Tuesday midday and the political scene in Ecuador has taken another turn for the worse. The Lasso government is still trying to play the strongman role and after leaving the negotiation table last night, has this morning refused to return and negotiate with the indigenous protesters. The ostensible reason is due to a clash between military and protesters in the early hours that left one soldier dead and several army personnel and police officers injured, with the government calling the incident a terrorist act and the protesters claiming that the police and army attacked their protesting group, who fought back. The fog of war.
More violence now seems inevitable, the questions are more on how much, who gets hurt and how long this decadent mess continues.
UPDATE: Here’s CONAIE making its point visually:
This isn’t going to end well.
UPDATE 2: At 9:30pm local time, Lasso survives the Congress destitution vote. This as expected, with the opposition getting a majority 81 votes but not the 92 minimum to throw out a President, as 42 voted against the motion and 14 abstained.
I guess the avg. Ecuadorians person isnt hip to Klaus Schwabs doctrine of; “You’ll own nothing and be happy”
I can’t help but be serious on this, it’s not good at all. Ecuador is a broken record, all govts end up going the hardline and the poor only have one way of protest. Correa was just as bad, he could hang on longer than most because he had a majority in Congress. The members of Congress are pathetic, the executive is self-serving, the protesters default to violence, the military is sadistic. It’s a perma-mess.