QUITO, Ecuador – For more than a week, the Andean nation of Ecuador has at times been hit by violent protests over rising prices for fuel, food and other basic necessities, driven by global inflation. cause similar frustration. Latin America.
The country’s capital, Quito, was largely paralyzed by protesters blocking main roads, burning tires and clashing with police, hurling rocks at officers who responded by firing tear gas. Clashes broke out again on Thursday.
The marches and protests, led by Indigenous groups, pose a significant challenge to the right-wing government of President Guillermo Lasso, who is struggling to revive the economy. battered by the pandemic.
Protests began last week in rural Ecuador when a powerful group, the Federation of Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador, or Conaie, announced a strike and issued a list of demands, including price cuts. fuel, control the prices of some agricultural commodities and spend more. about learning.
Since then, protests have expanded to Quito and other parts of the country.
The unrest has left at least three people dead and nearly 100 injured, according to figures compiled by the Coalition of Human Rights Organs, a national group, and prompted Lasso to declare a state of emergency in six cities. of the 24 provinces of Ecuador.
In the country’s Amazon region, the government says it has lost control of the small city of Puyo to protesters wielding guns, spears and explosives. Government officials also reported that 18 officers were missing from the clashes, and that others were injured.
“We cannot guarantee public safety in Puyo right now, they have burned the entire police infrastructure and the entrance to the city is under siege,” Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo told reporters. member on Tuesday.
The turmoil in Ecuador reflects rising levels of inflation that add to the challenges of a country where the pandemic has exacerbated chronic poverty and inequality. More than 32 percent of the population lives in poverty, earning less than $3 a day.
Similar moves have sparked outrage across Latin America, from Chile to Peru to Honduras, with citizens demanding that governments find ways to reduce the cost of everyday goods.
Read more about oil and gas prices
Leonidas Iza, leader of Conaie, said: “Ecuadorians are facing poverty. “There is inequality and injustice, and what has awakened in the people of Ecuador is outrage.”
Human rights groups have criticized Mr. Guillermo Lasso for using what they say are heavy-handed tactics against protesters, including excessive force and arbitrary detention.
Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s regional director for the Americas, said: “President Lasso’s unfortunate decision to crack down on protests is causing a human rights crisis.
Government officials said they were willing to discuss concerns raised by protest leaders, but added that the country could not tolerate violence.
Juan Carlos Holguín, Ecuador’s foreign minister, said in an interview: “Don’t confuse the right to a legitimate protest with protest against violence. “They have caused chaos, terror and deaths in our country.”
Some protesters say the government has failed to address the increasingly dire plight of many people in the country who are struggling to provide for their families.
“We are here because everything is too expensive and it affects us, the poor,” said María Ashca, a farmer who came to Quito from the small village of Guanto Chico, south of the capital. on Wednesday.
She stood in a peaceful group of hundreds who were chanting, blowing trumpets and waving Ecuadorian Indigenous flags and rainbows.
Rising global oil prices have benefited Ecuador as fuel is one of the country’s main exports, said Nora S. Brito, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said. International Crisis Group, said, but so far that has not come down to those who need it most.
“When oil prices go up, you see more money in the country which means more investment. You see the government building hospitals, schools, roads,” Ms. Brito said. “But we haven’t seen that with this government yet.”
Mr. Holguín said the government, in power since last year, has been doing its best to provide its citizens, including vaccinating millions against Covid-19 in a short time.
However, he also said the government can only do so much to solve problems that have plagued the country for generations.
“Within a year in office, structural issues cannot be changed,” Mr. Holguín said. “But our government is well on its way to providing the welfare we all need.”
The government has publicly contacted Conaie, but the organization refuses to hold discussions, saying it does not want to talk until the state stops responding to the protests with violence and agrees to their requirements.
Conaie team leader Iza said in an interview that the group was “ready to fight back until we have a response from the government”.
Mr. Holguín would not comment on the government’s position on a key need – using subsidies to lower gas prices.
The United Nations, the European Union and several embassies have urged both sides to reach a compromise.
While many protests have been peaceful, some have turned to looting, with protesters punching through the wheels of public buses and shooting at soldiers and police, according to the government.
Two people died According to the Health Ministry, when ambulances were used to transfer them from one hospital to another, they were blocked by protesters.
The protests have caused more Economic damage $110 millionaccording to the government.
Police officers in riot gear fired tear gas at protesters, leading to the death of one protester, who rights groups say was shot in the head by a tear gas canister. Police say the man was handling an explosive device that blew up.
The protests are the largest the country has seen since 2019, when tens of thousands of people marched on Quitoasked the government to restore a longstanding subsidy on oil prices that the government says is worth $1.4 billion a year.
Mr. Lasso’s predecessor, Lenín Moreno, reinstated the subsidy and then switched to a pricing system that varied according to the global market.
After fuel prices began to rise last year, Mr. Lasso ordered them to be fixed, but Indigenous and other groups said the prices were still too high.
Inkarri Kowii, a sociologist and analyst in Quito, said the widespread nature of the protests suggested the country could face a prolonged period of unrest.
“It looks like we will see further escalation,” he said. “This level of violence in Ecuadorian society is showing that we are completely fractured.”
María Sibe, 30, also from the village of Guanto Chico, was among a group of protesters in Quito on Wednesday who said high fuel prices for farm machinery had made it difficult to earn a living.
“The things we need to buy are too expensive,” she said.
José María León Cabrera reported from Quito, Ecuador, and Megan Janetsky reported from Bogotá.
