High school and university students led a massive mobilization in Quito on Saturday, 10 October 2026, against the government of President Daniel Noboa, as reported by Global Voices en Español. The march began in front of the Universidad Central del Ecuador and moved toward the capital's Historic Center.
A protest with new protagonists
Global Voices stresses that these protests depart from the usual pattern, in which the CONAIE, unions such as the CEOSL, the FUT and the UNE, as well as feminist, environmental and anti-mining movements, used to call them. This time the decision to march was made by the Frente Autónomo de Resistencia Organizada (FARO), which brings together numerous youth collectives.
The demonstrators demanded medicines, security and funding for education. They also denounced the lack of medical supplies, low youth employment, rising insecurity and forced disappearances attributed to state agents. Among the slogans were also rejections of what has happened in Palestine and of US interference in the region.
Employment and education budget
According to the INEC, 40% of the country's unemployed are between 15 and 24 years old. On 30 October, the Executive presented the third edition of "Juventud en Acción", aimed at people aged 18 to 29, with two-month temporary jobs and a salary of 400 dollars a month. Academics and civic sectors criticized it for lacking, in their view, a comprehensive and long-term vision.
Global Voices also recalls that in November 2025 the National Assembly approved the 2026 budget, which cut by approximately 99 million dollars the resources of public universities, polytechnic schools, co-financed institutions and postgraduate programs. The text links the cut to the absence of scholarships, the lack of investment in research and fewer places in free public higher education, a right enshrined in Article 26 of the Constitution.
Reports of police violence
According to the publication, videos shared on social media showed police attacks on demonstrators and journalists. teleSUR reporter Elena Rodríguez Yánez wrote on X on 11 October that, while she was documenting how officers beat young people, she was struck on the head with a baton from behind. She said a second blow broke her microphone when she identified herself as a journalist.
Global Voices adds that, according to complaints circulating on social media, the state repression left dozens of students suffocated, injured and detained. Hatari Ulcuango, who heads the student federation of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, warned in a speech that the mobilizations were "just the beginning". The young people promised to return to the streets as long as they are not heard.
Sources
- Global Voices en Español (CC BY 3.0)
