Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Tuesday escaped injury after his car was attacked by a crowd throwing rocks, in what a top minister said was an assassination attempt that had left signs of bullet damage on the vehicle.
Ecuadoran Minister of Environment and Energy Ines Manzano, who filed a formal report of an assassination attempt on the president, said five people were detained after Noboa’s motorcade was surrounded by about 500 protesters throwing stones.
Noboa’s office said those arrested would be processed under charges of terrorism and attempted assassination. Reuters could not independently verify whether a bullet was fired at the president’s car during the protest, which was over the president’s removal of fuel subsidies last month.
Photo: Ecuadoran Presidency via AFP
Speaking afterward at a student event in Cuenca, Noboa said his government would not tolerate such actions.
“Do not follow the bad example of those who wanted to stop us from attending this event with you and who tried to attack us,” he said. “Such attacks will not be accepted in the new Ecuador and the law applies to everyone.”
“Shooting at the president’s car, throwing stones, damaging state property — that’s just criminal,” Manzano said. “We will not allow this.”
However, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) said that orchestrated violence had broken out against people who mobilized for Noboa’s arrival, saying elderly women were among those attacked in a “brutal police and military action.”
“At least five of us have been arbitrarily detained,” it wrote on X, alongside a video of a woman in traditional clothing being marched off by four police officers in body armor, their faces covered by black bandanas.
CONAIE launched strike action 16 days ago, organizing marches and blockading some roads, in a protest against the government ending diesel subsidies. Critics say further dialogue is needed and that the measure will increase the cost of living particularly for small-scale farmers and indigenous communities.
Noboa signed the executive decree eliminating subsidies in the middle of last month, and his government declared emergency measures in several provinces to maintain order.
The government has defended ending the subsidy, which it said will free up US$1.1 billion a year that it has already begun to redistribute in compensation payments to small-scale farmers and people working in the transport sector.
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