Thu 10 October 2019:
The violence broke out as thousands of people representing indigenous groups, farmers, students and labor unions marched on a square in Quito’s historic center near the government headquarters.
Masked demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails and paving stones. Clouds of tear gas and palls of black smoke from burning tires rose over the colonial downtown area, a UNESCO world heritage site.
After clashes broke out in the area Tuesday, the government of President Lenin Moreno posted security forces to keep the march from reaching the plaza.
Protesters on Wednesday broke off from the main procession and hurled rocks at riot police, who fought back with volleys of tear gas and water cannon.
Several people were injured in the clashes.
The protesters are demanding that Moreno reinstate fuel subsidies that were rescinded after $4.2 billion in loans was agreed with the IMF.
“Without a doubt, this is going to be solved very soon,” Moreno said in a video broadcast on state television following the day’s violence.
But indigenous leader Salvador Quishpe said the “demonstration is ongoing, it has not ended.”
Thousands meanwhile gathered in the port city of Guayaquil some 170 miles (270 kilometers) southwest of Quito, in protest at the demonstrations in the capital.
“Democracy will not fall in the streets of Guayaquil!” the city’s mayor Cynthia Viteri told the crowd, most of whom were dressed in white in a pro-peace display.
“Our country’s economy has to move forward,” said 60-year-old shopkeeper Patricia Castillo, defending the government’s fuel price hikes.
The unrest threatened to inflict wider damage on an already weakened economy.
The energy ministry announced it was shutting down one of the country’s two domestic oil pipelines, effectively suspending two-thirds of its distribution of crude.
“Due to this shutdown, we are analyzing the possibility of declaring force majeure,” to avoid the country incurring penalties for postponing crude shipments, the ministry said in a statement.
Protesters seized three oil facilities in the Amazon earlier this week.
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