Monos and Longos

Apart from all that, there also exists a big division between the people living in the Highlands and the people on the coast. Both regions have their own economic and historical interests, which clash often and produce frictions. Apart from a healthy rivalry, there is a deep seated mistrust between the two regions with both thinking mostly for their own benefit instead of the country's good. The coast being an export oriented region dislikes the interventions of the central government seated in Quito, which they often consider against their commercial interests. In the last years an independent movement for more autonomy started in Guayaquil and spread then to other coastal provinces. The idea is to wrest power from the centralized government and transfer it to their own provincial ones but if this will happen in the future still has to be seen as there are powerful interests against it.