Quito, June 19 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Protesters taking to the streets for the past two weeks in Ecuador are staunchly divided by ideology, and are permanently separated by police lines.

Green flags flutter in the hands of defenders of the Citizen's Revolution, who are celebrating wealth redistribution policies put forward by the government of President Rafael Correa. Waving black flags and blaring horns on the other side of the police line are opposition protesters. They insist that the two bills presented by the Correa administration, an inheritance tax and a law regulating capital gains, represent state intervention into personal finances.

"The law for capital gains was the straw that broke the camel's back,” opposition protester Grace Almeida told teleSUR English. “We have been resisting and putting up with too many measures, that in this moment we will not accept any more. This is because they are putting their hands in the pockets of citizens."

Though the government has said that the inheritance tax will just affect two percent of the population, and the law for capital gains will only tax property-owners who have benefited excessively from government construction projects, opposition protests continue. Opposition media campaigns are on a mission to persuade Ecuadoreans that the bills will affect the middle class and the poor, which President Correa has consistently refuted.

Earlier, the president had challenged the opposition, saying if anyone can prove that the bills would harm the middle class or the poor, the bills would be permanently discarded. Thus, the two visions of national progress are highly contested in Ecuador. Redistribution of wealth versus personal accumulation, have confronted each other, resulting in violence.
 

With no end in sight, the opposition is demanding a change of government, and said they will continue to do so until these bills, which seek to redistribute wealth, are eliminated from further discussion.