Ecuador’s unpopular leader Lenin Moreno has never been so politically isolated, and might be readying his own departure as anti-austerity protests grow in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thousands flooded the streets of Ecuador’s main cities on May 26 in spite of strict Covid-19 lockdown measures that include a 2pm curfew. The crowds weren’t out to defy the efforts to deal with the pandemic, but rather to protest the attempts by Ecuador’s government to use the crisis to carry out an austerity program that mirrors one they had been forced to back down on just months ago.
President Moreno recently announced a series of cuts including slashing university budgets, scrapping seven state companies, liquidating a state-owned airline and the closure of the Andean nations embassies. The $4 billion package is strikingly similar to the one presented by his government in October last year, setting off weeks of unrest that left eight dead and over 1,300 injured.
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