I would like to start by saying that I agree 100% Efrain should not have been killed. And his friend should not have been beaten. No matter what happened before that - I do not think a kill shot should have been fired. I have heard no details about any investigation into exactly how and why Efrain was killed - perhaps it will be a coverup. I just don’t know.
In fairness, I also think that given the thousands and thousands of physical interactions that occurred between the military and the protesters it is worth pointing out that the number of fatalities (three that I know of) and injuries (hundreds??) could have been a lot worse. If there is another Paro soon (I do not believe so - but there are rumors) I fear the results could be far worse.
“One is a disturbance. The other one is death.”
- I estimate that if I stand on the Pana for any normal 24 hour day I will see an average of 10 vehicles per minute (5 in each direction) travelling on this road for about 18 hours out of each day. For some hours it will be much more than that - for other hours maybe not quite that many. It’s a guess but it cannot be too far off.
- That means there are 10 * 60 * 18 * 7 = 75,000 vehicles per week.
If we were to ask each one of these travellers “Where are you going? And Why?” we would surely get a variety of answers! I will just make a few up!
- I am going to my son’s birthday party
- I am going to meet my friends to play pickleball
- I am going to my mother’s funeral.
- I am going for a doctor checkup in Quito.
- I am going to work.
- I am going to school.
- I am going to eat at my favorite restaurant.
- I am going shopping.
- I am a truck driver - I am bringing goods from the north to sell in Quito.
- I am a truck driver - I am bringing goods from Quito to sell in Ibarra.
- I am a bus driver - I have 30 people on the bus and I have no idea why the passengers are on the bus.
I doubt there will be one driver that says he is just going for a drive - no particular reason.
I want to point out that my estimate says we have 75,000 vehicles. Counting buses we must have twice that number of actual people in those vehicles. I will also point out that on this section of the Pana in front of my house there is a toll booth. Each vehicle pays $1 each way to help build and maintain this road so people can travel on it. Many of the vehicles travel this road on a daily basis to/from work or school so this amounts to paying $10 per week.
This is Not a “Protest”. It is Not a “Disturbance”.
If you tell a few people they cannot use the Pana to travel from Ibarra to Otavalo using an automobile you could call this a disturbance. But when you tell 75,000 vehicles they cannot travel between Ibarra and Otavalo for a week it is way more than a disturbance. This affects in a big way the entire economy of the area. And it also affects individual people in ways that are just not possible to measure. And you are also saying that there is no plan for when they will be able to travel on this route again. No way to know!
Telling this many people who have no say in your decision at all they cannot travel on this road for an indefinite length of time is just not right. These are public roads, paid for by taxes and tolls by all the citizens of Ecuador. People have every right to expect to be able to travel on these roads. I believe that when a Paro blocks all these roads it is illegal but I don’t know exactly what crime I would charge the protesters with. I have no legal expertise in either the US or in Ecuador.
But in my opinion these Paros clearly violates the golden rule I learned in first grade “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. And I know if I was the president of Ecuador I would consider it my duty to keep these roads clear for everyone to use safely. I would not wait a week or even one whole day before doing something to clear the roads.
To make a comparison - my wife about 6 or 9 months ago decided to do a march to make people aware of the “Pachamama Green” group that she is part of in Cotacachi. This group wanted to march around the streets of Cotacachi with some banners to promote their cause. To get permission for this march to block a few roads in downtown Cotacachi for approximately one hour this group needed to get permission from the following people:
- National Commissary
- Municipal Commissary
- Fire Chief
- Hospital
- Police
All these people had to sign off before they can legally march the streets of Cotacachi for one hour. There were always other roads to use to dodge our little march for those that wanted to go on their way.
Yet the protesters of the Paro believe that they need no permission from anybody to decide by a vote only they can participate in to close the Pana and all alternate routes indefinitely until they decide to end the Paro. It comes as no surprise to me when we see these Paros do not end well.
What I Hope for Going Forward
I hope it will be a long time before we see another Paro (actually - never would be good for me).
But also - perhaps even a bigger problem Ecuador faces is a complete lack of trust in the government from many of its citizens. It would really help if we could see very soon a popular program implemented that directly assists some of the poorer people in the country. I would recommend listening to this guy for some ideas here.
Some thoughts from Fidel Acero, nativo de Cangahua, Cayambe.