El Paro 2022

 The Paro

Here's a small addition to our departure blog.  We would be remiss if we didn't mention that, during the final three weeks of our stay, we were living within the constraints of a nation-wide transportation strike.  A well-organized union of the indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Andes held a meeting consisting of the leaders of each individual group and Leónidas Iza, the president of this union named CONAIE.  In the meeting, they drafted a list of demands they would make of the Ecuadorian government headed by president Guillermo Lasso.  Here is the list of demands they created during this meeting:  

1. Reduction and no more increase in fuel prices
Freeze diesel at USD 1.50 and extra gasoline and ecopaís at USD 2.10, and enter into the process of targeting the sectors that need subsidies: farmers, peasants, transporters, fishermen….

2. Economic Relief
Economic relief for more than 4 million families with a moratorium of at least one year and renegotiation of debts with reduction of interest rates in the financial system (public, private and cooperative banks). No to the seizure of assets such as houses, land and vehicles for non-payment.

3. Fair prices for farm products
Including milk, rice, bananas, onions, fertilizers, potatoes, corn, tomatoes and more; no to the collection of royalties on flowers. So that millions of peasants, small and medium producers can have a guaranteed livelihood and continue producing.

4. Employment and labor rights
Policies and public investment to stop the precariousness of labor and ensure the sustainability of the popular economy. 

5. No mining

Moratorium on the expansion of the extractive mining/oil frontier, audit and comprehensive reparation for socio-environmental impacts. For the protection of territories, water sources and fragile ecosystems.

6. Respect for the 21 collective rights
Intercultural Bilingual Education, indigenous justice, informed consultation, organization and self-determination of indigenous peoples.

7. No more privatization
Stop the privatization of strategic sectors, patrimony of Ecuadorians (Banco del Pacífico, hydroelectric plants, IESS, CNT, highways, health, among others).

8. Price caps & control

Price control policies and speculation in the market of basic necessities, made by intermediaries and price abuse in industrialized products in supermarket chains.

9. Health and education
Emergency budget in the face of hospital shortages due to lack of medicines and personnel. Guarantee access of youth to higher education and improvement of infrastructure in schools, colleges and universities.

10. Increased security
Security, protection and generation of effective public policies to stop the wave of violence, hired killings, delinquency, drug trafficking, kidnapping and organized crime that keeps Ecuador in anxiety.

Quite a list.  Then on June 13th (which coincided with the celebration of Suzie's birthday and the Incan sun god, Inti Raymi ), the CONAIE implemented a transit strike.  This entailed the blockage of all roads leading in and out of major cities.  Cuenca happens to be one of these cities.  At the time of this writing 17 days have passed without supplies entering or leaving the city.  The strike has essentially put Cuenca under siege.  

Portable tanks of gas for hot water, kitchen stoves, and dryers are running out.  We, fortunately, got a gas delivery early on in the strike and now have enough.  Food stores are dwindling.  The price of eggs (when you can find them) have gone up 300%.  Our local store doles them out 6 per customer.  Until last night, no oxygen tankers were allowed through the blockades which put the hospital in dire straits.  Last night's headline read, "Patients breathe a sigh of relief as oxygen arrives in Cuenca."

This is a line for gas tanks.  The actual vender is at the white and red sign.

As I was looking up that previous headline, I read a new headline:

"The government will lower the price of fuel five cents more (than the previous ten cent reduction) and the indigenous movement will end the national transportation strike."

So that's nice.  

Three days ago, the interior of the city of Cuenca shut down because busses, taxis, and lorries blocked the main thoroughfares.  They parked their vehicles in roundabouts, put branches across streets (which seemed to me to be quite easy to remove), they burned tires, put up yellow "Peligro" tape.  

Everyone took the day off.  We've had a lot of rain lately and it has been unseasonably cold.  But, on the day of the Cuenca strike, not one cloud blocked the sun.  Since no one could drive on the roads, bicycles owned the city.  I know that the strike was bad for the economy and a lot more than just inconvenient for a lot of people.  But, our bike ride through Cuenca that sunny day was marvelous.  Sam, Suz, and I rode a beautiful loop from our house through downtown and back.  Sam took the opportunity to make a last tour of Cuenca street food.  I thought it was a fitting and magical goodbye cruising down the middle of usually very busy roads. 

We've had to navigate our departure, our last days, and our goodbyes under the shadow of this strike.  This was painful for sure.  But, we can afford the eggs.  We weren't trying to get to work past blockades or to figure out what to do with our children who couldn't go to school.  We didn't lose two weeks income and double our expenses.  We didn't close down our restaurant or get stuck in Guayaquil etc. etc.  In short, we were very lucky unlike many others.   

We imagined for a while what would happen if a group that represents 10% of the population of the United States decided to blockade all of the roads going in and out of all of the major US cities.  We made our own guesses about the likely outcome based on instinct.  We'd like to invite the millions of readers of this blog to amble around in that thought experiment.