By: Movimiento Revolucionario de las y los Trabajadores (MRT) – Ecuador
Automatically translated by AI.
The offensive of the neo-liberal right wing, headed by the government of Daniel Noboa and aimed at defeating the mass movement through a total war, clashes head-on with popular resistance. They imagined an easy triumph, but they found themselves with indigenous peoples, workers and urban popular sectors taking to the streets, blocking highways and demonstrating throughout the country to reject the increase in the price of diesel.
Against all the government’s forecasts, the policy of fear and the legal and financial harassment of the leaders did not work; on the contrary, it only caused the popular resistance to deepen. We have already had a month of struggle in which, if one fire is extinguished, another is immediately lit elsewhere.
Noboa is not willing to give in, and the violence against the popular movement has become brutal: three dead, dozens of wounded, bombing of communities with tear gas, violent raids to arrest leaders and thousands of police and military deployed in a policy of occupation of the territory. The scenes of blows, kicks, blows with guns and people dragged through the streets – regardless of whether they are elderly or women – have become a daily occurrence.
What began as a struggle for a concrete demand, the rejection of the increase in the price of diesel, has been transformed into a battle against the Noboa government and its authoritarian drift, which is growing day by day. The popular movement now not only demands the freezing of fuel prices, but also rejects the attempt to turn the country back into a banana republic, managed by the owner of the hacienda and with a people subjected to his designs.
The aggression against the Otavaleño people and other communities must stop immediately. No more bombardments with tear gas thrown inside homes. We demand the immediate withdrawal of the public forces from the indigenous territories, the cessation of arbitrary detentions, the release of all popular fighters detained during the strike, the prosecution of those responsible for the deaths and injuries, the repeal of the decree of the fuel hike and the opening of unconditional dialogue tables to solve the urgent problems of the popular sectors. We will denounce before the international community the outrages of this government against the Ecuadorian people.
Down with the Noboa government’s policy of terror!
In the authoritarian logic of the government, it is indispensable for Noboa to have complete control of the institutionality, overthrowing the most elementary rights of Ecuadorians and subjugating the justice system -especially the Constitutional Court-, so that it receives orders from the Executive and allows him to govern without limits, preserving only the appearance of a democratic regime.
For this reason, the government is calling for a Popular Consultation whose main point is the convocation of a Constituent Assembly to approve a new Constitution under the neoliberal and oligarchic model, subject to the demands of the IMF.
An eventual triumph of Noboa in the Consultation would mean that he feels authorized to apply the complete neoliberal package against the Ecuadorian people. At stake is not only the rule of law and its basic guarantees, but also the prices of the fundamental inputs of the popular economy: gas, fares, electricity and garbage collection.
For this reason, the struggle against the increase in diesel must continue with a great campaign for the No in the Popular Consultation. These are not separate processes, but part of the same government strategy to further impoverish the Ecuadorian people and lay off thousands of public and private sector workers.
To vote NO in the Popular Consultation is to say:
No to the gas increase.
No to the increase in fares.
No to the repression against the people.
No to the dismissal of workers.
No to mining.
October 2025
