File photo of protests near Latacunga, Ecuador, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @radiolacalle

Quito, October 26 (RHC)-- In Ecuador, the National Federation of Peasant, Indigenous and Black Organizations of Ecuador (FENOCIN) announced that it would carry out a day of protests and roadblocks, mainly in the provinces of Los Rios, Guayas, and Esmeraldas.

Convened for the first fortnight of November, this popular protest aims to demand that President Guillermo Lasso comply with the agreements reached in the negotiations with the Indigenous movement.  “It is going to be a preventive action so that the government complies with the agreements that it itself signed as well as the electoral campaign promises,” FENOCIN president Gary Espinoza said.

Social organizations also seek the cancellation of debts with public banks, the delivery of agricultural inputs, the establishment of a urea subsidy, and the implementation of actions against insecurity.  Espinoza rejected the disappearance of 55,000 quintals of rice from the country's food reserve. Currently, this theft of public property is being investigated by the Prosecutor's Office.

Recently, the Lasso administration and the Indigenous organizations concluded a negotiation process, which was prompted by the massive protests that took place in June.

Both parties reached agreements on issues related to health, development banking, bilingual intercultural education, environment, oil exploitation, and agriculture. However, the Ecuadorian government and social organizations did not reach substantive agreements on fuel subsidies.

On Tuesday, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), the Council of Evangelical Indigenous Peoples and Organizations of Ecuador (FEINE) and the Lasso administration are expected to resume talks to implement the agreements reached.