Quito, July 16 (RHC)-- Ecuador’s National Campesino Movement (Fecaol) and workers’ unions have launched a five-day national strike to protest President Lenin Moreno’s neo-liberal government, as massive manifestations in the country’s capital and major cities will take place on Tuesday.

"The national strike is strengthened: Campesinos, Indigenous people, Afro-descendants, retail traders, health workers, electricians, will come out to this day of struggle against this neoliberal government and against the interference of the International Monetary Fund," according to the president of Fecaol, Richard Intriago. 

The nationwide strike began on Monday as protestors blocked roads in Guayaquil, Cuenca, among other cities in the central region of the country. The organizers plan for the intensity and amount of demonstrations to increase and last until Friday, July 19th. 
 
As part of the week-long national strike, Guayaquil-Daule highway was closed down.  This is just the beginning of a week of actions against the neoliberal policies of this government.
 
The organizations that have joined the strike emphatically denounce the path Moreno’s administration has taken in order to fulfill the IMF’s conditionalities, as part of the “recipe” used by the neoliberal model. 

Some of these devices include nationwide austerity measures, massive layoffs, the proposal to raise four points to the national sales tax from 12 to 16 percent, a private sector-led proposal to eliminate workers’ rights and bring about labor flexibilization, privatization of public goods and services, and dismissing the Constitution to deal with transnational companies, mainly in mining.