The President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, decreed this Friday (17) a state of emergency in three provinces of the country, including the capital, amid a wave of violent protests that has lasted five days, called by indigenous people who demand, above all, , the reduction of fuel prices.
“I promise to defend our capital and defend the country. This forces me to declare a state of emergency in Pichincha [onde fica a capital, Quito]Imbabura and Cotopaxi from midnight today,” the president said in a televised statement.
In addition to gasoline prices, protesters are protesting for the renegotiation of rural workers’ debts with banks, against unemployment and for the granting of mining licenses in indigenous territories. This Friday, black smoke produced by tires burned by protesters rose over Ruta Viva, one of the access roads to the capital’s international airport.
The state of exception enables the president to mobilize the Armed Forces to maintain internal order, suspend citizens’ rights and decree a curfew.
Under pressure, Lasso also announced economic measures, including an increase from US$ 50 (R$ 257.7) to US$ 55 (R$ 283.45) in economic assistance for low-income families. In addition, the Executive must also subsidize the price of agricultural urea, a fertilizer used in the field, by up to 50% for small and medium-sized producers, and ordered the forgiveness of overdue loans of up to US$ 3,000 (R$ 15,500) granted by the state bank for productive development.
The protests have blocked highways and access to Quito since Monday (13) and left at least 43 injured, including military personnel, and 37 detained.
The demonstrations were concentrated in the Andean provinces of Pichincha and neighboring Cotopaxi, in the south, and Imbabura, in the north of the country, which have a high presence of indigenous people, who represent 1 million of the 17.7 million Ecuadorians.
Earlier, Lasso met with mayors and governors to discuss the situation. He also received a group of indigenous people at the government headquarters to try to negotiate an end to the protests. He also received a hundred indigenous people from the province of Cotopaxi. “We don’t want bloodshed, more vandalism, more violence. Ecuador is a country of peace,” said the secretary of the indigenous organization Unoric, César Pérez, after clashes between protesters and police in recent days.
The country’s most important indigenous organization, Conaie, says it will maintain the protests until the government meets a list of ten demands, which include regulating the price of agricultural products and renegotiating bank debts for 4 million families. The entity participated in revolts that overthrew three presidents of the country between 1997 and 2005.
This Friday, Conaie stated, through its official, Leonidas Iza, that, on his side, “there is no dialogue” with the Executive. In 2019, violent anti-government protests led by the organization left 11 dead and more than 1,000 injured. Iza was even detained in the midst of anti-government acts, accused of paralyzing public transport service by blocking roads.
Flower planters and exporters, one of the country’s main economic activities, said on Twitter that, because of road blocks, “production is being lost, flowers are rotting”. The Ministry of Production estimates that the protests have already caused a loss of US$ 50 million (R$ 257.7 million).
The Catholic Church, the United Nations and universities have already offered to mediate a dialogue between protesters and governments, which Lasso has supported. “This is the way that, within the rule of law, respect for the law and the Constitution, the problems that have accumulated over decades in Ecuador can be resolved,” said the president.
Conaie also calls for an end to the violence in the protests, which have already left ten soldiers and eight police officers injured, as well as 29 protesters arrested. Indigenous people reported 14 injured in incidents. “You cannot accept vandalism, confrontation, violence,” said Iza.
For Simón Pachano, a political scientist at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (Flacso), the indigenous movement “has little political power, but in terms of a social actor that has an influence from informal politics, it is very strong, especially in the Andean mountains.” “, he tells AFP.
In order to contain the demonstrations, in Pachano’s opinion, the government must “have a clear social policy, which serves the most needy sectors. the analyst.
