Ecuador: Demonstrations and episodes on the 11th day of the mobilizations

LAST UPDATE: 10:11

Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Thursday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. life to six people now

The incidents, which spread to other parts of the capital, killed three people, according to the Alliance of Human Rights Organizations, which reported three deaths from Monday to Wednesday.

Yesterday, a 39-year-old protester was shot dead, as was a young man who was near him. In Caspigasi, a native was killed in a clash with the military, the Alliance said.

The military said in a statement that its security forces had been “attacked” by a group of rioters in Caspigasi and that 17 soldiers had been seriously injured.

The Alliance of Human Rights Organizations also speaks of 92 injured and 94 arrests since June 13th. Police, for their part, say 74 of its members have been injured.

Earlier in the day, thousands of locals stormed the House of Culture (Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, CCE), which had been occupied by security forces for several days, the AFP news agency reported.

Traditionally, this vast cultural space is a meeting place and gathering of indigenous people in the capital. Free access to the CCE was one of the conditions of the protest movement to start negotiations.

The first “victory of the struggle” was seen, with the megaphone in his hand, by Leonidas Isa, head of the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador (CONAIE), the largest indigenous organization.

The government has finally decided to allow protesters to settle there to promote “dialogue” and “peace”, Presidency Minister Francisco Jimenez explained.

The aim is to “stop roadblocks, violent demonstrations, attacks in various locations,” the minister added, while head of state Guillermo Lasso, who was diagnosed with the new coronavirus on Wednesday, is in isolation.

“Ugly omen”?

A goal that was obviously not achieved, as a large number of protesters, led by women, tried to enter the nearby parliament.

Officers, developed largely on the spot, repelled the protesters by using tear gases and grenades. Participants in the march retaliated by throwing stones, fireworks, Molotov cocktails. The crowd then retreated to a nearby park.

Leonidas Isa, on the spot, spoke of an “ugly omen”, as “we had asked our base to make a peaceful march”.

During the mass demonstrations in 2019, protesters stormed the government headquarters, stormed the parliament for a while, set fire to a tax authority building and attacked the premises of two media outlets. The natives had denied any responsibility, denounced the actions of provocateurs who “infiltrated” their marches.

Some 14,000 people have risen across the country, protesting against rising living costs and mainly demanding lower fuel prices. Police estimate that about 10,000 of them were in the capital Quito yesterday.

Although many of the marches unfold in an atmosphere of calm, if not celebration, episodes often break out after nightfall. The capital is partially paralyzed.

The day before yesterday, some 300 protesters stormed a power plant in the Andes (southern) Tungurahua province, without any reports of serious damage or disruption.

Another condition for CONAIE to start talks is the lifting of the state of emergency imposed in six of the 24 provinces of Ecuador, including the one where the capital is administratively under. The measure allowed the deployment of strong police and army forces and the imposition of a night traffic ban.

The government rejects this request and argues that just satisfying one of the other demands of the protesters, the one for the price of fuel, would cost the state more than one billion dollars a year.

“I’m crying to see all the people being abused by the government,” said Cecilia, an 80 – year – old retiree holding a placard reading “Lasso Liar”.

“They say we are lazy, we do not produce, that is why there are shortages,” said Naira Chalan, a leading indigenous figure who addressed protesters.

The natives left communities in the provinces eleven days ago, but did not arrive in the capital Quito until Monday. Their arrival escalated the bradyfer with the government.

Right-wing President Lasso, in power for a year, sees in the ongoing uprising an attempt to overthrow him. From 1997 to 2005, three Ecuadorian presidents were forced out of office, under pressure from the natives.

In 2019, in the previous wave of mass mobilizations, against the end of the state fuel subsidy, violent clashes broke out with the police, resulting in 11 dead and thousands injured.

The then president Lenin Moreno was forced to take back financial measures that his government had negotiated with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

President Lasso, however, can count on the support of the military leadership, which warned the protesters on Tuesday, arguing that the mass mobilizations pose a “serious threat” to democracy in the Latin American country.

SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ