Ecuador: dead, injured and even police missing

Demonstrators clash with police during protests against President Guillermo Lasso's government and rising fuel prices in Quito, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. AP - Dolores Ochoa

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

The mobilization against the high cost of living, and in particular the price of fuel, is entering its tenth day in Ecuador.

And the situation is very tense.

Thousands of natives demonstrate and confront the police and the army, deployed in the streets of the country by President Guillermo Lasso.

Eighteen police officers are "missing" in the East, said Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo.

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Eighteen police officers are missing after an attack on Tuesday evening in the town of Puyo, in the Amazonian province of Pastaza, in eastern Ecuador.

It was the Minister of the Interior Patricio Carrillo who announced it this Wednesday, June 22 at a press conference.

The crowd attacked the police station directly, he said.

The assailants set fire to the building, the police were on the spot.

Six of them were seriously injured, three are held hostage and 18 are missing, detailed Mr. Carrillo.

A bank branch was also set on fire, he said.

In the ciudad del Puyo #Pastaza el día de ayer se realizó las mayores hostilidades, ciudadanos en estado etílico generaban turbas impresionantes, impedían que personas puedan atenderse en términos de salud, paso de ambulances y víveres.#PolicíaSeguridadYpaz pic.twitter.com/924IrjeOMK

— Policia Ecuador (@PoliciaEcuador) June 22, 2022

We are not going to be intimidated.

We will keep the same (security) devices.

Puyo's violence shows that they do not want dialogue

" 

," said Patricio Carrillo, adding that President Guillermo Lasso recognized " 

 " and sought to create a “ 

 ”.

Quito prepares for a new day of mobilization

Protests have already left several dead and dozens injured in Ecuador.

In the Amazon locality of Puyo, still, a young Quechua man was killed Tuesday in clashes with the police.

Died after having " 

" according to the police, " 

 ", according to an NGO.

Another protester died after falling into a ravine.

In Quito, the situation was relatively calm on Wednesday morning, as indigenous protesters were busy having lunch and preparing for another day of protest.

The

of indigenous people continues throughout the national territory, but it is in Quito that there is the greatest number of demonstrators.

The violent clashes with the security forces broke out near a university which opened its doors to the natives.

Police and members of the

used tear gas and water cannons.

Under the fire of criticism, the conservative president Guillermo Lasso ended, Tuesday evening June 21, by accepting the proposal of a mediation which had been submitted to him by more than 300 organizations of the Ecuadorian civil society.

The indigenous organizations, they condition their participation in this dialogue: they demand the repeal of the

, the end of the repression against the demonstrators and the demilitarization of two traditional places of gathering of the natives, occupied since this week. -end by the police and the army.

►Read again: On the front page, the social conflict in Ecuador is intensifying

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