Quito.- The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, asserted this Tuesday that he prefers to “die” before backing down on his decision to eliminate the diesel subsidy, as demanded by the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), which is leading protests against this and other government measures.
“We do not back down, as happened in 2019, as happened in the year 2022. We have to show firmness and also heart to the people who truly need it”, he said during a public act of delivery of benefits for the Peasant Social Security.
You may be interested in: Noboa proposes chemical castration for rapists in Ecuador
The protests led by Conaie in the administrations of Lenín Moreno (2017-2021) and Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023) forced both presidents to back down in their attempt to eliminate state subsidies for fuels.
Noboa pointed out that going back means not being able to deliver benefits to those who need them, resources to entrepreneurs or single mothers, so he assured that the future of each of the vulnerable sectors depends on them remaining firm in their decision.
“Before they try to make me retreat, I prefer to die. I’m staying here and I’m going to be fighting every day for each one of you,” he said.
By decreeing the elimination of the diesel subsidy on September 12th, the Government announced several incentives and compensations from the $1.1 billion a year that it calculates was allocated to that subsidy, which, according to the Government, also benefited traffickers and criminal groups.
“By not backing down, we are taking away from fuel traffickers and mafias the resources they previously abused from the Government and giving them to you,” he commented to citizens to whom he delivered benefits.
Tren de Aragua
In his speech, Noboa referred to two Venezuelans arrested on Monday during the protests led by Conaie, allegedly members of the Tren de Aragua group, which the Quito government classified as “terrorists”.
He pointed out that the individuals were at the protests, “launching fireworks. Yesterday they even tried to take down (shoot down) a helicopter from the Armed Forces worth more than 30 million dollars.”
“They were exposed: financed and surrounded by criminals from the Tren de Aragua. It’s not a fight, it’s not a protest, it’s the same old mafias, to whom we are inconvenient,” Noboa wrote on his X social media account.
This Tuesday, Conaie denounced the “arbitrary detention” of more than 50 protesters within the framework of the protests and warned of an alleged “refusal by the authorities to provide information on the legal and physical situation” of the detainees.
Popular Consultation
In his speech in the city of Latacunga, where he temporarily moved the Executive’s headquarters, Noboa maintained that his Administration is uncomfortable “for the usual mafias”, for fuel traffickers and “for the political groups that bother so much”.
“Now they don’t even want a popular consultation, they don’t even want to ask the people and let you decide, why? because they swear they are smarter than everyone else,” he said without making specific references and at a time when the Constitutional Court is expected to rule on the call for a referendum to establish a Constituent Assembly requested by the ruler to draft a new constitution.
The president said that his adversaries know “that the people are going to reject them. The people are going to reject the abuses of a political class that was never able to give them results”.
“And now all those assholes (scoundrels) who failed want to tell us how we have to do things,” he criticized, recalling that he has defeated his opponents twice at the polls, having been elected president in the extraordinary elections of 2023 and achieving re-election this year until 2029.
