Quito (AFP)

The Ecuadorian capital Quito, where thousands of indigenous and peasants continued to flock, was preparing Tuesday for a giant demonstration against the massive rise in the price of gasoline by the weakened government, the protests bringing down by a third the domestic production of crude.

The country has been rocked since early October by a social unrest since 2007, marked by blockades of roads and oil wells in the Amazon, sometimes violent demonstrations and strikes crippling the country.

Production losses of the state-owned Petroamazonas rose to 165,000 barrels per day on a total of 531,000, according to a statement from the Ministry of Energy. On Monday, the drop in production was 12%.

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.

About two kilometers from the Carondelet Palace, the seat of the government located in the historic center cordoned off by the police, the demonstrators were gathered in El Arbolito Park, which became their base camp.

On Tuesday morning, while the natives, brightly colored wool poncho on their shoulders and traditional felt hats on their heads, were having breakfast, men armed with sticks stood guard, AFP reported.

A big demonstration alongside the unions is scheduled for Wednesday in Quito.

On Monday, incidents broke out between protesters and police near the official buildings. In the evening, the National Assembly denounced "acts of vandalism in the immediate vicinity of the Legislative Building forming an attempt to occupy the seat of Parliament".

Sign of this growing tension, the incidents pushed the government to decree Thursday the state of emergency and relocate in the port city of Guayaquil, economic capital of this small Andean country.

- "Destabilization" -

On Monday evening, in a radio and television speech, President Lenin Moreno, 66, reacted to the unrest by accusing the Venezuelan head of state, "Satrap (Nicolas) Maduro", and his own predecessor, Rafael Correa, of have "activated" a "destabilization plan".

In response, in a video broadcast Tuesday on social networks, Rafael Correa, who lives in Belgium, denied any coup attempt and called for early elections.

"There is no question of a putsch: in a democracy, conflicts are settled at the polls and that is exactly what we are asking for: (...) to advance the elections in the event of serious social unrest, such as the one we know ", said the former president (2007-2017), fierce opponent of his former ally and successor Lenin Moreno.

For its part, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), the main representative body of the indigenous peoples of the country, has distanced itself from the former head of state and the violence of the previous day.

The Conaie "distanced itself from the putschist platform of Correaism (current of the former president), we are fighting for the exit of Ecuador from the IMF We will not allow those who have criminalized us for 10 years to recover our struggle and that of the Ecuadorian people, "the organization wrote on Twitter.

"The acts of vandalism reported near the (headquarters of) the Comptroller General and Parliament have nothing to do with our activists, our struggle will not be delegitimized," added Conaie.

Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and four other Latin American countries expressed Tuesday their "strong support" to President Moreno.

The Organization of American States (OAS), the European Union, the United States and Spain condemned the violence and called for dialogue.

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