The mobilizations in Ecuador have also left 92 injured and 94 detained since June 13, according to the Alliance of Organizations for Human Rights. Police register 74 uniformed injured
Indigenous people clashed with the police this Thursday when they tried to violently enter the Ecuadorian Congress, in the center of Quito, after the government’s attempt to open the way for dialogue to resolve the wave of demonstrations that has lasted 11 days and left four dead. .
Demonstrators protesting the cost of living, advanced again on the Ecuadorian capital. At the front marched women with their arms intertwined. Behind, thousands of indigenous people sought to break the uniformed picket guarding the National Assembly.
The policemen reacted with tear gas bombs and stun grenades, while the protesters responded with Molotov cocktails, fireworks rockets and stones.
The clashes, which spread to a neighboring park, left a 39-year-old protester dead from a firearm, according to the Alliance of Human Rights Organizations, which records four victims throughout the crisis.
In the morning, the right-wing president Guillermo Lasso had launched a first gesture of willingness to dialogue: he allowed some five thousand protesters to enter the emblematic House of Culture, a symbolic place for the original peoples that since June 13 was under the control of the public force.
“It is a triumph of the struggle,” celebrated Leonidas Iza, president of the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (Conaie) and leader of the protests.
But the violent incursion outside the Legislature seemed to dissipate the negotiation options, in an exhausted and semi-paralyzed country that counts daily losses of 50 million dollars.
“We make a call to continue weaving the paths that allow us to reconcile peace. Dialogue is the only way that guarantees consensus”, requested Fausto Salinas, Police Commander.
Under the slogan ‘Get out, Lasso, get out’, some 14,000 indigenous people protest in different parts of the country to demand relief for the high cost of living, such as reducing the price of fuel, a moratorium on credits with private banks and subsidizing agricultural products.
“Out Iza”
In Quito, most of the marches are peaceful, but at night riots and clashes with the security forces break out. Some 10,000 indigenous people who have come from their territories have been protesting in the capital of three million inhabitants since Monday.
“I cry to see so many people mistreated by this unhappy government,” Cecilia, an 80-year-old retiree with an Ecuadorian flag and a poster with the slogan “Lasso liar,” lamented to AFP.
Worn out by the explosion, the capital is also the scene of counter-protests. In the afternoons, hundreds of high-end vehicles drive through a financial area blaring their horns. A march of white flags shouts “out Iza, out.”
“Here we are the bums who say that we are, that we are not producing and that is why there is a shortage, because the people of the countryside are here revealed,” said the indigenous leader Nayra Chalán in the middle of the crowd.
Harassed and isolated by covid, the right-wing Lasso has not spoken out on the escalation of protests. The leaders of the demonstrations see in the announcement of contagion a smoke screen to delay the negotiations.
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Violence
Although Quito is the main focus, the protests ignite in the rest of the country, at the request of international organizations to end the violence.
On Wednesday night, some 300 indigenous people forcibly occupied a power plant in southern Ecuador and detained its operators.
The government has not yet reported whether it regained control of the facilities or the fate of the officials. The service was not interrupted.
The mobilizations in Ecuador have also left 92 injured and 94 detained since June 13, according to the Alliance of Organizations for Human Rights. The police registered 74 injured uniformed men.
Lasso considers it unfeasible to comply with the demands of the protesters and describes the protest as an attempt to overthrow him.
Not surprisingly, the country gained a reputation for being ungovernable after the abrupt departure of three presidents between 1997 and 2005 in the face of social pressure.
Reducing fuel prices as the indigenous claim would cost the State more than 1,000 million dollars a year in subsidies, according to official figures.
Without much political backing, Lasso now has the support of the military who have closed ranks around his government.
Infiltrators?
In an attempt to quell discontent, the government has announced other measures to no avail: increasing bonuses for the poorest 30% of the population (from $50 to $55), forgiving debts of up to $3,000 with a state bank for farmers and peasants, among others.
In the midst of the clashes, leader Iza was surprised while giving an interview interrupted by loud gunshots.
“This march was peaceful, let’s not let the people who are damaging this fight, who are damaging this march, infiltrate,” he later warned.
In 2019, indigenous people staged protests that left 11 dead and more than 1,000 injured throughout the country, as well as losses of 800 million dollars.
Oil production fell 42% on Wednesday to about 279,400 barrels per day.
With information from AFP
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