Indigenous Ecuadorans block roads with rocks and burning tires to protest soaring fuel prices as the country grapples with a state of emergency and battles challenges on multiple fronts
Ecuadorans march against economic measures imposed by the government, including fuel price hikes, amid a state of emergency, in Quito, on October 26, 2021.
In at least one location, police launched gas canisters in a standoff with demonstrators, and the office of rightist President Guillermo Lasso said 18 arrests had been made by afternoon.The unrest comes as Ecuador simultaneously battles economic collapse worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, widespread popular discontent, violent crime blamed on drug gangs, and corruption allegations against Lasso, an ex-banker whose center-right economic policies are viewed with suspicion by many.
"We will resist and we will not give in to any repression," he said at a roadblock in Zumbahua in central Ecuador, where poncho-wearing women armed with spades and sticks helped men move large stones to block traffic. Protesters under the umbrella of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador want the price capped at $1.50 for diesel and $2 for petrol.Conaie is credited with helping topple three presidents between 1997 and 2005, and in 2019 led successful protests against the government's scrapping of fuel subsidies.
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