Provincial governments of Ecuador protest against the Quito government's failure to pay

Since December 16, 2020, the provincial governments of Ecuador have been protesting  across the entire country to show their rejection of the central government's failure to pay its debts.

"These protests have been encouraged as public works in the provinces have ceased, seriously affecting the population in rural areas," stated the president of the Consortium of Provincial Autonomous Governments of Ecuador - CONGOPE, Pablo Jurado. "It doesn’t affect the prefects as wrongly claimed by some officials, who are unaware of the work that this level of government does in the process of development and growth of the country" he added.

According to the prefect Jurado, "during the Extraordinary Assembly of Prefects held last December 9, the provinces have clarified that they are not asking for more resources than those to which they are entitled by law, and that they would accept the reductions in strict compliance with the regulations in force". He continued by saying that "they cannot continue to expect more delays from the National Government, since the revival  of the economy is imperative, and therefore it is necessary to give priority to the construction sector where more employment is generated, and where the prefectures cannot make progress due to the failure of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Thus, the mobilizations are intended to show the rejection of the National Government for its failure to pay the debt – amounting to 729 million dollars - the reduction of allocations and the budget cuts. "This protest," Jurado said, "will be of a progressive and indefinite nature, with actions that will have the participation of civil society, other levels of government and provincial government officials The prefect and president of CONGOPE stressed that "this measure will be maintained until the National Government complies with the demands of the provincial territories”.