Guillermo Lasso, Ecuador's banker-president, has used Article 148 of the Constitution – known as the “muerte cruzada”or “mutual death” – to shut down the National Congress just two hours before the vote on his impeachment trial for corruption was due to begin. Elections must now be called within six months to renew both the executive (the president) and the legislature (the Congress), but in the interim, the president remains in office and rules by decree without parliamentary oversight. It is therefore a power grab or, as some have described it, an autogolpe (a self-coup).

Ecuadorians went to the polls last Sunday, 5 February, for municipal elections and to vote in an eight-question referendum called by the banker-president Guillermo Lasso. Lasso’s party came out of the municipal elections completely defeated, while ‘Yes’ – defended by Lasso – lost in all eight questions of the referendum. The elections were a hard blow to the capitalist oligarchy and its political representatives.

The great national strike called by CONAIE and other peasant-indigenous organisations in Ecuador ended on 30 June, after 18 days of struggle, with the signing of an agreement containing important concessions from the government. It is necessary to analyse this extraordinary movement, which faced brutal police repression, and draw the necessary lessons to continue moving forward.

Ecuador is entering the third week of the national strike called by the (Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador) CONAIE on the basis of 10 demands to deal with the cost of living crisis. A crucial point is being reached for the future of the movement. The question of who rules society has been raised, but not resolved. The impasse can cause fatigue and demobilisation. The police violently suppress the mobilisations, even with the use of lethal weapons, which are defended by young people on the front line. Since the national strike began, there have already been five deaths, eight disappearances and at least 127 detentions.

22 June was the 10th day of the national strike in Ecuador, called by CONAIE against the anti-working-class policies of banker president Lasso. The brutal police repression that has left two dead and dozens injured has not stopped the movement. Columns of indigenous peasant protesters have reached the capital, breaking through police and military lines and defying the state of emergency that was declared by the president in five provinces – including the capital Quito. The government and ruling class are in a panic, and the movement is taking on an insurrectionary character in some provinces.

22 June marks the 10th day of the national strike in Ecuador. The first year of the Lasso government has been a tragedy for the workers and peasants. Ecuador was one of the countries most affected by the COVID 19 pandemic. Unemployment and misery afflict all the country's provinces. The Lasso government has religiously complied with all the demands of the International Monetary Fund since taking power in May 2021. The increase in fuel and food prices has been the last straw.

On June 13, a new national strike began in Ecuador, announced by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE), demanding better economic conditions. Demands include the freezing of the price of gasoline, price controls on basic foodstuffs, and opposition to the privatisation plan. These demands challenge the impositions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) head on.

In the early hours of Tuesday, 26 October, social and indigenous organisations, as well as workers’ unions in Ecuador began a new day of protest against the economic policies of President Guillermo Lasso. The demonstrations were called by the Ecuadorian indigenous sector, the Unitary Workers Front (FUT) (the largest union in the country), the Popular Front (FP), and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE).

The second round of Ecuador’s presidential election has produced a victory for the right-wing candidate, the banker Lasso, and a defeat for the left-wing candidate, Andrés Arauz. It is important to try to understand the reasons why this happened, and the perspectives for the workers’ movement in the Andean country.

The electoral campaign for the second round of the presidential elections in Ecuador on Sunday, 11 April has come to an end. The second round pits the banker Guillermo Lasso, the candidate of the capitalist oligarchy, against the candidate of the left-wing UNES, Andrés Arauz, who represents correísmo and who came first in the first round on 7 February. So far, the polls do not suggest a clear winner. 

The Ecuadorian election on 7 February produced a clear victory for the left-wing candidate Andrés Arauz, but not enough to prevent a second round. There is a very close tie for the second position between the capitalist oligarchy’s preferred candidate Guillermo Lasso and the “indigenous” candidate Yaku Perez. 

The Ecuadorian elections on Sunday pit Rafael Correa's successor Andrés Arauz against the businessman and banker Guillermo Lasso, representative of the Ecuadorian capitalist oligarchy. The polls put Arauz ahead of Lasso, but not by enough of a margin to avoid a second round of voting. 

In Ecuador, where the impact of the coronavirus has been especially severe, the government is cynically using the emergency as a cover for a swathe of attacks on the working class. But the workers and youth of the country are fighting back!

The Ecuadorian province of Guayas has become ground zero for the coronavirus in South America, which has intensified in recent weeks. Its capital, the city of Guayaquil, has a disproportionate number of cases with respect to its size. It is home to most of the country's diagnosed cases and deaths. With funeral homes saying they are out of space and coffins, there are corpses in the streets and others in cardboard boxes distributed by the authorities. With the morgues filled beyond capacity, the government has organised refrigerated trucks as makeshift morgues. The responsibility for this disaster lies with the government's neglect and the crisis of capitalism.

In this article for America Socialista (published 17 January), Jorge Martin looks back on the tremendous ‘Red October’ that swept Latin America last year, with insurrectionary movements in one country after another. Where did these eruptions come from? What were their limitations? What lessons were learned? And what is the perspective going forward?