Machachi (Ecuador) (AFP)

People protesting rising fuel prices in Ecuador have occupied three oil wells Monday and forced the authorities to suspend the activity, which has reduced the national production of crude oil by 12%.

The activities on these three sites in Amazonia "have been suspended due to the occupation of the facilities by groups of people outside the operational". They account for 12% of the production of the small South American country, 63,250 barrels per day out of a total of 531,000, announced the Ecuadorian Ministry of Energy.

One of these blocked wells is operated by a private Ecuadorian company, Petrobell (3,000 b / d), and the other two by the state Petroamazonas.

Ecuador, which announced last week its withdrawal from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), extracted some 531,000 barrels a day of crude oil between January and July this year.

These occupations of oil facilities are a way of protesting against a massive rise in fuel prices decided by the government of President Lenin Moreno.

Hundreds of indigenous and Ecuadorian peasants walked Monday to Quito to join the protests. Some armed with sticks and masked face, these protesters from the Andean regions of the south had started Sunday, on foot or on board pick-up, to reach the capital where a major event is scheduled Wednesday alongside the unions .

According to indigenous leaders, other groups of natives were moving from the north to the capital.

- State of emergency against state of emergency -

On Monday afternoon in Quito, incidents broke out between protesters and law enforcement officers in the vicinity of the government headquarters, in the historic center area cordoned off by the police.

In a social movement unpublished since 2007, blockades of the transport sector and strikes paralyze the country. The violence pushed the government to declare Thursday the state of emergency.

In the locality of Machachi, 35 km from Quito, soldiers and policemen tried to disperse the caravan with tear gas, AFP reported. On the roadway, barricades made of burnt tires, branches and other detritus gave off a thick smoke.

The caravan of hundreds of natives and peasants arrived Monday night in Cutuglagua, near Quito.

"We are going to be more than 20,000 natives," said Monday in Quito the president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), Jaime Vargas.

In January 2000, President Jamil Mahuad was overthrown as a result of violent indigenous demonstrations in which Conaie had participated in a context of economic crisis.

To respond to the government, the organization also announced Sunday "a state of emergency in all indigenous territories."

- Up to 123% up -

Conaie said in a statement that soldiers and policemen approaching indigenous territories would be captured.

Its spokesman, Apawki Castro, told AFP that members of law enforcement were already detained by indigenous communities in three provinces. This statement has not been confirmed by the authorities.

Road blockages were reported in 19 of the country's 24 provinces, according to authorities, with one death, 73 injuries (including 59 among law enforcement officials) and 477 arrests during protests in recent days. By mid-day, 16 provinces were affected by blockades.

"This is a very difficult situation that could lead to some instability, with the fall of governments," said Simon Pachano, a political scientist at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (Flacso) in Quito.

President Moreno's decision to remove fuel subsidies totaling $ 1.3 billion (the Ecuadorian economy is dollarized) came into effect on Thursday. In exchange, Ecuador can access $ 4.2 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

This has resulted in fuel price increases of up to 123%. The US gallon (3.79 liters) of diesel thus rose from $ 1.03 to $ 2.30, and the gallon of regular gasoline from $ 1.85 to $ 2.40.

© 2019 AFP