Last month, President Daniel Noboa eliminated a popular, decades-old subsidy on diesel that was costing Ecuador’s cash-strapped government over $1 billion a year. Fuel prices jumped from $1.80 to $2.80 per gallon, and tensions seemed poised to boil over when the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) declared a national strike to protest the measure. They were confined to a handful of northern Andean provinces, where the Indigenous movement is strongest, and caused minimal disruption in major cities. This marked a major...Read this article on the Americas Quarterly website. | Subscribe to AQ.