Ecuador: Thousands of people defy state of emergency

The protesters responded to the call of indigenous organizations to protest the rise in the price of fuels. Road dams have been erected in several provinces of the country.

Le Monde with AFP

A few thousand people parade, Tuesday, October 26, in Quito and roadblocks were erected in several Ecuador provinces for the call of indigenous organizations to denounce the government’s economic policy, despite the state of emergency decreed to fight against insecurity.

In the capital, the event organized by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (conaides) members of unions, natives and students. It brought together 1,500 people, according to Police Colonel César Zapata.

“I came for my three children who have been unemployed since last year. They help me eat and we all suffer, we are desperate,” said France-Press (AFP) Maria Elena Ponce, a 58-year-old housewife.

At the end of the afternoon, clashes erupted not far from the presidency between the police and a few dozen protesters who launched stones. The police, deployed in number, replicated by launching tear gas.

The police also used tear atmosphere to disperse protesters who blocked roads on the periphery of the capital. At least 18 people were arrested, according to the authorities. A protester was injured, noted AFP.

Since the morning, barricades have been erected on roads in at least five of the twenty-four provinces of the country, including that of the Capital, according to the National Rescue Operational Center.

Call to Fuel price gel

In the Central Andean region, a dam was drawn up at the entrance of Zumbahua, a predominantly indigenous city located 165 km from Quito. The protesters prohibited the passage with blocks of stone and burned tires, found AFP.

“We launched this call to reject all that the national government imposes. It does not accept the proposals, the dialogue of social organizations, indigenous organizations,” denounced at AFP Julio César Pilalumbo, Community Manager in Zumbahua.

Blocking actions are intended to push President Guillermo Lasso to return to the price of 12% of the price of fuels.

The government needs to “freeze fuel prices at 1.50 dollar for diesel and $ 2 for gasoline,” said Leonidas Iza, the president of the conaie, in an interview at AFP.

“Paralysis represents economic losses for small businesses, which are the livelihood of thousands of families and Ecuadorian households. Say #non to the strike for the reactivation and prosperity of the whole country”, reacted The President on Twitter.

An explosive climate

The call for mobilization occurs in an already explosive climate in the country of 17.7 million inhabitants, of which 7.4% of natives: flabby insecurity because of the war of gang for control Juicy cocaine market and the economy struggles to get up the consequences of COVID-19. Poverty strikes about 47% of the population.

The price of fuel is a frequent subject of discord between Ecuadorian governments and Aboriginal groups. In 2019, the conaie had forced President Lenin Moreno (2017-2021) to make back machine on the total suppression of public subsidies to fuels. Twelve days of violent demonstrations resulted in 11 dead.

At the difference in 2019, Tuesday’s demonstrations take place within the framework of a 60-day emergency state decreed by the power to combat violence related to drug trafficking, which mobilizes the army in the streets to support the police in its operations.

Nestled between Colombia and Peru, Ecuador is a rotating plate of narcotrafic because of its permeable borders, its dollar-dependent economy and its major export seaports.

/Media reports.