Some 3,000 unionists, members of indigenous organizations, and others marched through the streets of Quito, the country’s capital, and other provinces. The actions marked the beginning of a round of protests the organizers say will not stop until the government responds to their demands, or steps down and allows an “alternative government to run the country.” The demonstrators protested recent legislation freezing wages for state employees until 2005, and other measures demanded by capitalist investors.

“If the government insists on following the mandates of the IMF [International Monetary Fund] we will accelerate the president’s departure,” said Jaime Arciniegas, president of the United Workers Front (FUT), one of the organizations sponsoring the actions.

The protests were called by a coalition of labor and political groups known as the Front of Opposition to the Government. In addition to the FUT, the Front includes the Coordinating Committee of Social Movements, and the two largest indigenous organizations in the country—the National Federation of Peasants, Indigenous, and Black Organizations (FENOCIN), and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). The actions coincided with the first anniversary of the Gutiérrez government, and come four years after a popular rebellion led by indigenous people toppled the government of former president Jamil Mahuad in 2000.

“We declare Lucio Gutiérrez a traitor for not adhering to the principles and program that allowed him to be elected,” read a resolution adopted by the opposition coalition at a December 22 meeting in Quito.

In the document, the signatories vowed not to allow the continued privatization of the country’s oil resources and the electrical and phone companies. The resolution also opposes the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, a trade accord pushed by Washington to bolster its imperialist domination of the region, and the increasing U.S. military presence in the country.

Gutiérrez was voted into office on the basis of his opposition to his predecessors’ austerity measures and professed support for those most affected by the depression conditions in the country. An army colonel at the time of the Mahuad government, he was among a number of military officers who backed the protest actions that brought down the regime. Gutiérrez was elected with large support from the indigenous groups, which participated briefly with him in the national government.

Since he came to office last January, however, Gutiérrez has pushed a number of austerity measures demanded by the IMF, including eliminating government subsidies on basic items such as cooking gas, gasoline, electricity, and fuel, arguing these are necessary to get the “house in order” and stimulate the economy. Ecuador is saddled with a foreign debt of $14.1 billion. Some 44 percent of the country’s $7.1 billion budget will be used for interest payments on this debt this year. These measures have been met by resistance from working people. A round of protests last year forced the government to suspend the price hikes on gasoline and cooking gas. In June, the government was forced into an agreement with striking schoolteachers demanding wage increases and the allocation of more funds for public education.

Noting that the government had only suspended the increase of the gas prices because these were a “social detonator,” Napoleón Saltos of the Coordinating Committee of Social Movements said the government will persist in trying to comply with IMF demands.

In the face of the threat of growing protests the government has asked for “patience and time.” “We must be proud of the political and economic stability the country has achieved,” said Alfredo Palacio, the country’s vice president.

Despite giving lip service to its supposed commitment to resolve the needs of the country’s toilers, the government’s policies are bound to clash with the expectations of working people.

Gutiérrez has defended his course saying that what he promoted during the election campaign was a third alternative, “a bridge that will unite the left—that at times is too radical, too sectarian, but nevertheless has many important positive things—with the right that sometimes only defends its own interests, forgetting about the social sectors. I want to take what is good from the left and the right. That is my vision,” he said.

“He is a traitor,” Gilberto Talahua, a leader of Pachakutik, an indigenous political party supported by CONAIE, told the Washington Post in October. “He’ll always work with this group of rightists, and the fact of the matter is, he has become a president of the business class.”

In the meantime, trade unions and other organizations have called more actions for the end of January. Gutiérrez has also called on members of his party, Sociedad Patriota (Patriotic Society), to mobilize in support of the government.  
 
 
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