Ecuador celebrated a deal Ecuadoran President Lenin Moreno and indigenous leaders struck late on Sunday to cancel a disputed austerity package and end nearly two weeks of protests that have paralyzed the economy and left seven dead.
Under the agreement, Moreno would withdraw the IMF-backed package known as Decree 883 that included a sharp rise in fuel costs, and indigenous leaders would call on their followers to end protests and street blockades.
“Comrades, this deal is a compromise on both sides,” Moreno said. “The indigenous mobilization will end and Decree 883 will be lifted.”
Photo: AFP
The two sides plan to work together to develop a new package of measures to cut government spending, increase revenue and reduce Ecuador’s unsustainable budget deficits and public debt.
In the park that was the epicenter of the protesters, demonstrators armed with wooden sticks and improvised shields shouted: “We did it!”
“I’m so happy I don’t know what to say. I don’t have words, I’m so emotional. At least God touched the president’s heart,” demonstrator Rosa Matango said. “I am happy as a mother, happy for our future. We indigenous people fought and lost so many brothers, but we’ll keep going forward.”
Caravans of cars early yesterday roamed the streets honking in celebration, passengers shouting, banging pots and waving Ecuadorian flags.
“The moment of peace, of agreement, has come for Ecuador,” said Arnaud Peral, the UN’s resident coordinator in Ecuador and one of the mediators of the nationally televised talks, which started at about 6pm.
“This deal is an extraordinary step,” Peral said.
Wearing the feathered headdress and face paint of the Achuar people of the Amazon rainforest, Confederation of Indigenous Nations president Jaime Vargas thanked Moreno and demanded improved long-term conditions for indigenous Ecuadorians.
“We want peace for our brothers and sisters in this country,” Vargas said. “We don’t want more repression.”
Protests over the austerity package have blocked roads, shuttered businesses from dairies to flower farms and halved Ecuador’s oil production, forcing a temporary halt to the country’s most important export.
In a shift from the heated language of the last 10 days of protests, each side at the negotiations praised the other’s willingness to talk as they outlined their positions in the first hour before a short break.
Other demands from indigenous groups included higher taxes on the wealthy and the firing of the interior and defense ministers over their handling of the protests.
“From our heart, we declare that we, the peoples and nations, have risen up in search of liberty,” Vargas said. “We recognize the bravery of the men and women who rose up.”
Earlier in the day, hundreds of black-clad riot police drove protesters out of north-central Quito’s Arbolito Park and into surrounding streets.
The park had filled on Friday with mostly peaceful protesters chanting against the government, but by Sunday afternoon the air was white with smoke from burning tires and tear gas after more than 24 hours of clashes between police and hard-core protesters with sticks and shields of satellite dishes or plywood.
Adjoining streets were piled high with burned tires, tree branches and paving stones.
The public ombudsman’s office on Sunday said that seven people had died in the protests, 1,340 had been hurt and 1,152 arrested.
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