Ecuador protests turn violent, official says

Ecuador’s defense minister warned Tuesday the country’s democracy was at risk as Indigenous protesters attacked the prosecutor’s office and demonstrations against the government and rising fuel prices turned increasingly violent in Quito.

Ecuador’s capital was virtually paralyzed amid increasing signs of food and fuel shortages and reports of clashes between Indigenous protesters and police. In the morning, protesters punctured the wheels of buses, forcing passengers to walk.

In a national broadcast, Defense Minister Luis Lara said the military was watching events with concern amid the “manipulation of social protests and the growth in violence by those who have rejected dialogue.”

Lara said that “these actions go beyond a citizen protest; this amounts to a deliberate effort to use violence to threaten democracy, endanger institutions.”

The violence marked an escalation of protests that began eight days earlier, when the powerful Indigenous Nationalities Confederation called for an indefinite strike to press its demands that President Guillermo Lasso cut fuel prices, put price controls on agricultural products and increase the education budget, among other issues.

Images in local media showed damage to Ecuador’s prosecutor’s office, which is next to a focal point for the protests, Salesiana University.

Officials in the office requested help from the police and military and said they were moving files with sensitive information to a safe location to ensure investigations were not affected.