He Government of Ecuador This Wednesday it reached a truce with the indigenous leaders who were leading the protests against President Daniel Noboa in the northern province of Imbabura, the epicenter of the mobilizations initiated after the elimination of the diesel subsidy.
However, the truce has not been endorsed by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), the largest social organization that called for the “indefinite national strike”, which has assured that they will continue in “the fight” until Noboa and his Government take measures to improve the lives of the indigenous people. In fact, they have already announced that they will maintain road blockades.
So far, and after almost a month of mobilizations, the protests leave three dead from firearms, 350 protesters injured and more than 170 detained, 20 of them in preventive detention on charges of terrorism.
Despite not being a complete truce in the country, which has the highest homicide rate in Latin America, Daniel Noboa’s negotiations are an important step, especially in the northern region, where the largest protests have been concentrated.
In this area the indigenous leaders accepted lift road blocks that had been maintained until 23 days ago in exchange for forming dialogue tables with the Government to address the demands of the population, something that has not been well received by the communities of this province in the north of the Ecuadorian Andes, who demonstrated against these agreements.
The division between indigenous groups is total at the moment. In fact, Conaie has not been part of the conversations carried out in Otavalo, the city that began the strongest riots more than three weeks ago with the attack on a police station and the burning of vehicles parked there.
The announcement of this agreement was given by the representatives of the Union of Indigenous Peasant Organizations of Cotacachi (Unorcac), of the Federation of the Kichwa Peoples of the Sierra Norte of Ecuador (FICI) and the Minister of the Interior, John Reimberg.
In a previous meeting, these groups indigenous people have agreed to lift the blockades in Imbabura in exchange for the Government committing toProperly investigate the deaths of the two deceased protestersa free the protestants sent to preventive detention on charges of terrorism and withdraw the Armed Forces from the province.
Noboa signs a truce with the indigenous people of northern Ecuador after three deaths in protests
“We are not terrorists or lazy”
“We are not terrorists, lazy people or kidnappers. as the Government has said. We are a united people who have always fought for their rights, which must be supported with unity and collectivity,” he stated. the president of Unorcac, Martha Tuquerres.
Although the initial demand of the protests was the elimination of the diesel subsidy decreed by Noboa, the indigenous leaders of Imbabura anticipated that they would be satisfied if the Government accepted freeze the price of this fuelwhich after withdrawing the subsidy went from costing 1.80 to more than 2.80 dollars per gallon (3.78 liters).
For his part, the Minister of the Interior celebrated that “today the strike is lifted, today the roads are opened”, and anticipated that the Government will “immediately work to supply the province”, where from Monday some technical tables will be held to “work together so that this does not happen again.”
Three dead
These agreements were reached after a turbulent start to the week where the Government authorities arrived in Ibarra in a military convoy, called “humanitarian” by the Government, which ruthlessly made its way through the blockades, which led to clashes where the military did not skimp on using tear gas, among other more harmful methods.
In one of these confrontations there was death of José Guamán, 30 years old, who was shot in the chest, according to Conaie, which added to Efrain Fuerez, who died on September 28, during a military offensive against one of the blockades.
The indigenous Confederation also denounced on Tuesday the death of a 62-year-old indigenous woman in the southern province of Loja apparently due to cardiorespiratory arrest caused by tear gas.