PHM-Exch> Ecuador: PRESI DENT OF STUDENT UNION ON HUNGER STRI KE TO DEMAND HIS FREEDOM

[Claudio Schuftan]

Ecuadorian University Student Federation President, Marcelo Rivera, jailed
for over ten
months in the García Moreno prison, declared today that he was beginning an
open-ended
hunger strike, to pressure the government and the courts, in demand of his
freedom.

The student leader decided to take this extreme measure to push for a
favorable ruling from
the Third Division of the Criminal Trial Court, presided over by Dr. Gladys
Terán Sierra,
during the trial scheduled for 22 October.

Rivera was with his university classmates and his party, the People’ s
Democratic
Movement (MPD), when he began the strike, and declared that he wants his
decision to
become an example for the organized groups in the country, to continue
struggling even
harder against the arrogance and neoliberal policies pursued by the regime.

"I'm a political prisoner of Rafael Correa’ s government; and my case is an
example of the
governmental authoritarianism that Ecuador is being put through, in
particular peoples’
organizations and their leaders. My struggle is not isolated; it is part of
the struggle of
workers, indigenous people, students, small merchants, teachers and other
sectors that are
defending the democratic principles of the Constitution, and resisting the
right-wing turn of
the regime," Rivera said.

It should be remembered that in the 9 September hearing, after three hours,
the First
Division of the Provincial Court of Pichincha ruled that it was denying
three motions from
Marcelo Rivera’ s defense, including substitution of the precautionary
measure of pretrial
detention to enable the defendant to defend himself in freedom. The trial
began, which,
unlike any other, has been quite speedy.

Rivera is charged with the offence of "terrorist assault against a public
servant," categorized
in Article 164 of the Criminal Code, in the midst of proceedings full of
contradictions,
where the rector of the Central University, Edgar Samaniego, has been the
main plaintiff.

"While Correa seeks amnesty for corrupt people like Alberto Dahik, he jails
people who
have always fought corruption," concluded Rivera.
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