00:00Leaders of social organizations announced the start of the process to remove President Elena Boa from office almost four months after the national strike.
00:07The decision, they say, is in response to state violence during the protest, which left dead, mutilated and hundreds of injured.
00:13Our colleague Elena Rodriguez took a tour of Imbabura and shows us the reality facing the Ecuadorian people.
00:21Almost four months have passed since the 31-day national strike.
00:25In Imbabura, life goes on, but the wounds are still open.
00:29Here, even the walls speak.
00:33From her terrace, Nancy remembers the Panamericana Norte Highway turned into a battlefield.
00:39Armed soldiers facing communities that had only their voices.
00:48Jose Huaman, one of the four fatalities of the strikes, arrived at her home.
00:54There, over 500 injured people were treated according to her estimate.
01:00The injured passed by here, by my house, so I knew that we had hundreds of injured people, some very badly, including our colleague Huaman, who also passed by here.
01:10But since it was a gunshot wound, we had to take him by ambulance to Ibarra, and there were other very seriously injured people who we had to take away in 12 barrels because there were no cars.
01:25No cars.
01:26No cars.
01:27No cars.
01:28No cars.
01:29No cars.
01:30In a wheelbarrow on October 14, he says that a military bullet ripped off his leg.
01:34He didn't protest, he helped the wounded.
01:36Although the scars still mark his body, he has no regrets.
01:39regrets. Today he has a message for Daniel Novoa. He should resign and let people who
01:47are seeking the welfare of the Ecuadorian people govern. State violence did not end with the
01:55uprising. Alfonso says he sees it every day in the neglect of his community. His artisan and
02:01leader breaks down when he remembers those days. When we start talking about this topic,
02:07it breaks our hearts. Seeing my brothers bleeding with shotgun shells, injury in their legs,
02:14face and arms. Lastimados por las piernas, por la carita, por los brazos. And seeing other brothers
02:22helping the injured and arriving at the health center and seeing the injuries covered in a
02:27pool of blood that was brutal for us. Eso era brutal para nosotros.
02:33In Otavalo, the epicenter of the national strike, violence was not a nexus. For Pacha,
02:40it was a sustained policy, tear gas, bullets and persecution that she claims cost the state
02:45nearly 800 million dollars. Indigenous and farmer groups were the target.
02:50This rabid oligarchy cannot stand the people that says no. So the strongest shield they have to divide
02:59us as a people is racism. And it is important to understand that when they fail to achieve this,
03:05they instead seek to discipline us. They aim at our eyes, they aim at our legs, at our hands,
03:12so that we are left without a part of our body and learn to point.
03:19The bullets pointed to the bodies. Memory points to those responsible.
03:25That is why national leaders announced the start of the process
03:29to revoke President Novoa's arm of office.
03:31Let's go for a recall of the mandate. Social struggles or often children or mutilated brothers and sisters
03:41cannot remain unpunished. The strike broke out after the elimination of the
03:46diesel subsidy. The balance has not been redressed and the pain has not healed.
03:51With images from Juan Carlos Jativa, Elena RodrĂguez, Telesur Ecuador.
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