Widespread protests in Ecuador, sparked by cuts to fuel subsidies, reached a boiling point on Sunday. An Indigenous land defender was killed by Armed Forces, a government aid convoy was allegedly attacked by protesters, and 12 soldiers went missing. Meanwhile, the government continued to advance its plan to rewrite the constitution—an initiative that has further intensified public anger. Undeterred, the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE), which initiated the nationwide strike, announced Monday that it would extend the action.
CONAIE’s announcement came in the wake of a weekend of intense state repression. On Sunday, Efraín Fueres, a community leader and Indigenous land defender, was shot dead by soldiers in the town of Cotacachi while marching alongside other protesters. Videos of the incident show that after Fueres was gunned down, a companion who rushed to his aid was brutally and repeatedly kicked by military forces. Following the killing, the Indigenous Kichwa federation to which Fueres belonged condemned the “military bullets” that took his life and vowed to keep fighting.
The wave of unrest in Ecuador has now stretched on for nearly two weeks, beginning on Monday, September 22, when CONAIE launched an indefinite national strike. The immediate trigger was President Damiel Noboa’s elimination of fuel subsidies—a crucial economic lifeline for Ecuadorians since the mid-1970s—even though Noboa had previously vowed to leave them in place. But the protests have since come to encompass a much broader structural critique of the right-wing government’s austerity, extractivism, and creeping authoritarianism. Noboa’s IMF-backed program of mass layoffs, spending cuts, and tax hikes has left hospitals without medicine, schools in disrepair, and municipalities starved of resources. The administration’s attacks on environmental protections—including the elimination of the Ministry of Environment—has privileged development over conservation. Meanwhile, Noboa’s plan to convene a popular referendum on the drafting of a new constitution, slashing funding for political parties, and reintroducing foreign military bases has proceeded through the intimidation of previously independent judicial bodies.
An ally of the Trump administration, Noboa has responded to protests with unprecedented brutality. Human rights organizations have reported the disappearance of 10 people, nearly 100 injured, and more than 100 detained. Exploiting the Trump administration’s ongoing conflation of the “War on Drugs” with the “War on Terror,” Noboa has claimed that demonstrators are being financed by—or are members of—the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which has been increasingly labelled as a “terrorist organization” by right-wing governments across the region. On this basis, protesters have been accused of terrorism and locked up without trial, as is the case with the group now known as the “Otavalo 12.”
The crackdown intensified further this week. The same day that Fueres was murdered, a government aid convoy was allegedly attacked by hundreds of protesters, resulting in serious injuries to soldiers and the reported kidnapping of 17 troops. Yet details on the disappearance remain murky. CONAIE has adamantly denied involvement in the kidnappings, and by Wednesday the soldiers had been rescued—though from whom it is unclear.
Ecuador’s powerful Indigenous movement has a history of successfully pressuring government to walk back fuel subsidy cuts, as it did in 2019 under the administration of Lenin Moreno and in 2022 under Guillermo Lasso. But Noboa has vowed to hold firm, declaring that he would rather “die than take a step back.”
The ruling by the transitional justice tribunal, though criticized by some victims, brings hope that the country may soon turn the page.
IMAGE OF THE WEEK
Activists gathered in Buenos Aires on Wednesday to express their solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla, a humanitarian aid convoy bound for Gaza that was illegally intercepted by Israeli Occupation Forces. (Susi Maresca)
AROUND THE REGION
PETRO’S VISA—The U.S. State Department revoked the visa of Colombian President Gustavo Petro after he urged U.S. soldiers to disobey orders. In solidarity, Colombia’s acting Foreign Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio and Finance Minister Germán Ávilarenounced their own U.S. visas. The State Department’s decision, announced last Friday, came after weeks of friction over drug policy and the presence of U.S. troops in the Caribbean. Washington justified the move as a response to Petro’s “reckless and incendiary" comments imploring U.S. troops to “disobey” Trump and “not point their rifles against humanity.” Petro made the remarks during an impromptu appearance at a pro-Palestine rally in New York City, where he was attending the UN General Assembly. At the protest, during his fiery UN speech, and at a Palestine solidarity event, he repeatedly called for an international “army of peace,” larger than the U.S. military, to liberate Gaza—an audacious plan he said he would discuss with China. Petro’s response to the visa revocation was defiant: he tweeted that he “did not care” and argued that punishing him for denouncing genocide “shows the US no longer respects international law.”
FLOTILLA PROTESTS– Protesters took to the streets across the region on Wednesday after the Israeli Navy illegally intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla, a humanitarian convoy of 52 boats carrying activists from 44 countries. The Flotilla has sought to challenge Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza by opening up a humanitarian corridor by sea to alleviate the ongoing mass starvation of the Palestinian people. In Buenos Aires, hundreds gathered to demand the release of detained activists who were kidnapped by Israeli forces. In Mexico, protesters gathered across the country and President Claudia Sheinbaum demanded the immediate release of six Mexican participants. Activists in Montevideo pressed their government to more forcefully denounce Israel’s genocide, while in Bogotá the national business association was the target of a massive action over its ties with Israel. Colombian President Gustavo Petro publicly celebrated the Bogotá protests, condemned the abduction of two Colombian activists, and retaliated by expelling Israel’s diplomatic mission and suspending a free trade agreement between the two countries.
VENEZUELA-U.S. TENSIONS—Top Trump aides, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and adviser Stephen Miller, are reportedly collaborating on a campaign to escalate military pressure on Venezuela. According to The New York Times, the effort includes leading members of the Venezuelan opposition, which could provide Washington with a legal pretext if Edmundo González—recognized by the U.S. government as the winner of Venezuela’s disputed 2024 elections—consents to intervention. On Tuesday, Trump hinted at the possibility of striking “cartels coming by land,” framing Venezuela as a narco-terrorist threat. Maduro has spent the last week arming civilians and preparing to declare a “state of emergency.” Nevertheless, lost amid the rhetoric of invasion, everyday life in Venezuela goes on. As Ociel Alí Lopez notes in his recent piece for NACLA, Venezuelans—long accustomed to threats of regime change and a triumphalist opposition warning that the end of Maduro is near—are carrying on as always.
HAITI’S NEW MISSION—The UN Security Council unanimously approved a U.S. proposal to expand and transform the international security force in Haiti. The new “Gang Suppression Force” will replace the Kenyan-led mission that failed to contain the country’s spiraling security crisis. The operation authorizes up to 5,500 troops with an expanded mandate to carry out offensive operations independently of the Haitian police. As with the Kenyan force, it will rely on voluntary contributions from UN members and will not be considered a formal UN peacekeeping operation. While the announcement was praised, analysts have raised concerns that the new mission will replicate the structural failures of the current force of fewer than 1,000 officers. Diplomats and rights groups voiced concern over the vague definition of “gangs,” which could enable abuses, and called for stronger human rights protections.
