Place for dialogue in Ecuador. The government and the indigenous movement began discussing Sunday (October 13th) in Quito under the auspices of the UN and the Catholic Church. The two sides are seeking a way out of the social crisis that has crippled the country for 12 days and left seven dead and more than 1,300 injured.

"Native brothers, I have always treated you with respect and affection," said President Lenin Moreno at the opening of the meeting, organized in a religious center in the capital and broadcast on television. "It was never my intention to affect the poorest sectors (...), the poorest," insisted the head of state, a liberal elected in 2017 under the socialist label.

The indigenous community, which represents a quarter of the population, is spearheading the protest against economic reforms negotiated with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in exchange for a loan of $ 4.2 billion, the measure of which the most controversial is decree 883, which removes fuel subsidies and doubles pump prices.

"The Right and the IMF manage the country"

The President of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), Jaime Vargas, lambasted the president's "improvisation of economic policy", noting with regret that "we feel that the right and the IMF manage the country ". He reiterated the main claim of his community: "We are calling for the repeal of Decree 883".

On Sunday, clashes continued on the outskirts of the Quito Parliament as the city was just recovering from Saturday's hectic day.

"There has been a social convulsion and a disrespect of human rights, excessive violence against the people and state terrorism," denounced Jaime Vargas about the repression of the police. So, "as a gesture of social peace for the country (...), we demand the immediate departure (of) two ministers" of the Interior and Defense.

"We have never seen a level of brutal violence like in recent days," added Leonidas Iza, president of the indigenous and peasant movement of Cotopaxi (center). He contrasted the brutality of the police with the hard blow of the gas price jump: "If I have to refuel and the price increases by 123%, it's violent."

Country paralyzed

The country remained paralyzed Sunday, between road blocks, public transport almost non-existent and oil wells of the Amazon stopped, which already forced Ecuador to suspend the distribution of nearly 70% of its crude production.

"It has been 12 days since the country is paralyzed," Eustaquio Toala, president of the Feine, an organization of indigenous evangelicals, told President Moreno that the return to normal could take place "as soon as evening "if the decree is repealed.

The indigenous community suffers the full impact of the fuel decree: generally poor and working in agriculture, it sees its transport costs soar to sell its products. Powerful and organized, she brought thousands of her members from the Andes and the Amazon to camp in Quito. And in the past, she has already overthrown three presidents.

For Santiago Basabe, political scientist of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, "once the dialogue is open, it will be very difficult (for the natives) to go back" and resume mobilization.

With AFP