- Title: Ecuador's Moreno readies repeal of fuel subsidy cuts as protesters head home
- Date: 14th October 2019
- Summary: QUITO, ECUADOR (OCTOBER 14, 2019) (REUTERS) GENERAL OF PEOPLE CLEANING AREA VARIOUS OF MEN CLEANING DEBRIS FROM BARRICADE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE CLEANING AREA SACK FULL OF DEBRIS VOLUNTEERS PASSING ALONG BAGS OF DEBRIS VOLUNTEERS THROWING BAGS OF DEBRIS ON PILE TRUCKS REMOVING DEBRIS FROM CITY CENTRE GENERAL OF PEOPLE CLEANING UP (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) QUITO RESIDENT, JENNY RUIZ, SAYING: "Actually, this here (street cobblestones) can be replaced. The lives of battered people who are missing, those who have died, can't be replaced. The concern itself, right now, is the new decree. The other concern is what will happen to the people who are detained." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE HUGGING IN STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MEMBER OF INDIGENOUS MOVEMENT, HERMELINDA GUAMANGATI, SAYING: "Return our family children, don't return them dead. May they come back alive. Poor children, poor young people. We came to defend the people, we did not come to be killed." WOMAN CHANTING: (Spanish) "YES, WE CAN!" VARIOUS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE RETURNING BY COACH VARIOUS OF PEOPLE ON BOARD BUS ECUADOR'S FLAG BEING WAVED AS BUS LEAVES ECUADOREANS POSING FOR PHOTO
- Embargoed: 28th October 2019 20:08
- Keywords: Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno repeal an IMF-backed decree fuel subsidies protesters
- Location: QUITO, ECUADOR
- City: QUITO, ECUADOR
- Country: Ecuador
- Topics: Government/Politics,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA001B12MM9Z
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno said on Monday (October 14) that he would repeal an IMF-backed decree that slashed fuel subsidies "in coming hours," confirming that he had given into a key demand of protesters who had spent nearly two weeks agitating against it.
Moreno added that a new decree would be issued to ensure that resources go to those who most need it, though he did not specify when. "We have opted for peace," Moreno said on Twitter.
The comment follows a deal struck with indigenous protesters leaders late on Sunday that ended demonstrations that had rocked the highland capital of Quito and forced Moreno's government to relocate to safer ground on the coast.
Indigenous protesters who had streamed into Quito from Andean and Amazonian provinces to demand Moreno reinstate the fuel subsidies piled into buses that departed the city on Monday.
University students, municipal workers and other residents of Quito cleared burned tires and cobblestones that had been torn from streets of the capital's downtown district as the smell of tear gas hung in the air.
The protests had grown increasingly chaotic in recent days as the government launched a militarized crackdown to stop extremists whom it blamed for infiltrating the protests and wreaking havoc on the city.
In recent days, authorities reported the office of the comptroller's office, a local TV station and military vehicles had been set on fire.
(Production: Cristina Munoz) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None