexual abuse, violence, and harassment.

Although the LOEI law was to be fully implemented in early July, it remains suspended due to an unconstitutionality lawsuit filed by the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS).

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