Ecuador unrest: President imposes curfew on Quito, offers to talk

Announcement came as indigenous leaders agree to direct talks
with Lenin Moreno, while chaos raged on capital’s streets.

As violent protests continue to rock Quito, Ecuadorian President
Lenin Moreno imposed a curfew on the capital and offered talks with
indigenous leaders demonstrating against the government’s austerity
measures.

In a post on Twitter on Saturday, Moreno said he arranged the
curfew and “militarisation” of Quito and the surrounding area to
assist security efforts against what he called “the intolerable
excesses of violence” in the area.

Without giving details of what the militarisation would entail,
Moreno said the curfew would take effect at 3pm (20:00GMT) on
Saturday.

Police have clashed with protesters demonstrating against new
austerity measures that have led to a rise in fuel prices.

The measures angered the country’s politically active indigenous
groups and trade unions, but demonstrations have since broadened
into calls for Moreno to resign.

Al Jazeera’s Manuel Rampalo, reporting from the capital,
described scenes of chaos on the streets of Quito.

“The air is thick with smoke, there are tyres burning, there’s
tear gas in the air … the dynamics of these demonstrations as well
as the dynamics of the response by police changes minute to
minute.

“Emotions are high, the tensions are high, there’s a lot of
anger and with that growing anger, there’s a growing demand from
demonstrators.

“This is no longer about economic policies, this is about a lack
of confidence in the government as a whole,” he said.

Shortly before Moreno’s announcement, the protests’ indigenous
leaders agreed to hold talks with the president.

The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador
(CONAIE) said in a statement posted on Twitter that they had
decided to participate in “direct dialogue” with Moreno a day after
rejecting his offer for talks.

Minutes after the CONAIE statement was released, Quito Mayor
Jorge Machado told local television that the government will
“analyse” the law that ended fuel subsidies.

However, little changed on the ground, with Rampalo saying the
agreement does not guarantee an end to protests.

“Even with the leadership of the indigenous communities, there’s
a split. Not everybody agrees,” he said, adding that people he’d
spoken to have said the situation is already out of control.

Al Jazeera’s Rapalo said it’s uncertain whether the government
will be able to appease protesters at this point.

“The president has called for a dialogue with indigenous leaders
but people we have spoken to here on the streets of Quito say the
time has gone. They are not willing to negotiate.”

“They say that the situation has already gotten out of the
control of the government and there are hundreds more people that
continue to arrive from different parts of the country to lend
their solidarity,” he said.

At least five people have been killed since the demonstrations
began, according to the public defender’s office, while thousands
more have been injured.

Protesters on Saturday blocked road access to the city’s
international airport and set fire to the national auditor’s office
as police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets and
authorities imposed water and power cuts across the city.

Ecuador’s energy minister said on Saturday that closures of oil
wells by protesters had curbed production of more than one million
barrels of crude so far, while a Chinese-owned copper mine
announced it was temporarily limiting its operations as a
precautionary measure.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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