QUITO, (Reuters) – Hopes for a negotiated end to the worst unrest in Ecuador in at least a decade dimmed yesterday as clashes between police and anti-austerity protesters continued for a ninth day in the highland capital Quito.
In a 40-second televised address, President Lenin Moreno proposed direct talks with indigenous leaders who have mobilized thousands of protesters to the streets in the South American country of 17 million.
But chief organizer Jaime Vargas, the head of an umbrella organization for indigenous groups across the country, rejected the proposal within minutes.
“We’re defending the people,” Vargas said in a live Facebook video from the march in Quito.
Vargas reiterated protesters’ demands for Moreno to immediately repeal a law that ended a four-decade old fuel subsidy last week.
Moreno has repeatedly refused to overturn the measure, describing it as a key part of his efforts to reduce the country’s fiscal deficit after he signed a $4.2 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
But opponents say higher fuel prices have pushed up the cost of many consumer goods, hitting indigenous and poor people the hardest.
The unrest has led Moreno’s government to flee the capital for a safer city on the coast and curbed nearly 900,000 barrels of crude production in the OPEC-member nation.
At least four protesters have died and hundreds have been wounded and arrested.
The IMF is unpopular in much of Latin America and leaders have faced pushback on structural changes that the organization has promoted. Argentine President Mauricio Macri was trounced in an August primary vote amid stiff opposition to an IMF deal he signed last year.
