The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) – which led the protests that faced the governments of Lenín Moreno in 2019 and Guillermo Lasso in 2022 – presented its list of demands again, this time just four days after the election won by Daniel Noboa Azín, and that the exact date of his inauguration is not yet known.

These demands of the indigenous group are the product of those mobilizations of October 2019 and June 2022 and which they claim were not met by the leaders. In the previous two strikes, the protest flag was the price of fuel, and a year ago they sat down at the dialogue tables where there was a move in the process of directing fuel subsidies, which was one of their demands, but it stagnated.

Conaie’s demands to Daniel Noboa have divided the parties: some see it as a threat, others say it’s what Ecuador expects

The government reported that the Ministry of Public Works and the Agency for Regulation and Control have several alternatives for targeting. But since the representatives of Conaie left the dialogue tables, “there is no interlocutor with whom to talk about them. That’s why the issue of targeting remains suspended”, it was stated this Friday, October 20, in one of the government departments that were part of the dialogue table on the targeting of fuel subsidies.

This issue was one of the most difficult in the dialogue process between the Government and indigenous organizations and by October 2022 progress had been made on the criteria on who should continue to receive subsidies and who should not, but not on the targeting mechanism.

The chosen method was to exclude those who can pay a higher price: for example, depending on the vehicle and salary, and to include those who do not have the means and therefore will have a differentiated price.

What is the volume of your vehicle? Do you earn more than $3466? It depends on whether you will be excluded from the fuel subsidy.

After that, on April 6, 2023, a technical table was set up to discuss targeting. Until then, the Ministry of Energy and Mining was developing a modeling proposal for a methodology for calculating prices without subsidies, and other sectors such as fuel distributors were also invited. Subsequent talks with the indigenous population did not continue. Through the dialogue methodology, it was determined that all parties had to be present, which did not happen, and last June, one year after the strike, the Government Ministry explained why:

Were the 218 agreements of the dialogue tables respected after the June strike or not? The government and the indigenous population have conflicting visions

There are now 15 demands insisting on topics such as interest rate cuts and debt forgiveness and price controls, but new ones have been added such as the suspension of free trade agreements – this government has managed to sign three trade agreements with China, South Korea and Costa Rica – and non-exploitation of Yasuní oil after the popular consultation held last August with early elections.

These are the 15 demands Conaie made to President-elect Daniel Noboa Azín in October 2023:

These were the 10 demands that Conaie made to the government of Guillermo Lasso in June 2022: