For more than 10 days at the beginning of October, Ecudorians across the nation revolted against President Lenín Moreno’s austerity Decree 883 announced to satisfy part of the U.S.-based International Monetary Fund’s loan conditions.
As part of a $4.5 billion loan agreement with the IMF, the Moreno administration agreed to slash government spending, reduce labor protections, and in essence, subject the Ecuadorian people to yet another failed neoliberal experiment. Under Moreno’s tenure the government has fired thousands of public sector employees and reduced social spending, leading to over 400,000 unemployed, and reducing the number of people making a living wage to under 40 percent.
The latest round of austerity in the 883 decree, which included elimination of the fuel subsidy, proved to be the last straw for the Ecuadorians.
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