At the moment, Ecuador is going through mass riots throughout the nation. Protestors have blocked roads and planned marches causing a state of emergency. The plan for the rioters and protesters is to peacefully enter the heavily secured presidential palace. Why is there widespread out-roar in Ecuador?
Last week the president of Ecuador Guillermo Lasso recently increased the price of fuel in the country. This brought outrage across the nation and the people of Ecuador demanded it be reversed. Due to this pressure President Guillermo Lasso decided to fix the price of fuel with petrol costing $2.55 a gallon and diesel $1.90 a gallon. This was released after a constant increase in fuel prices freezing the costs to one stable price. These inflated gas prices aren't coming from no where though, Ecuador has been experiencing a very unstable economy due to the COVID pandemic. Although the President offered somewhat of a solution to the people, the people rejected it a preferred to go along with the rioting and protesting.
Do you think President Guillermo Lasso is doing the best he can for his people or trying to save face while only being on the job for five months so far?
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/26/indigenous-lead-protest-against-ecuador-economic-policies
4 comments:
This is a tough situation for the President. He went into the presidency, not a great situation to begin with. Ecuador is experiencing COVID effects as are other countries. It is seen worldwide that leaders have had to make decisions because supply chain issues are causing prices of goods to rise. Even in a country as wealthy as the United States, we have seen a variety of goods increase. It is hard to offer a solution because at the end of the day there is no easy solution, these are tough times. I do not know what would make the people of Ecuador happy no one wants to pay higher prices for anything, but I do not think it is fair for them to riot over this price increase. During these hard times, prices have fluctuated significantly, obviously, the economy is in a tough spot and I do not think rioting will fix the economy.
It looks like Lasso has had his hands full in his first five months on the job. On top of the fuel issues, Ecuador is facing a migration crisis of Ecuadorians leaving for the US-Mexico border and a bloody gang war in the prison system. Lasso inherited the problem of fuel prices when in 2019, the former President, Lenin Moreno, implemented an austerity package that would have fuel subsidies. I think Lasso is just trying to take control of the situation the best he can and hopefully the somewhat fixed fuel prices can solve the problems in the Ecuadorian economy.
As mentioned above, every country has been impacted by the supply chain crisis. In additional articles I have looked at, Lasso also called for a state of emergency so it would allow the government to keep security forces on highways to maintain order. This constant presence of security forces could act more as a threat to citizens and could cause more issues due to distrust. Demonstrators argue that the increased cost falls unfairly on regular citizens already struggling economically because of the pandemic, however I doubt that there is any additional distribution to the working class with these prices. Everyone has to pay the same price for fuel because Lasso made it a fixed price across the country. Reducing fuel subsidies began under Moreno, the former president, in attempt to shrink spending in exchange for loans from the International Monetary Fund.
While the price ceiling will provide temporary assistance, it is hard to see this type of action being supportable in the long run. Given that there are already people protesting and rioting, I could see people raising prices against presidential orders due to the loss of revenue that will have occurred through this policy.
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