The aftermath of the October 2019 strike was ‘rekindled’ with the amnesties granted by the Assembly. Affected people say how that event ‘marked’ them and they will ask the Pichincha assembly members to account.
At the press conference on Friday, March 11, 2021, representatives of civil society and businessmen, rejected the decision of the Assembly of throwing into oblivion the acts of vandalism that affected Quito due to the protests of October 2019.
Diego Vivero is the director of the Ecuadorian Restaurant Confederation and one of the 16 people who will apply for a protective action against the legislative ruling. He has a chain pizzerias. One of its main premises was in the Historic Center. For two weeks he couldn’t get into his business. Their sales dropped 30%.
The first days of the October 2019 protests, his eight collaborators were locked in the pizzeria. They could not go out, because they could be victims of assaults. Vivero assures that the streets were “a battlefield”
“It was a shock, financial and emotional,” he recalls. He says that nobody talks about the recovery that the locals that were besieged by protests: “The protests lasted two weeks, but it had to pass more than three months to be able to get up.”
After the protest, a group of neighbors, citizens and businessmen gathered to clean up the city. The Quito Civic Board promoted recovery mingas of the Historic Center.
Vivero believes this was a double edged sword. “Businessmen, hurt by the destruction of the city, acted quickly and together we recovered the streets. The problem is that, for this reason, maybe everything was forgotten so quickly”
The paralysis of the country, those two weeks, left people unemployed and afraid. Consumption decreased. Patricio Alarcón, former president of the Chamber of Commercehe said, at yesterday’s press conference, that Quito lost more than 200 million dollars in those days of demonstrations
December 2019 must have been one of the worst Decembers in history, says Vivero. “people were shockedit wasn’t the same parties, people didn’t come to the restaurants, it was depressing” he says wistfully.
‘It’s like slapping your mom’
María Elena Rivera owns a restaurant. Its balconies have a privileged view of the Big square. In October 2019, his business did not suffer material damage, but his sales reduced by 50%. “Imagine what it means to not sell anything for half the month. For a company it is catastrophic” Rivera says.
For this reason, it is inadmissible for her to forgive those who went against the heritage of the capital: “It’s like slapping your mom.”
Rivera says that he had to pay salaries without selling anything: “the rents, the wages of the workers, the suppliers, the credits, never wait” and they forced him to withdraw money “out of his own pocket”
for Rivera the amnesties given by the Assembly they are “an affront to the city”. She is willing to sign the request that the 16 Quitons plan present on May 14, 2022 to the Legislature asking for the revocation of mandate of the assembly members of Pichincha who voted in favor of the amnesties.
“If we let this happen, we run the risk that they will do the same thing to us again,” says María Elena Rivera.
they had to borrow
Ricardo Sánchez owns a restaurant. Until before October 2019 I had 20 workersbut, those 12 days without being able to work forced him to reduce the staff to 6.
“What we experienced was brutal” says Sanchez. He says that stones were raised from the streets, businesses were looted, all the premises were closed and people were afraid to leave their houses.
This chaos caused a economic setback that forced some entrepreneurs to ask for loans. Sanchez made one with BanEcuador. That was terrible because “the pandemic found us in debt,” says Sánchez, who has been carrying debts since 2019.
For this reason, he identifies with the indignation of the 16 people from Quito who will present the protection action on Tuesday, March 15, 2022. (GVL)
