The group has protested for workers' rights, and against increased bureaucratic policing and government displacement of communities from economic infrastructure such as mining. Taking inspiration from the Shining Path, PCE-SR advocates for the peasant seizure of farmlands, electoral boycotting, and violence against state institutions.[12]
History
PCE-SR was founded in 1993 by Comrade Joselo and initially drew a large membership from the defunct guerrilla organization ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo!. The ideological basis for the PCE-SR originates from the Peruvian Shining Path with the aspiration of implementing the contributions of Gonzalo Thought to the conditions of Ecuador.[13]
In 2007, a documentary titled Alfaro Vive Carajo: Del Sueño al Caos (From Dream to Chaos) was released which gave testimonies by former AVC members. In response, PCE-SR criticized Santiago Kingman for allegedly distorting the guerrilla struggle and capitulating to the government.[14]
In 2010, Puka Inti took involvement in the 2010 political crisis in Ecuador, as well as a mining conflict in the canton of Paquisha, which left five injured and several detained. It also gave critical input into the MOVER movement, women revolutionary movements, and the Arab Spring.[15][16]
Puka Inti has been accused of being a direct puppet of Shining Path, though it asserts that it is only a supporter of Gonzalo Thought and of the broader international Maoist movement.[17] In November 2011, the PCE-SR gave condolences to the death of Maoist leader Molajula Koteswar Rao, "Kishenji", after he was killed in a false confrontation with authorities in West Bengal.[18][19] The PCE-SR began calling for electoral boycotts in response to the 2013 presidential elections.[20] That same year, they spoke out against the murder of union leader Milton Enrique Parras in the town of Puerto Guzmán.[21]
In June 2015, PCE-SR condemned the death of New People's Army commander Leoncio Pitao (Ka Parango), after he was killed in a confrontation in Davao City.[24][25]
On 3 March 2012, 10 alleged members of the far-left Group of Popular Combatants (the armed wing of the Marxist–Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador) were arrested on charges of subversion and terrorism. The PCE-SR condemned this as an escalation of repression by the Ecuadorian state. The case itself, which became known as the Luluncoto 10, would become controversial over the process of criminalizing political groups as terrorist organizations.[26][27]