- Title: Tensions simmer in Ecuador as protesters and police seek to ease standoff
- Date: 11th October 2019
- Summary: QUITO, ECUADOR (OCTOBER 11, 2019) (REUTERS) PROTESTERS HIDING BEHIND BARRICADE, SOUND OF TEAR GAS CANISTER GOING OFF PROTESTER PICKING UP TEAR GAS CANISTER AND THROWING IT IN DIRECTION OF OFFICERS VARIOUS OF OFFICERS THROWING ROCKS IN DIRECTION OF OFFICERS PROTESTER BLOWING ON SHELL BEFORE STEPPING BACK FROM FIRE AT BARRICADE VARIOUS OF RIOT POLICE WALKING TOWARDS PROTESTERS WITH HANDS UP IN GESTURE FOR PEACE VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS TALKING TO OFFICERS PROTESTERS MARCHING PROTESTERS GATHERED VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS GATHERED PROTESTERS GATHERED BEFORE POLICE LINE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ANONYMOUS PROTESTER, SAYING: "We don't want anymore deaths. We (protesters) are not about sticks and stones. We don't want anymore bullets. We don't want anymore damage. We want to fix this." WOMEN GATHERED BEFORE LINE OF OFFICERS AND CHANTING (Spanish) "WE ARE WOMEN NOT CRIMINALS" PROTESTERS GATHERED PROTESTER BLOWING SHELL BETWEEN OFFICERS AND POLICE VARIOUS OF WOMEN SAYING INAUDIBLE CHANTS PROTESTERS GATHERED BEFORE POLICE LINE
- Embargoed: 25th October 2019 22:35
- Keywords: protests Ecuador Quito violence austerity fuel President Lenin Moreno
- Location: QUITO, ECUADOR
- City: QUITO, ECUADOR
- Country: Ecuador
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Civil Unrest,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA001B0NNV47
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: AUDIO AS INCOMING
Tear gas and rocks went flying in the Ecuadoran capital of Quito on Friday (October 11), amidst public anger over austerity measures.
Hopes for a negotiated end to the worst unrest in Ecuador in at least a decade dimmed on Friday as clashes between police and anti-austerity protesters continued for a ninth day in the highland capital Quito.
Despite offers by the United Nations to mediate talks five days ago, President Lenin Moreno and protest organisers remain in a deadlock.
But seeking to break the impasse, a group of women in the protest approach a police line to seek an informal truce directly between officers and the demonstrators.
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 in the unrest and hundreds have been wounded and arrested.
Moreno has repeatedly refused to reinstate a four-decade old fuel subsidy, the chief demand of protesters who say its removal disproportionately punishes the poor.
Moreno announced the measure as parts of his efforts to reduce the country's fiscal deficit, in keeping with a loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But opponents say it has pushed up prices of many consumer goods and will increase inequality in the South American country of 17 million people.
(Production: Herbert Villarraga, Cristina Munoz) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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