Over a thousand indigenous and leftist activists took to the streets in Quito, Ecuador on Thursday, August 21 to protest President Lucio Gutierrez’s IMF backed economic agenda. The plan would mean higher taxes and gas prices, as well as making it easier for employers to fire their workers. Despite the large numbers of Indigenous people present at the march, the nations largest indigenous organization, the CONAIE (The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador), did not participate. Since early August Guiterrez has continued to lose the support of indigenous andleftist groups who once were the back bone of his administration.
