wfn.org | ECONOMIC MEASURES QUESTIONED

[Audrey Whitefield <a.whitefield@quest.org.uk>]

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Feb. 7, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.2.1.1]

ECUADOR: CHURCHES QUESTION ECONOMIC MEASURES

(ALC) Church leaders in Ecuador have stated that the economic measures
decreed last month by Abadala Bucaram Government are serious and
intolerable for the poorest sectors.

In protest of these measures, different organisations have convoked a
national strike for 5 February. Political analysts believed that the
strike
would  bring together broad and diverse social sectors and will paralyse
the country.

Economic measures include price hikes in fuel, elimination of subsidies
on
domestic gas - with a resulting 345 percent price increase - and price
increases in electricity, telephone and public transport services.

Anglican Bishop Neptali Larrea noted that many Ecuadorans feel betrayed
due
to the abysmal contrast between electoral promises and the reality of
the
Bucaram Government.

There is a contradiction between economic measures that demand greater
sacrifices on the part of the people and state spending, which has not
been
substantially cut, said the head of the Ecuadoran Anglican Church.

In an open letter addressed to President Bucaram, the Ecuadoran
Protestant
Confraternity, stated that unless the Government addresses the crisis
sparked by political error, the country could reach a situation marked
by a
total breakdown of constitutional and democratic order.