In early October 2019, thousands of Ecuadorians took to the streets to protest against the IMF-sponsored austerity politics of the Moreno government. The trigger for the protest was the sudden removal of fuel subsidies, which reduced the cost of transport and the price of essential goods. In Quito, the capital, members of indigenous, student, transport, teacher and labour movements flooded the narrow streets and expansive plazas of the centro histórico and occupied public spaces throughout the city. Elsewhere in the Andes, indigenous protesters blocked the Panamericana, the undulating highway that connects Ecuador to Colombia in the north, and Peru in the south. Boulders, rocks, trees, and tyres were strewn across the road at strategic points to regulate the circulation of people, goods, and vehicles. Meanwhile, thousands of indigenous peoples from across the Andes marched along the Panamericana to Quito, before occupying El Arbolito park; close to the National Assembly–a symbolic site of state power. Faced with escalating state repression, indigenous protesters sought refuge in the Casa de la Cultura, a glittering modernist building constructed in the 1940s to promote cultural activity and forge national identity. Inside, drawing on long-established practices, the protesters formed their own assembly to deliberate and strategise. The scale and intensity of the protests forced the Moreno government to backdown, reinstate the fuel subsidies, and enter into dialogue with representatives of social movements. Yet the protest came at terrible human cost, with state violence leaving at least eleven protesters dead and thousands more injured. Similar scenes unfolded across Latin America in late 2019 as waves of protests brought the decade to a tumultuous close. The causes, sites, and tactics of these