During demonstrations, started by an Indigenous federation, roads were blocked and vehicles torched, and police fired teargas
Ecuador has been brought to a near standstill after two weeks of tumultuous protests over a spike in fuel and food prices as global inflation inflames discontent over widening inequality across Latin America.
Conaie’s leader, Leonidas Iza, ruled out dialogue on Friday citing previous failed attempts, even after Ecuador’s conservative president, Guillermo Lasso, tried to table talks last week, according to a letter seen by the Guardian. Clashes broke out in Quito on Thursday night even as the government ceded control of a cultural centre, La Casa de la Cultura, to the Indigenous and peasant farmer protesters who had converged from the Andes and Amazon. It is the same auditorium that the movement occupied inOn Friday, Lasso declared in a televised address that: “Mr Iza’s real intention is to overthrow the government,” adding that the Indigenous leader “can no longer control the situation.
The government’s austerity measures – which include tax hikes and slashing fuel subsidies, part of a $6.5bn deal with the International Monetary Fund – have been worsened by the economic fallout of theand the spiralling costs of fuel, cooking oil, bread and fertiliser, driven by global inflation. “There is a clamour among the people, especially those who don’t have a job,” he said. Unemployment rocketed in the pandemic and recovery has been slow with just 33.2% of Ecuadoreans with formal employment and 22.1% underemployed, according to“It’s very difficult to live when all the prices have risen so much. The fuel prices have gone up, so all the basic products have gone up,” said Terán, adding also that people were angry at the meagre investment in health and education.
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