ECUADOR: PRESIDENT LUCIO GUTIERREZ HAS SHORT HONEYMOON.
| Cargo | Indigenous peoples protest new economic policy |
After six weeks in office, President Lucio Gutierrez is discovering how difficult it will be to keep the support of his indigenous base while also satisfying the demands of the US and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Although Gutierrez quickly reached an agreement with the IMF, evidence suggests that he will have a hard time implementing the required reforms. Indigenous organizations have already begun protesting against Gutierrez's economic policies.
During his campaign, Gutierrez criticized his predecessors' rigid adherence to neoliberal principles and promised not to apply adjustment policies that would adversely affect the poorest segment of the population. He promised to reduce the level of poverty from 51% to 38% and the level of indigence from 25% to 10.3%. He also pledged to reduce the infant mortality rate and to cut the number of people without access to health care from 23.2% to 17%.
Almost immediately after taking office, however, Gutierrez increased the price of gasoline by 37%, public transportation by 25%, and electricity rates by 1.5%. He also froze salaries and reduced the budgets of government offices, bringing an angry reaction from supporters who said they had been betrayed.
"It's the same medicine as always, those traditional measures have failed under all the governments, they have not been the solution for overcoming the nation's crisis," said Luis Villacis, president of Frente Popular, which includes campesinos, small merchants, students, union members, and others. "The only thing those measures have done is aggravate the crisis in the poorest sectors."
"The IMF has kidnapped Gutierrez," Villacis added. "The people should rise up to prevent the IMF from continuing to stick its nose in the middle of the Gutierrez government."
The Confederacion de Nacionalidades Indigenas (CONIE) and its political branch, the Movimiento Pluricultural Pachakutik (MPP), which were key in Gutierrez's victory, soon began to make public their displeasure with the president's policies.
MPP leader Miguel Lluco said Economy Minister Mauricio Pozo was making decisions without consulting other members of the alliance. Lluco called for the minister to resign.
Marco Murillo, president of the Consejo de Pueblos y Organizaciones Indigenas Evangelicas de Ecuador (FEINE), said the administration's economic measures would not end the deficit. "We totally reject these measures," said Murillo. "We will call permanent assemblies and if we are...
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