A new violent incident threatens to destroy the first agreements reached at the negotiating table between the Ecuadorian government and the top leaders of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE), headed by Leonidas Iza.
The Armed Forces confirmed on Tuesday the armed attack by an unknown group on a military convoy guarding the transfer of 17 diesel tankers from the Amazonian city of Shushufindi to the ITT oil block, located in the same area.
product of the fact, death occurred Army Sergeant José Chimarro. In addition, seven other members of the Army and five of the National Police were injured. The destruction of a vehicle of the public company Petroecuador was also reported.
In a brief statement to the press this Tuesday morning, the head of the Joint Command, General Nelson Proaño, asserted that “the Ecuadorian Armed Forces strongly reject these terrorist acts, carried out by armed groups, outside the law, as well as as well as solidarity with the relatives of our deceased and with those injured in this violent attack, which mourns the military institution and the country.
This incident is not the only one of concern in the midst of the paralysis, which reached its 16th on Tuesday. In recent days, multiple obstacles have been reported to the passage of ambulances, supplies for hospitals and food, which threatens greater shortages than expected. It is already beginning to be noticed in the big cities.
In Quito, for example, with the beginning of the week the difficulties for the delivery of gas cylinders for domestic use became evident. This forced the capital municipality to include the issue in the permanent table that it maintains activated in the Emergency Operations Committee, which monitors the strike and its effects on the city on a daily basis.
Food shortages also add to the multiple problems that this stoppage of activities and street protests leave for Quito: areas seriously affected by violence, where sticks were uprooted, cobblestones were removed from the streets and stones were used, mainly, to attack members of the public force and damage to public and private real estate.
Until Monday, the municipality recorded more than 27,000 tons of garbage and debris collected, an unusual figure and higher than usual.
Added to this are blockades on some of the main streets and avenues, where there have been attacks on drivers and passers-by and threats of damage to vehicles, if cash is not delivered to violent people, which have suddenly appeared these days.
A similar situation is observed in the Andean city of Cuenca, located about 450 kilometers from the Ecuadorian capital. Its mayor, Pedro Palacios, affirmed on Monday night, through Twitter, that there was no access to the city and that this prevented “the arrival of supplies such as oxygen, gas, fuel, food…”. Although he recognized the right to protest, he drew attention to the difficulties in moving around freely, due to blockades on streets and avenues.
Far from the street protests and the multiple demonstrations in the streets, in the Basilica of the National Vote and with the mediation of the Catholic Church, the dialogue between representatives of the government of Guillermo Lasso, led by Minister Francisco Jiménez, and CONAIE, headed by its owner, Leonidas Iza, suffered a sudden stop this day, once the news of the armed attack on the military convoy was confirmed. Just a day before it was completed, amid enormous pressure from different sectors of the country that ask to return to normality.
In a short announcement, the president advanced -this noon- suspension of talks with Iza and asserted that “he only defends his political interests.” Lasso also said that his government will return to the talks when “there are legitimate representatives of all the indigenous peoples and nationalities of Ecuador, who seek true solutions and are open to real and frank dialogue.”
CONAIE, in an immediate response to the Ecuadorian president, demanded “respect for its maximum leader” and accused the government of “authoritarianism, lack of will and inability.”
But the mobilization of CONAIE is not the only problem Lasso faces these days. The National Assembly debates, in parallel, a proposal from the UNES political movement, whose maximum leader is former President Rafael Correa, so that 92 votes are reached, out of 137 assembly members, and thus advance elections.
Lasso also sent a message to legislators this day, in an attempt to get closer and thus prevent more wills from joining. “I call on the assembly members to fulfill their responsibility to the Ecuadorian people. This is not a call to defend a person, or a political project, or a government. It is a call to defend the country from this coup attempt,” Lasso said.
More than two weeks after the start of one of the worst political crises in Ecuador’s recent history, anything could happen in the next few hours.
Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channel Youtube and turn on notifications, or follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Add Comment