Quito, June 25, 2022 (AFP) – In Quito, locals once again faced security forces on Friday, another day of violent demonstrations against rising fuel prices, in what Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso called a coup attempt.
“The real purpose of the violence is to provoke a coup,” the president reproached after three protesters lost their lives trying to enter Congress. In a speech broadcast on national television, Lasso said, “The real intention of Mr. Iza (leader of the protests) is the fall of the government.”
Thousands of indigenous people have returned to face public power today, after a bloody day the previous day. Sirens and explosions were heard as protesters set up barricades and set tires on fire.
Police responded with tear gas and stun grenades to the molotov cocktails, fireworks and stones thrown by the protesters.
The lasso yesterday allowed about 5,000 indigenous people to enter the Casa da Cultura, a symbolic place for indigenous peoples under the control of public power. He wanted to pave the way for talks to demand relief from the rising cost of living with the protest movement that arrived in the capital Quito this week.
But a group of protesters then marched towards Congress and tried to break the military blockade surrounding the area. According to the Alliance of Human Rights Organizations, three people were killed in this conflict and the death toll from the indigenous rebellion reached six.
Authorities reported more than 180 casualties between the army and police and promised to suppress the demonstrations more forcefully.
“We will see if we have to take the next step. We can no longer keep spraying, we have to suppress it with the progressive use of force,” said Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo. The government denied that lethal weapons were used during the demonstrations.
A caravan of taxi drivers had previously toured Quito’s financial centre, demanding the president’s resignation. The semi-paralyzed country is losing $50 million a day.
“If he doesn’t want to talk in the early days, we believe this government is no longer from the people, but represents the big neoliberal companies that are exploiting us,” said Efraín Fueres, a 43-year-old villager concentrated in Casa da Cultura. .
About 14,000 locals protest in the country, but the main focus is Ecuador’s capital of 3 million. Police said today that protesters occupied the Egyptian embassy on the outskirts of Congress and “attacked police officers from the inside with explosive devices.”
Worn out Quito is also the scene of counter-protests. Hundreds of drivers in luxury vehicles drive around the financial center honking their horns and waving white flags. Protesters rallied in support of Lasso, who saw the indigenous mobilizations as an attempt to overthrow him.
In affluent neighborhoods, Ecuadorians are calling for an end to violence. “Racism has intensified, the class struggle has deepened,” local Leonidas Iza, the leader of the demonstrations, told AFP in an interview.
The opposition, which forms a majority in Congress, gathered 47 signatures this Friday to call for the president’s impeachment, in a long process that must garner 92 support for the president’s impeachment. The government has 13 out of 137 seats.
At the same time, the oil industry is collapsing. Due to the confiscation of wells and roads during the protests, the country produces at 54% of its capacity. But the locals are not giving up: “It’s a mobilization for an indefinite period until we get results,” Iza said.
As a starting point, indigenous forces are demanding the lifting of the state of emergency in which soldiers have left their barracks and a night curfew has been declared in Quito.
The parties say they are ready for dialogue, but they do not come to concrete agreements to sit at the table. The UN called for “the urgent initiation of meaningful and well-intentioned dialogue that offers a way out of tension and violence”.
source: Noticias
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