Faced with broad protests, Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa retreats.
| Autor | Saavedra, Luis Angel |
For the first time in his eight years as president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa has backed down and withdrawn two bills that had motivated protests unprecedented during his administration. Protests even occurred on the eve of Pope Francis' visit to Ecuador at the beginning of July.
In response, Correa issued a call for a comprehensive national dialogue but banned sectors he calls the extreme left while allowing the business sector and the right to participate.
Correa loses popular support
What had been coming for several months finally occurred in June: Correa lost his popular support on the streets.
Street demonstrations, referendums, and electoral processes had become the driving force behind the Ecuadoran leader's popularity. However, this began to change after the most recent local elections in February 2014, and now the political landscape is adverse for the president (NotiSur, March 13, 2015). Stacking up against Correa are sectors on the left, including the indigenous movement, unions, and environmental and women's groups, as well as sectors on the right exemplified by traditional parties and leaders such as banker Guillermo Lasso or Guayaquil Mayor Jaime Nebot.
Ecuadoran leftist organizations had not been able to mobilize significant numbers until Sept. 17, 2014, and the mobilization on May 1 was significant in the numbers of protestors (NotiSur, May 22, 2015). Unions and the indigenous movement tried to capitalize on this success, calling for a national strike and holding new demonstrations that no longer had the impact of previous ones. Even so, their call for a national strike remains in place although leaders have not yet managed to make clear the purpose of their struggle. They have expressed their opposition on a multiplicity of government policy issues in a way that, more than a political agenda, looks like a list of complaints.
Meanwhile, the right had not played a leading role. It had organized weak demonstrations in opposition to Correa's presidential re-election proposal and had not taken into account other issues that concern the left. Correa unexpectedly helped boost support for demonstrations by sectors on the right when he sent two bills to the Asamblea Nacional (NA) that affected economic interests of the elites: taxes on inheritance and on capital gains, which the government proposed as a way of redistributing wealth.
These two proposed laws have not been up for debate to understand whether they would affect the...
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