- Title: Violent protests over fuel price rise are ending - Ecuador President
- Date: 4th October 2019
- Summary: QUITO, ECUADOR (OCTOBER 03, 2019) (REUTERS) PROTESTERS THROWING OBJECTS TOWARD POLICE RIOT POLICE ON DUTY, OFFICER FIRING TEAR GAS CANISTER GENERAL VIEW OF LONE PROTESTER ON STREET AMIDST DEBRIS TEAR GAS IN STREET, RIOT POLICE OFFICER THROWING OBJECT IN DIRECTION OF PROTESTERS RIOT POLICE ON STREET, OFFICER LAUNCHING TEAR GAS CANISTER RIOT POLICE ON DUTY
- Embargoed: 18th October 2019 04:16
- Keywords: President Lenin Moreno protests Ecuador Quito Guayaquil fuel economic reforms
- Location: QUITO + GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR
- City: QUITO + GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR
- Country: Ecuador
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Civil Unrest
- Reuters ID: LVA001AZOL5QF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Protests caused by the elimination of fuel subsidies are ending, Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno said on Thursday (October 03), after their removal sparked the Andean oil producer's worst civil unrest in years.
"The areas of violence are being controlled almost totally," he told reporters in the coastal city of Guayaquil, praising the armed forces and police for restoring order.
With the fuel subsidy cut taking effect on Thursday, taxi, bus and truck drivers blocked streets from early morning in the highland capital Quito and in Guayaquil on the Pacific coast. Indigenous groups, students and unions joined the action, barricading roads with rocks and burning tyres.
Moreno, who won an election in 2017 to replace Rafael Correa, told reporters the "perverse" and highly costly subsidy, in place for 40 years, had distorted the economy and protests would not be allowed to paralyse Ecuador.
With a population of more than 17 million people, the country has a long history of political instability. Street protests toppled three presidents during economic turmoil in the decade before Correa took power in 2007.
(Production: Cristina Munoz) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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