BY SEAN HEALY
Ecuadoran President Gustavo Noboa has been forced into a partial backdown on International Monetary Fund-mandated prices rises on fuel and transport after massive countrywide protests by indigenous people and unionists reminiscent of the uprising which ousted Noboa's predecessor, Jamil Mahuad, in January 2000.
A February 7 23-point accord signed by Noboa and Antonio Vargas, the president of CONAIE, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, commits the government to a freeze on gasoline prices for a year, a 20% cut in the cost of cooking oil and cheaper public transport fares for children, students and elderly people.
Noboa also stated that he would lift a state of emergency declared on February 2 and that all those protesters arrested by security forces would be released.
The backdown is a considerable blow to Noboa, who announced the price rises in December as part of an austerity package demanded by the IMF in exchange for a US$2 billion loan.
Prior to signing the agreement, Noboa had used vicious repression in an attempt to stop the week-long protests. At least four protesters were killed by security forces on February 5.
The scale of the protests threatened to become far larger than repression could subdue, however, and Noboa chose not to embrace the same fate as the country's two previous presidents, who both resigned after massive public protest at their neo-liberal economic policies.
Noboa seems to have particularly feared a planned general strike on February 7. He hurried to open talks with CONAIE the day before the strike, which instead became a victory celebration.
While he seems to have escaped with his skin for now, according to national pollster Cedatos the president's future is uncertain — his popularity has dropped 15 percentage points to 28% in the month since his announcement of the austerity measures.
Beginning on January 21, indigenous groups led by CONAIE organised marches and blockaded roads in the countryside and cities in half of the country's 22 provinces. Farm workers, students and unionists joined these protests.
The government sent military units to disperse many of the peaceful demonstrations by force and several hundred were arrested. In response, on January 26, indigenous organisations called for a national mobilisation of communities across the country and a convergence on the nation's capital, Quito.
Quito was militarised when as many as 10,000 indigenous people arrived over the course of several days. After gathering on the grounds of the Salesian University, they were surrounded by military troops who cut off water and electricity and intermittently stopped food and medicine from being brought in and indigenous people from leaving.
The government declared a state of national emergency on February 2, suspending citizens' basic constitutional rights including freedom of association and mobilisation, as well as protection from arbitrary search and seizure.
Several dozen indigenous people then escalated their protest by beginning a hunger strike. While tensions were mounting in Quito, road blockades and marches nearly paralysed 12 provinces.
The use of force by 300 troops to disburse the blockade of a bridge in the Amazon region on February 5 resulted in at least two indigenous people killed by gunfire, including a 14-year-old who was shot in the head, and some 20 wounded. Nevertheless, 5,000 indigenous people returned the next day to blockade the same bridge.