Oil output hit in Ecuador
Govt forced to suspend deliveries as protests worsen
QUITO: Protesters in Ecuador fought a running battle with security forces in a second day of violent demonstrations over a fuel price hike that forced the government to suspend most of the country’s deliveries of crude oil.
The violence broke out as thousands of people representing indigenous groups, farmers, students and labour unions marched on a square in Quito’s historic centre near the government headquarters.
Masked demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails and paving stones. Clouds of tear gas and palls of black smoke from burning tyres rose over the colonial downtown area, a Unesco world heritage site.
After clashes broke out in the area on Tuesday, the government of President Lenin Moreno posted security forces to keep the march from reaching the plaza.
Protesters on Wednesday broke off from the main procession and hurled rocks at riot police, who fought back with volleys of tear gas and water cannon.
Several people were injured in the clashes.
The protesters are demanding that Moreno reinstate fuel subsidies that were rescinded after US$4.2bil (RM17.6bil) in loans was agreed with the IMF.
“Without a doubt, this is going to be solved very soon,” Moreno said in a video broadcast on state television following the day’s violence.
But indigenous leader Salvador Quishpe said the “demonstration is ongoing, it has not ended”.
Thousands meanwhile gathered in Guayaquil, some 270km southwest of Quito, in protest at the demonstrations in the capital. “Democracy will not fall in the streets of Guayaquil!” the city’s mayor Cynthia Viteri said.
“Our country’s economy has to move forward,” said 60-year-old shopkeeper Patricia Castillo, defending the government’s fuel price hikes.
Discussions with leaders of the powerful indigenous umbrella organisation CONAIE also took place in Guayaquil, where Moreno moved his government operations on Monday due to the ongoing disturbances in the capital.
“There is dialogue with the brother indigenous peoples who unfortunately have needs,” Moreno said.
He also offered to free up resources for those hit hard by the rise in fuel prices.
The unrest threatened to inflict wider damage on an already weakened economy.
The energy ministry announced it was shutting down one of the country’s two domestic oil pipelines, effectively suspending twothirds of its distribution of crude oil.