Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso on Friday declared a state of emergency in three provinces in response to protests by indigenous groups demanding cuts in fuel prices.
Oil producer Ecuador has been hit by rising inflation, unemployment and poverty.
Fuel prices have risen sharply since 2020, almost doubling for diesel from US$1 to US$1.90 per gallon (3.8 liters) and rising from US$1.75 to US$2.55 for gasoline.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Demonstrators from the country’s indigenous community — which makes up more than 1 million of Ecuador’s 17.7 million inhabitants — launched an open-ended anti-government protest this week that has since been joined by students, workers and others.
The demonstrations have blocked roads across the country, including highways leading into the capital, Quito.
Clashes with security forces during the protests have left at least 43 people injured and 37 have been arrested.
Photo: EPA-EFE
In response, Lasso’s decree — which covers Quito — enables the president to mobilize the armed forces to maintain order, suspend civil rights and declare curfews.
“I am committed to defending our capital and our country,” Lasso said on television. “I called for dialogue and the response was more violence. There is no intention to seek solutions.”
The demonstrations have largely been concentrated in the northern region of Pichincha, and neighboring Cotopaxi and Imbabura.
Photo: EPA-EFE
With spears in hand, indigenous Amazonians this week temporarily occupied local government headquarters in the provinces of Pastaza and Morona Santiago.
The country’s armed forces on Twitter condemned “the violent actions carried out by protesters” in Pastaza, saying one person had been left with “fractures and multiple injuries.”
In Quito, nearly 1,000 people tried to tear down metal fences that surround the presidential headquarters.
In a bid to ease grassroots anger, Lasso announced in his address a small increase in a monthly subsidy paid to Ecuador’s poorest people, as well as a program to ease the debt of those who have loans from state-run banks.
Lasso, a former banker who took office a year ago, on Thursday met with indigenous leaders to assuage discontent, but the discussions apparently yielded little result.
Producers of flowers, one of Ecuador’s main exports, complained that due to the roadblocks, their wares were rotting.
However, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), which called for the protests, has said that it would maintain the road blockades until the government meets 10 demands.
CONAIE — which has been credited with helping topple three Ecuadorian presidents between 1997 and 2005 — wants prices reduced to US$1.50 for diesel and US$2.10 for gasoline, a demand that the government has so far rejected.
Its other demands include food price controls and renegotiating the personal bank loans of about 4 million families.
In response to Lasso’s decree, the head of CONAIE, Leonidas Iza, said that the protests would go on “indefinitely.”
“From this moment we prepare the mobilization” of people to Quito to maintain the protests, Iza said, without specifying when the demonstrators would arrive.
The protests have so far caused about US$50 million in damage to the economy, the Ecuadoran Ministry of Production said.
CONAIE has called for an end to the violence.
“Vandalism, confrontation, violence cannot be accepted,” Iza said.
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