Ecuador’s president, the right-wing Guillermo Lasso, avoided an impeachment process in Congress on Tuesday (28). However, the situation remains tense in the country, where protests for better living conditions have taken to the streets for more than two weeks. One of the pillars of this struggle is Leonidas Iza, head of the powerful Confederation of Native Nations (Conaie) and emblematic of the movement.
Leonidas Iza, wearing a red poncho, appeared before government representatives on Monday (27th) after two weeks of protests. Accused by the Ecuadorian authorities of inciting the disruption of public services, he became an icon of the country’s indigenous people within days. Especially after he had President Guilhermo Lasso withdraw from the demonstrations and announce a 10 cent cut in the price of diesel.
Since the beginning of the protests, Iza has been demanding a 40 cent cut on fuel. However, the government’s move was seen as a victory, as the announcement was accompanied by a list of ten concrete measures to help rural populations in Ecuador face the rising cost of living.
At 40, this son of a humble Quechua family was the only one to go to college. Born in the Cotopaxi volcano region in the south of the country, she followed in the footsteps of her father, José María Iza Viracocha, who led various demonstrations in the 1990s, but joined the indigenous rights movement from a young age, as well as Dolores Cacuango, two pioneers in the fight for Ecuador’s indigenous peoples. and he says he took Tránsito Amaguaña as a model.
Anti-capitalist and militant from a young age
The blatantly anti-capitalist gained public recognition in 2019 when, along with Jaime Vargas, he participated in popular protests against the price of fuel already at the time. The President of Ecuador at the time, Lenin Moreno, had to resign in the face of pressure from the streets.
Since then, Iza’s name has been mentioned by the Pachakutik indigenous party as a potential presidential candidate. However, in the last elections in 2021, the party’s representative was Yaku Pérez, who was third with 19.39% in the first round, and Yaku Pérez, who came just behind Lasso with 19.74% of the vote.
Despite being defeated in the elections, the indigenous movement gained more and more weight in the country’s political council, and Iza became a nuisance to the government.
Less than a year at the head of Conaie, he has a clear ambition: to reassert the role of indigenous peoples in the country in the 1990s and 2000s. During this time, the three Ecuadorian presidents have been unable to withstand pressure from the indigenous peoples. indigenous organizations and was forced to resign.
source: Noticias
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