Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s Sept. 12 decree eliminating the government subsidy on diesel fuel provoked immediate protests from labor, student and indigenous organizations whose members took to the streets to demand the measure’s immediate revocation on grounds that it would cause great harm to the country’s most impoverished sectors. Within hours of the decree’s announcement, the price of diesel fuel shot up from $1.80 to $2.80/gallon, a 50% increase. Noboa, a neoliberal oligarch and heir to his father’s banana empire, is wedded to IMF austerity policy and argues that removal of the fuel subsidy is part of his program of “fiscal reform” needed to stabilize public finances. He has said he will not revoke the decree.
Citizens are furious and protests in different parts of the country have gained steam in the past several days. Truck drivers protested by blockading strategic routes in different parts of the country, so that by Sept. 17 key transit points connecting urban and rural areas in northern Ecuador were blocked, affecting local supplies and transport, [according to Telesur Sept. 19.](Transport Workers’ Protests Continue in Ecuador After Diesel Subsidy Elimination—teleSUR English) The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) called for “an immediate and indefinite national strike.” Ecuador’s largest trade union federation, the FUT, along with student organizations have announced major mobilizations. soon.
