In Ecuador, great social, union and indigenous mobilizations occupied the capital city, Quito, and forced the Government of Lenin Moreno to retreat to Guayaquil and subsequently to derogue the economic policies ordered by the International Monetary Fund: especially, the “rationalization” of fuel prices raising them to international market levels.
In Chile, for the first time in a generation, the streets of Santiago (those “broad avenues for free people” of Salvador Allende’s final words in 1973) filled with the hundreds of thousands who never saw their part of the economic miracle. Here too the price of transportation was the igniting spark. The Chilean armed forces showed how little they have changed since the dictatorship, and left at least 18 dead and many wounded among the protesting population.
In Colombia, students keep marching through the cities, claiming Government budget for education and justice for all the social activists and environmentalists who have been murdered in the country.And Bolivia confirmed the democratic mandate of Evo Morales, who governs since 2006 and still holds a clear majority vote. His opposing candidate, Carlos Mesa, precisely was the one to be ousted from power by the social movements, in the conflict over the national gas resources.
However, on Sunday, Nov. 10, Evo resigned from power, under heavy internal and external political pressure, and Bolivia rides into an uncertain future.
Over all of Latin America, the reasons for political struggle are the same as ever: natural resources, unequal development, social injustice, persecution. But America is awake.
