Protests continues as Ecuador reels from week of violence

Record ID: 1435816

  • Title: Protests continues as Ecuador reels from week of violence
  • Date: 9th October 2019
  • Summary: QUITO, ECUADOR (OCTOBER 9, 2019) (REUTERS) TOP VIEW OF CROWD GIVING WAY AS GROUP CARRIED INJURED PROTESTER AWAY GROUP OF PROTESTERS CARRYING AWAY INJURED PROTEST CROWD GATHERED AROUND INJURED PROTESTER, THEN PICK HIM UP AGAIN AND WALK AWAY PROTESTER WHO WAS LAYING DOWN, STANDING UP AND BEING LED AWAY GENERAL VIEW OF PROTESTERS GATHERED IN SQUARE, BURNING TIRES GENERAL VIEW OF GROWING CROWD OF PROTESTERS
  • Embargoed: 23rd October 2019 18:05
  • Keywords: Ecuador protests crisis fuel Quito injured
  • Location: QUITO, ECUADOR
  • City: QUITO, ECUADOR
  • Country: Ecuador
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Civil Unrest,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA001B0DNYO7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: LIVE U QUALITY. PLEASE MONITOR FOR UPDATES
    Ecuadorean protesters held a national strike and clashed with security forces on Wednesday (October 9) after President Lenin Moreno refused to step down or overturn anti-austerity measures that have triggered the worst unrest in a decade.
    Streets were empty of traffic and businesses were closed from early in Quito and other cities during the shutdown, in Latin America's latest flare-up over unpopular structural reforms.
    Security forces fired tear gas to break up hundreds of protesters marching near the presidential palace in downtown Quito, the highland capital. Protesters played a game of cat-and-mouse with police.
    At least one protester was seen being carried away before being able to walk on his own. It seems the protester was hit by a tear gas canister.
    Violent demonstrations erupted in the Andean nation of 17 million people a week ago when Moreno cut fuel subsidies as part of a package of measures in line with a $4.2 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan.
    The main indigenous group CONAIE, which has mobilized some 6,000 members to Quito from outlying areas, said Moreno's government was behaving like a "military dictatorship" by declaring a state of emergency and setting an overnight curfew.
    Protesters again barricaded roads with debris, while security forces themselves blocked a major bridge in the coastal city of Guayaquil to thwart demonstrations.
    Moreno, 66, who succeeded leftist leader Rafael Correa in 2017, has relocated his government to Guayaquil where there has been less unrest than in Quito.
    He stood by his economic measures and defied calls to quit.
    (Production: Alberto Fajardo, Guillermo Garcia)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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