BY JUAN VILLAGÓMEZ
LOS ANGELES - Workers, peasants, and students across
Ecuador have staged several strikes since the beginning of
the year in response to government austerity measures and
plans to sell off the telephone and electric companies to
private investors. There are also plans to privatize social
security, which will affect millions of people, especially
toilers that depend on it for health care.
Immediately after his election last August, Ecuadoran president Jamil Mahuad, a Harvard graduate, devalued the national currency, the sucre, by 15 percent. He also slashed social programs, cut subsidies on essential goods, and raised taxes ranging from car sales to using ATM bank machines. Fuel and electricity prices shot up 400 percent.
Seeking to justify the austerity moves, Mahuad described Ecuador's economic crisis as a ship that struck an iceberg. The country's economy grew only 0.8 percent in 1998 and the inflation rate reached 43.4 percent, the highest in Latin America. The banking system almost collapsed, forcing the government to take over six banks in January, including Filanbanco, one of the largest Ecuadoran banks.
Since the beginning of the year, thousands of high school students, university students, workers, and peasants have joined in street protests. The peasantry is composed mostly of Quechua-speaking peoples in the highland and Amazonian regions. The students are demanding that the government roll back the austerity measures, devote 30 percent of the national budget to education, and release more than 100 people who have been jailed for participating in the protests.
The government announced January 27 it is suspending classes throughout the country and will use the police to repress any demonstrations or acts that "disturb public order." The police have used tear gas and shot at demonstrators, and in two instances invaded the campuses of the Central University in Quito, the capital city, and the Chimborazo National University in the city of Riobamba.
The newspaper El Universo reports that Education Minister Vladimiro Alvarez said he will fire any teacher who participates in the protests. "If there are 500, 500 will have to go and if they are 20,000, they will go to," Alvarez declared.
Hundreds of peasants and students have blocked the Pan- American Highway at different points throughout the country. The protests have spread across the country, including the three main cities of Quito, Guayaquil, and Cuenca.
There is a call for a national strike for February 5. Tens of thousands of working people and youth are expected to take part of the protests, including oil workers from the state- run company Petroecuador, teachers from the National Teachers Union (UNE), university students organized by the Federation of University Students (FEUE); high school students from the Federation of Secondary Students of Ecuador (FESE), and many other groups.