The president of Ecuador, Lenín Moreno, said Wednesday in the Colombian city of Cali that social protests in several Latin American countries were infiltrated by “criminal groups” that seek to impose an agenda to destabilize governments and generate chaos.
Moreno says protests in Latin America seek to destabilize governments
“Social protests are undoubtedly legitimized and so it should be (…) but there is a red line that there is no way to go, in which it seeks to destabilize the Government, in which people are aggravated, physically injured” , said the president when installing the VIII Binational Cabinet Colombia-Ecuador, along with his counterpart Iván Duque.
Moreno said he was “permanently in touch” with Duque in the “difficult moments” that both countries experienced in the wake of protests called by unions and social movements that expressed their dissatisfaction with the social and economic policies of Ecuador and Colombia.
The two presidents began today in Cali a new edition of the Binational Cabinet to deepen bilateral relations in sectors such as security and defense, environment, culture, commerce, transport and border issues, among others.
The violence that occurred in these protests was provoked, in the opinion of the Ecuadorian president, by “forces foreign to peace, security and freedom” and whose authors were already “identified.”
“The social protests legitimize without a doubt the clamor of a people, but they become dangerous when they seep into them enemies of democracy and peace, that group is not interested in the advancement of the peoples, their only interest is in keeping agendas policies, ”he said.
Ecuador lived between October 3 and 13 last one of the most serious waves of violence in its recent history as a result of the Government’s decision to eliminate the fuel subsidy, a measure that was finally repealed by Moreno to pacify the country after the death of at least half a dozen people in riots.
Similar demonstrations took place in Chile and more recently in Colombia where mass demonstrations called by trade unions have been held since November 21 to express their rejection of President Duque’s social and economic policies.
“Those of us who respect human rights owe today more than ever to reaffirm democracy, with all the force that reason gives us, history. We must consolidate democracy, because it is not a political task, it is a duty and an ethical commitment ”, concluded Moreno.
Binational cabinets, which began in 2012, constitute the highest level instances for the definition and coordination of public policies in Colombia and Ecuador. These meetings alternate and the previous ones were held in the Ecuadorian cities of Tulcán, Rioverde, Guayaquil and Quito, while in Colombia they have had headquarters in Ipiales, Cali and Pereira.
