QUITO —
Ecuador’s government on Friday
reduced fuel prices as part of a deal that ended more than two weeks of
disruptive protests paralyzing the country.
اضافة اعلان
The reduction came after thousands of Indigenous
protesters left the capital Quito on Thursday evening after their leaders
signed the agreement with the government to end 18 days of cost-of-living
demonstrations.
Following mediation by the
Catholic Church, the
government agreed to drop fuel prices by 15 cents. On Friday, a gallon of
gasoline dropped from $2.55 to $2.40 and diesel fell from $1.90 to $1.75.
Fast-rising fuel
prices were the catalyst for the protests called by the powerful
Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (Conaie) and marked by burning roadblocks and
sometimes violent clashes with the security forces.
Five civilians and a soldier died in the protests
that started on June 13, hundreds were injured on both sides, and some 150
people were arrested.
Some 10,000 Indigenous protesters had congregated in
Quito from their homes in Andean and Amazon regions for the protests.
On Thursday night, they began boarding trucks and
buses adorned with Ecuador flags and the Wiphala, the colorful Indigenous flag.
Thursday’s deal included an end to the disruptive
countrywide roadblocks and the lifting of a state of emergency in four of the
country’s 24 provinces.
It also provides for a review of government decrees
on oil exploitation and mining in Indigenous lands.
These 18 days amounted to the longest period of
social action launched by Conaie, which is credited with unseating three
presidents between 1997 and 2005.
Indigenous people make up more than a million of the
South American nation’s 17.7 million inhabitants.
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