The 12-day national strike in Ecuador forced the Lenín Moreno government to retreat on the one issue of Decree #883, which raised fuel prices and was a direct attack on the Indigenous community, more than doubling the fuel costs of farming. Despite Moreno’s retreat [on Oct 13], this was far from a clean victory despite the strength of the mass movement.
The broad movement that carried out the strike, the Paro Nacional, has no unified leadership at this time, and the government is carrying out severe repression, especially now against the Correists — that is, the people who worked with the Citizen’s Revolution party led by former President Rafael Correa.
President Moreno vilified the uprising as an insurgency infiltrated by “violent sectors, criminals and the Correista destabilizers of democracy,” who were allegedly “part of a well-planned left-wing strategy directed from Venezuela and Cuba.” His rhetoric rationalized the persecution of Correistas, bringing legal charges against social leaders and the ‘criminalization of protest.’ ”
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