Pro-Youth Protests

It´s pretty clear that while Cuenca is a very liveable city, with relative economic stability, plenty of great bars and restaurants, fairly safe residential neighborhoods, good universities, potable water, and excellent food, there remain many serious social dillemmas. The public schooling situation, for instance, is pretty terrible. The schools receive little funding, and public school teachers receive low pay, so needless to say the quality of education is far lower than that of private schools in the area. The school day is split into two halves, with half of the students taking class in the morning and the rest taking class in the evening due to overcrowding of schools. Not only does this disrupt the traditional Ecuadorian familial bonds, but it puts the evening students in a dangerous situation, with most taking buses or walking home after school. Recently, a young boy was kidnapped while walking home from school during the day. As far as I know, he was returned safely, but the charges against the kidnapper were dropped. This is probably due to the strange enforcement of Ecuadorian laws. For instance, if someone accosts a pedestrian with a knife, demanding money, and the person gives up their money to avoid being stabbed, they legally have not been robbed, they have apparently willingly given up their money. The legal system has many strange loopholes in Ecuador. This kidnapping instance outraged many local students, including those from the Universities of Cuenca and Azuay. I was with a group of friends the other day walking around downtown Cuenca, and we saw a group of something like 40 college students carrying signs and chanting protests against the unjust legal protection for the youth. They carried signs that said "We are the voice of those without voices," and "NO! to abuse of children." It is clear that the Correa administration has a long way to go to improve its protection of human rights.