Protests in Ecuador against the doubling of the petrol price brought the country to a standstill for days: 7 people were killed and 1,340 injured.
After weeks of mobilisations, and in particular twelve days of extremely violent popular protests, the government of Ecuador reached an agreement with the demonstrators. On Sunday 13 October, the executive decided to withdraw a decree by which fuel subsidies had been abolished.
It was precisely this decree that triggered the unrest on the streets of the capital Quito. The protests were so widespread and tenacious that they literally brought the country to a standstill, blocking roads, railways, services and public transport. And from 3 October onwards they caused a total of seven deaths, 1,340 injuries and 1,152 arrests, according to a public rights-defence body.
After days and days of barricades and violent clashes between the population and law enforcement, the government had decided to move the seat of the executive to Guayaquil, in the southern part of the country. In Quito, meanwhile, a curfew had been declared and the city had been placed under army control until further notice.
The strikes had also hit numerous productions crucial to the Andean nation, starting with oil output guaranteed by the state-owned company Petroamazonas. Last week the company stood at 165,000 barrels per day, 31 per cent less than its normal output, according to the Ministry of Energy.
It was above all the indigenous community, which represents a quarter of the population, that rose up against the decree, highlighting the social consequences of an immediate and sustained rise in fuel prices, with the cost of a full tank increasing by as much as 123 per cent. Through this increase, the government was aiming to achieve savings of 1.3 billion dollars — the total amount of the subsidies — a demand made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in exchange for a loan of 4.2 billion dollars.
The Catholic Church helped facilitate dialogue between the indigenous peoples, as confirmed by Arnaud Peral, the United Nations representative in Ecuador. For his part, the president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, Jaime Vargas, confirmed that "the mobilisations are called off across the entire national territory".
In a televised address, President Lenin Moreno — a liberal elected on a socialist ticket — used words of reconciliation: "Indigenous brothers, I have always treated you with respect and affection. Harming those with fewer resources, the most vulnerable, has never been our intention." Nevertheless, Vargas highlighted "the improvisation in economic policy" on the part of the executive, stating that "one gets the feeling that it is the right wing and the IMF that are governing the country. We have witnessed unheard-of violence against the people, state terrorism".
