At 1am this morning, 14 June, in a joint operation by the Ecuadorean army and police, half a dozen vehicles intercepted the car in which Leonidas Iza, the President of Conaie, the country's main indigenous organisation, was travelling. Leonidas Iza was pulled out and dragged away, in what Conaie and local human rights organisations are calling an arbitrary and illegal arrest.
The detention of Leonidas Iza came at the end of the first day of a nationwide, indefinite strike called by the indigenous movement, as well as students, women and trade unions, to demand that the government of President Guillermo Lasso abandon its neoliberal economic policies. These include increasing fuel prices, the privatisation of public services and increased mining and oil drilling on indigenous lands. Leonidas Iza is the best known leader of this protest, having played a central role in the indigenous-led uprising of October 2019.
His arrest clearly has the objective of intimidating and demobilizing the protest. But Conaie and other movements have called for a stepping up of their struggle.
Leonidas is known to many abroad. He played an active part in the campaign for climate justice leading up to COP26, speaking at several of the main online events. Had it not been for the UK government's discriminatory application of Covid travel restrictions, he would have one of those at the head of the march in Glasgow on 6 November.
We the undersigned express our fullest solidarity with Leonidas Iza, with Conaie and the other social movements in Ecuador, and with their struggle.
Like them, we demand the immediate release of Leonidas Iza and all others detained during the national strike in Ecuador. We hold the government of Guillermo Lasso responsible for their physical well-being.
SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF ECUADOR!
FREE LEONIDAS IZA!
WE ARE ALL LEONIDAS!
