one dead, 12 soldiers injured and attacks on the presidential car

One protester dead, 12 soldiers injured and 17 arrested is the balance of the protests, which have lasted a week, called by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (Conaie) of Ecuador against the elimination of diesel subsidy by the Government of Daniel Noboa.

To this we must add Government accusations about “ambush” on a convoy in which the president of Ecuador was traveling together with a diplomatic delegation and the indigenous complaints of “repression” by the police and the Army.

The strength of these protests puts Noboa on the ropesafter the indigenous movement already managed to get other presidents, like Lenín Moreno and Guillermo Lasso, reverse their plans to eliminate state subsidies for fossil fuels.

The Andean province of Imbabura remains the epicenter of the protests, where on Monday a thousand protesters attacked a police building in Otavalo, damaging its facilities and set fire to 10 police and private vehicles.

Several people were arrested after that attack, including 12 indigenous people who are prosecuted for terrorism, as well as two Venezuelans, who the Government believes belong to the transnational criminal gang Tren de Aragua, which the Government classifies as “terrorist.”

The Government Minister, Zaida Rovira, who called these acts “terrorist”, has denounced that a group of protesters “ambushed” a convoy carrying aid to the northern zone early this Sunday.

“Let’s not confuse peaceful protesters with those who infiltrate to commit crimes. What happened in Cotacachi was not a protest: it was a cowardly ambush carried out by criminal structures – terrorists – that attacked our Armed Forces,” he said.

And he added: “With the protesters, dialogue and guarantees. With organized crime, law and firmness.”

The Spanish Embassy in Ecuador has already asked its compatriots not to travel to areas where there are protests.

a dead

Conaie, the organizer of the demonstrations against the elimination of the diesel subsidy, denounced this Sunday “the death of Efraín Fuerez, indigenous community member of Cuicocha, Imbabura, killed by a gunshot wound of the FFAA (Armed Forces)”.

Neither the Presidency, the Police or the Ministry of the Interior, when consulted by the press, have commented on the complaint by Conaie, the largest social organization in the country.

“We reject the lethal use of force by the Armed Forces against indigenous community members,” he said.

This Sunday, Conaie also denounced “repression” in the town of La Esperanza (Imbabura) and published videos of a extensive military deployment in response to the protests.

Likewise, there have been reports of blocks and limitations in the internet signal in communities of Cotacahi and Otavalo, and published videos of indigenous mobilizations in the province of Bolívar.

The Ibarra Drinking Water Company (capital of Imbabura) indicated that “due to the breakdown of the distribution network, located under the Rumipamba bridge, as a result of the demonstrations, several sectors of the Caranqui parish have low pressures and/or suspensions of the drinking water service.”

The company’s emergency teams are trying to “enter the site to repair the damage without success so far,” he added.

Elimination of diesel subsidy

The trigger for these protests, which so far have been registered in some five of the country’s 24 provinces, was the elimination of diesel subsidy decreed two weeks ago by Noboa, so the price of this fuel It went from 1.80 to 2.80 dollars per gallon (3.78 liters).

Conaie demands that the detainees be released and that the decree with which the subsidy was eliminated be repealed, but the president, Daniel Noboa, remains firm in his measure under the argument that the 1.1 billion dollars of that subsidy for the State are already being delivered to the most vulnerable sectors.

Likewise, he points out that by eliminating the subsidy hits criminal groups linked to drug trafficking and illegal mining.

The indigenous movement already led the massive protests in 2019 and 2022 that led to the presidents Lenin Moreno (2017-2021) and Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023) to backtrack when they also wanted to eliminate state fuel subsidies to meet the fiscal adjustment goals of the credit programs signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).