Demonstrators confronted by riot police during protests after Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno’s government ended four-decade-old fuel subsidies, in Quito, Ecuador October 3, 2019.- REUTERS/Ivan Castaneira

ALERT ON STATE OF EMERGENCY IN ECUADOR

The Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity alerts the international community, in particular international bodies and defenders of rights and democracy, about the serious violation of human and collective rights that is evident in Ecuador, after the declaration of a state of emergency for a period of 60 days, by President Moreno.

This declaration, clearly motivated by the government’s decision to advance in the neoliberal redesign of the State and comply with an unconstitutional agreement with the IMF, places the country in the position of a dictatorship, by suspending the rights of association, mobilization and other fundamental rights, making it possible for the armed forces and police to take action outside their usual spheres, and allowing additional attributions, unforeseen uses of the public budget and the strategic infrastructure of the State.

We are concerned about the scope of the violent police and military repression unleashed: in a single day of peaceful citizen mobilizations (03/10/2019) it has resulted in the arrest of more than three hundred people, numerous wounded and a militarized country, particularly since it is a State that is constitutionally recognized as a sovereign and peaceful country.

We also warn about the deployment of an intense media campaign to criminalize the mobilizations, associate demands with crimes and demonize political leaders and people who defend sovereignty or expose ideas contrary to neoliberalism. The public statements of criminalization and hatred against the militancy of the Citizen’s Revolution movement violate the political rights of an extensive militancy of the country’s main political force.

Thus, we call for an urgent return to democratic institutions in Ecuador, the immediate abrogation of the state of emergency and respect for the legitimate right of the people to express themselves, defend their rights and the sovereignty of the country.

We alert the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the violation of democracy and human rights in Ecuador.

We call upon the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as the Special Rapporteur for the Promotion of Freedom of Expression and Opinion, to deploy all the offices that this relevant multilateral mechanism allows.

We call upon all international bodies and defenders of rights and democracy to urgently express their support for the democratic validity in Ecuador and to condemn the violent repression that affects the people on a national scale and could give rise to a bloodbath for which the government of Lenin Moreno would be responsible.

October 4, 2019, Network In Defense of Humanity