It can three provinces of Ecuador have been declared a state of emergency due to violent incidents during demonstrations for increases in commodity and fuel prices, but the mobilizations continued normally on Saturday.
In defiance of the government of conservative President Guillermo Lasso, the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador (CONAIE), the largest Native American collective in Latin America, continued to block roads in the provinces of Pitsinca (where the capital Quito is located), Ibabura and Kotopaxi.
Yesterday Saturday, Roads remained blocked in 14 of the country’s 24 provincesaccording to the integrated security service ECU911, after the measure was imposed in three provinces.
CONAIE demanded that parliament lift the state of emergencynot to “become an accomplice in the repression against the people”, via Twitter.
His Constitution Equatorial theoretically allows Parliament to annul the presidential decree declaring a state of emergency.
The leading organization in the protest movement demands that the government respond to a list of 10 requirements, in particular to reduce fuel prices to $ 1.5 a gallon (3.8 liters) of diesel and $ 2.1 a gallon of gasoline, which Quito rejects.
Among the other requests it figures the control of food prices and the renegotiation of loans received by banks from some 4 million households.
From the beginning of the mass mobilizations on Monday, in At least 83 people have been injured and 40 arrested in clashes between protesters and security forces.according to the principles and organizations of the natives.
On Friday night, right-wing President Lasso said he was “committed” to “defending our capital and our country”. “This forces me to declare a state of emergency in Pitsinca, Ibabura and Kotopaxi from midnight (local time; at 08:00 yesterday Greek time),” he said during an emergency televised address.
The measure allows the head of state to develop the armed forces to enforce order, to suspend the constitutional rights of citizens, to impose a curfew.
CONAIE, which starred in the 2019 protests, when violent incidents broke out with 11 dead, and also took part in popular uprisings that overthrew three presidents from 1997 to 2005, said the protests would continue until its demands were heard.
Indigenous are over 1 million of the 17.7 million inhabitants of Ecuador.
Leonidas Isa, leader of CONAIE, was in favor of continuing “the struggle at the national level indefinitely”. At the same time, he called for an end to violence and vandalism.
“Phaedra” measures
Fuel prices have risen sharply in Ecuador since 2020, rising from $ 1 to $ 1.9 a gallon of diesel and from $ 1.75 to $ 2.55 a gallon of gasoline.
The protest, in which students and workers have joined forces, has blocked access to Quito’s two main markets and many roads.
With spears in their hands, the natives of the Amazon also temporarily occupied the headquarters of the local authorities in the provinces of Pastasa and Morona Santiago (southeast), near the border with Peru.
In Quito, nearly 1,000 protesters tried to remove metal fences around the presidency.
Flower growers, one of Ecuador’s main exporters, protested the roadblock the day before yesterday, as their produce was in danger of withering.
“75% of flower growers across Ecuador have not been able to send shipments so far,” a flower exporters’ association said via Twitter.
The Ministry of Production estimates that the protests have caused $ 50 million in damage to the economy.
In an attempt to defuse the crisis, President Lasso received a small delegation of some indigenous organizations – except CONAIE – but the talks seem to have borne little fruit.
On Friday night, the one-year-old head of state also announced an increase from $ 50 to $ 55 a month to “improve the situation” of the poorest families, as well as aid to farmers.
Mr. Isa described these measures as “sloppy”, emphasizing that they leave aside “fundamental issues”.
The country is suffering from inflation, unemployment and poverty, problems that have been exacerbated mainly by the new coronavirus pandemic.
In December, poverty affected 27.7% of the population, extreme poverty 10.5%. Rural areas in the provinces are more vulnerable.
Source: News Beast
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