John Polga-Hecimovich, associate professor in the Political Science Department at the U.S. Naval Academy: “Aside from a fallow period under Rafael Correa, the Indigenous movement has been an important social actor in Ecuador for 25 years. Sometimes it has been a part of the government coalition while at other times it plays a vital role channeling popular discontent. In this sense, the June 2022 strike was merely the latest in a long line of significant anti-government protests. The difference between now and the past is that the Indigenous movement, through Pachakutik, is a more viable electoral actor than at any point in its past. Candidate Yaku Pérez won 19 percent of the vote in the 2021 elections—falling just short of a runoff in which he would probably have been favored—while the party earned 24 seats in the National Assembly, giving it the second-largest bench. The Ecuadorean political establishment has to take Indigenous demands into account in order to govern. Ultimately, there is a fundamental tension between…”