Violent clashes between indigenous protesters and police erupted for the time being in the Ecuadorian capital on Friday, when the country’s president accused protesters of attempting a coup.
Nearly two weeks after protests began that left six dead and dozens injured, thousands of protesters angered by rising fuel costs threw stones, Molotov cocktails and fireworks near the congress building in Quito.
Security forces pushed back protesters with tear fuel and clashes even though everything stopped late at night, Agence France-Presse reporters said at the scene.
Photo: AP
“The real objective of these other violent people is to carry out a coup d’état,” Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso said Friday in a speech in which he again proposed a discussion to end the protests.
An estimated 14,000 protesters are taking part in a national protest of discontent over growing difficulties in an economy hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most of the anger is concentrated in the capital Quito, where some 10,000 people have gathered, at most from other parts of the country.
The two sides accused the other of intransigence on Friday, as the protests entered their 12th day.
“They were unmasked. They don’t need to negotiate. They don’t need to agree. . . They don’t need peace. So far the only thing they have shown is that they need violence,” said Ecuadorian Government Minister Francis. Jimenez told FM Mundo radio.
Six of the country’s 24 provinces are in a state of emergency and there is a nighttime curfew in Quito.
Protesters do not easily find relief in the prices of already subsidized fuels, which have risen sharply in recent months, as well as in jobs, controls on the value of food and increased public spending on health and education.
However, the action was costly, with losses of around $50 million per day for the economy, and fuel production, Ecuador’s biggest export, was cut in half, the Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources said.
On Thursday, protesters received a concession from Lasso that granted them access, “for the sake of discussion and peace,” to a cultural center emblematic of the indigenous struggle that had been requisitioned through the police.
However, a few hours later, a group of protesters made their way to the Ecuadorian Congress, where police threw tear fuel in reaction to an avalanche of stones, fireworks and Molotov cocktails.
Three other people were killed in clashes on Thursday, bringing to six the death toll since the march began on June 13 at the initiative of the tough Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE).
CONAIE leader Leonidas Iza said it will continue “until we have results. We can no longer contain people’s anger. “
People are desperate, says Iza.
“We expected the president to respond to the central problems of the crisis, the poverty that our other people are experiencing. The economic factor is a matter of desperation, that’s why we’re here,” he said. “There is a lot of poverty, the accumulation in the value of fuel has raised all values, and we, the poorest, are the ones who suffer the most. “