Urban inequality and protests in Ecuador and Chile

Mobility is a multifaceted concept with social, economic and political implications. Spatial mobility, inequality and precarity intertwine. This article reflects on the role of mobility and precarity and the emergence of protests in both Ecuador and Chile in 2019. We argue that the announced increases in transport and fuel costs in Chile and Ecuador unveiled the obstacles to mobility and the degree of existing inequalities. Whereas protests emerged as a response to the announcement of a reduction in fuel subsidies and the possible increases in the costs of transport, they reflec something deeper related to the vulnerability of the livelihoods of segments of the population; this in spite that both Chile and Ecuador observe improvements in poverty and inequality indicators. Undertaking a more dissagregated analysis of the effects of reduction in fuel subsidies or increases in metro tickets we find that mobility correlates with a pattern of structural marginalisation that perpetuates inequality, which is not necessarily visible to aggregate economic indicators.