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Student Protest Turns Violent in Ecuador
QUITO – A demonstration on Wednesday by
thousands of Ecuadorian college students
unhappy with government proposals to reform
the university system ended in a violent
confrontation with police.
Protesters gathered at a park on the north
side of Quito and marched to the
presidential palace, where police responded
with tear gas after students hurled bottles
and sticks while making several attempts to
storm the gates.
Media outlets blamed the violence on leaders
of the Ecuador Federation of University
Students, who demanded a meeting with
President Rafael Correa or Vice President
Lenin Moreno.
Joining students for the peaceful part of
the demonstration were professors,
university chancellors and administrative
personnel, opposition politicians and
business leaders.
A similar protest took place in coastal
Guayaquil, Ecuador’s biggest city, where
students marched to the offices of the
Guayas provincial government, delivering a
petition to Gov. Roberto Cuero.
The Correa administration’s education bill
is an “authoritarian” measure that “reduces,
assaults and occupies the autonomy of
universities and of the system,” according
to Gustavo Vega, head of the National Higher
Education Council.
Critics of the proposed legislation want
changes in the articles applying to
universities’ operational and financial
autonomy. Students, professors and
administrators also complain that they
weren’t consulted when the administration
drafted the bill.
The government, however, stresses the need
for a “university revolution” and for the
state to recover its policymaking and
regulatory role in the realm of higher
education.
Officials likewise claim that some opponents
of the bill are members of entrenched
sectors who fear losing “their privileges.”
EFE
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