18-10-10 Latin American Weekly Report

Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno survived. Moreno brought to an end 12 days of large-scale protests driven by the country’s largest indigenous movement Conaie after repealing his decree ending fuel subsidies on 13 October. Moreno sought to present the negotiated end to the protests as a victory, but he was the one to give ground, having previously been adamant that he would not remove the fuel subsidies, part of a commitment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reduce the fiscal deficit in return for a US$4.2bn credit agreement. His government has exonerated indigenous protesters from all blame to help soothe tensions and thrash out a revised economic deal with Conaie, while going in hard on members of the political movement aligned with his predecessor Rafael Correa (2007-2017), accused of attempting to co-opt the protests to instigate a coup.