Unfreeze bank accounts: the request of debtors and guarantors of educational loans during sit-in outside the Constitutional Court

Daniela Ballesteros is one of the two guarantors of an educational loan that her brother took out to go to study for a postgraduate course in Spain eleven years ago. Upon returning, he worked in a ministry, but then he left.

For this reason, he fell into default. Two years after not paying the debt, she earned $40,000.

The loan was for $45,000 plus interest reached $60,000, and he paid $40,000 between 2013 and 2018.

“Once again it starts from zero, that is, we have not paid anything,” said Ballesteros.

He pointed out that the guarantors have had their accounts frozen since December 2022.

“They freeze the (bank) accounts of everything, there are the salaries and we cannot receive (…) we are unable to pay for water, electricity (…) we have minor children who are waiting for food, tickets… ”, she questioned.

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His brother has found a job and wants to cancel the debt.

Ballesteros explained that they propose that there be what he called a reasonable refinancing because they are asking them for a mortgage guarantee of an asset that exceeds $50,000.

“If we had money, my brother would not have accessed an educational loan,” he added.

Ballesteros maintained that they have made efforts in the Senescyt, in the Presidency of the Republic, in the Assembly, and they have not received responses.

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Sara Alomoto took out a $30,000 loan in 2015 to study civil engineering at the Catholic University.

His graduation was not immediate, so he did not get a job and the payment was complicated.

In 2019 he had to start paying off the debt. He did it with some savings, but he fell under duress, he said.

“They froze my accounts, they have already started to persecute the guarantors,” he said.

His debt of $30,000 went up to $50,000.

She had two guarantors supporting her and now they are asking her to provide a mortgage guarantee.

He asked that this requirement be removed and that they allow him to pay monthly.

Both Ballesteros and Alomoto participated in a sit-in that took place this Wednesday, outside the Constitutional Court (CC), in the north of Quito, where there were shouts of “down, down, down with the coercives.”

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Carlos Jaramillo, president of the Collective of Those Affected by Educational Loans, indicated that they were going to file a claim of unconstitutionality to the Ingenios Code.

“In theory (the law) was to facilitate payment agreements for educational loans, which is not being fulfilled because there are no realistic payment facilities,” he said.

He explained that the guarantees that are requested for the debts are not flexible, the quotas are not analyzed on the national reality.

The regulations were reformed in January 2022 and it was sought that debtors of educational loans have facilities to comply with payments.

Debtors who were in coercive processes, and who were pending resolution, could take advantage of a special regime of payment facilities, and the precautionary measures issued within those cases were going to be without effect.

According to Jaramillo, some 400 people have signed agreements for some 7,000 with an approximate debt of $70 million.

He added that many of those who signed had to do so due to the pressure from the guarantors.

In parallel, it is expected that the Presidency of the Republic will issue executive decrees so that the coercive processes are suspended, that there is a remission of interest, fines, surcharges and administrative expenses.

In addition, that there is a restructuring of the debts, Jaramillo said. (YO)