- 'Unique' Ronaldo an example to everyone, says Martinez
- New lawsuits against Sean Combs allege sex assault, including of minor
- Italy begins migrant transfers to Albania with first group of 16
- Google signs nuclear power deal with startup Kairos
- Carsley open to foreign England manager amid Guardiola links
- Pogba hungry to have his football cake after doping ban
- India and Canada expel top envoys in Sikh separatist killing row
- Mbappe says victim of 'fake news' after 'rape' report in Sweden
- Lebanon says 21 killed in strike on northern village
- Netanyahu vows no mercy after deadly Hezbollah drone strike
- Russia could be able to attack NATO by 2030: German intelligence
- EVs seek to regain sales momentum at Paris Motor Show
- Clarke backs Scotland to bounce back from 'tough' run
- Harris, Trump target crucial Pennsylvania as US vote looms
- NASA probe Europa Clipper lifts off for Jupiter's icy moon
- Lebanese Red Cross says 18 killed in strike in north
- Mendy borrowed money from Man City team-mates for legal fees
- Palestinian officials say Israeli forces kill two in West Bank
- Football leagues, unions file EU complaint against FIFA in calendar dispute
- Nigeria boycott AFCON qualifier in Libya after 'inhumane treatment'
- India to recall top envoy to Canada: foreign ministry
- Hezbollah, Israeli troops in 'violent clashes' after drone strike
- China insists won't renounce 'use of force' to take Taiwan as drills end
- Painkiller sale plan to US gives France major headache
- Italy begins landmark migrant transfers to Albania
- Russia jails French researcher for three years
- 'Unsustainable' housing crisis bedevils Spain's socialist govt
- Stocks shrug off China disappointment but oil slides
- New Zealand 4-0 up in America's Cup but British show signs of life
- Russian prosecutor demands 3 years prison for French researcher
- 'Innocent' British nerve agent victim caught in global murder plot: inquiry
- Afghan Taliban vow to implement media ban on images of living things
- Russian prosecutor demands 3 years, 3 months jail for French researcher
- England ready for Pakistan's spin assault in second Test
- New Zealand's Ravindra excited for India Tests with father in crowd
- India's capital bans fireworks to curb air pollution
- Stocks diverge, oil retreats as China disappoints markets
- FIFA to open 'global dialogue' on transfer system after Diarra ruling
- Trio wins economics Nobel for work on wealth inequality
- Starmer vows to cut red tape as he urges foreign investors to 'back' UK
- Ex-Stasi officer jailed over 1974 Berlin border killing
- 'Not viable': Barcelona turns against surging tourism
- Hezbollah says targeted Israeli naval base after deadly drone strike
- Rice praises 'unbelievable' England interim boss Carsley despite uncertainty
- Nepali teenager hailed as hero after climbing world's 8,000m peaks
- England captain Stokes back from injury for second Pakistan Test
- Shanghai stocks gain after stimulus briefing as markets rally
- Shanghai stocks gain after stimulus briefing as Asian markets rally
- South Korea military says 'fully ready' as drone flights anger North
- Pakistan 'vigilantes' behind rise in online blasphemy cases
RBGPF | 2.84% | 61.23 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.11% | 24.738 | $ | |
SCS | 0.5% | 12.975 | $ | |
GSK | 0.79% | 39.14 | $ | |
BTI | 0.78% | 35.455 | $ | |
RELX | 1.18% | 47.39 | $ | |
RIO | 0.69% | 67.695 | $ | |
BP | -0.36% | 31.995 | $ | |
BCC | 0.49% | 143.075 | $ | |
AZN | 0.96% | 78.1 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.08% | 24.97 | $ | |
BCE | -1.41% | 32.56 | $ | |
RYCEF | 0.43% | 7.03 | $ | |
VOD | 0.31% | 9.68 | $ | |
JRI | -0.29% | 13.212 | $ | |
NGG | 0.98% | 66.895 | $ |
Ecuador protesters win concession in standoff with government
Indigenous protesters won a concession from the Ecuadoran government Thursday on the 11th day of crippling demonstrations over fuel prices and living costs that have claimed three lives.
Isolating because of a Covid-19 infection, President Guillermo Lasso ceded to one of the protesters' conditions for negotiations: access to a cultural center emblematic of the Indigenous struggle but commandeered by police over the weekend.
"It is a triumph of the struggle," protest leader Leonidas Iza proclaimed over a megaphone, advancing on the center with hundreds of others in jubilatory mood.
Francisco Jimenez, Ecuador's minister of government, said the concession was made "for the sake of dialogue and peace."
The aim, he said, was to "to stop roadblocks, violent demonstrations, and attacks.
An estimated 14,000 protesters are taking part in the mass show of discontent nationwide that started on June 13 and has seen the government impose a state of emergency on six of the country's 24 provinces.
The bulk, some 10,000 of them, are in Quito, which is under a night-time curfew.
"I cry to see so many people mistreated by this... government," protester Cecilia, an 80-year-old who did not give her full name, told AFP as she marched with an Ecuadoran flag and a banner reading: "Lasso, liar."
- 'Lasso, liar' -
The Alliance of Human Rights Organizations said a 38-year-old man died on Wednesday in the southern town of Tarqui in clashes between protesters and police, which it accused of violent tactics.
Dozens of people have also been injured in the countrywide demonstrations that Indigenous groups have vowed to continue until their demands are met.
The police, for its part, said the man had died of a medical condition that occurred "in the context of the demonstrations."
Two other people died on Monday and Tuesday, according to the Alliance, which also reported 92 wounded and 94 civilians arrested in 11 days of protests.
Officials say 117 in the ranks of police and soldiers have been injured.
On Wednesday night, some 300 protesters occupied a power plant in southern Ecuador and briefly took its operators hostage, authorities said.
Ecuador, a small South American country riddled with drug trafficking and related violence, has been hard hit by rising inflation, unemployment and poverty -- all exacerbated by the pandemic.
The protesters' demands include a cut in already subsidized fuel prices which have risen sharply in recent months, as well as jobs, food price controls, and more public spending on healthcare and education.
- $50 million per day -
The protests, which have involved the burning of tires and tree branches by vocal marchers brandishing sticks, spears and makeshift shields, have paralyzed the capital and severely harmed the economy with barricades of key roads.
The government has rejected demands to lift the state of emergency imposed in response to the sometimes violent demonstrations called by the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie).
Conaie led two weeks of protests in 2019 in which 11 people died and more than 1,000 were injured, causing economic losses of some $800 million before the then-president abandoning plans to reduce fuel price subsidies.
Lasso's government has ruled out cutting fuel prices this time, as it would cost the State an unaffordable $1 billion per year.
Conaie -- credited with ending three presidencies between 1997 and 2005 -- insists the state of emergency be lifted before it will negotiate, but the government has said this "would leave the capital defenseless."
Official data showed the economy was losing about $50 million per day due to the protests, not counting oil production -- the country's main export product -- which has also been affected.
Producers of flowers, another of Ecuador's main exports, have complained their wares are rotting as trucks cannot reach their destinations.
H.E.Young--AMWN