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PoliticsEcuador

Ecuador government, Indigenous activists reach deal

June 30, 2022

The agreement ends over a week of nationwide strikes over the cost of living that paralyzed the country.

https://p.dw.com/p/4DUeY
Indigenous leader Leonidas Iza, left, shakes hands with Government Minister Francisco Jimenez after reaching an agreement with mediation by the church at the Episcopal Conference headquarters in Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, June 30, 2022.
Ecuadorean minister Francisco Jimenez (right) and Indigenous leader Leonidas Iza shook hands on clinching the accord in the capital QuitoImage: Dolores Ochoa/AP/picture alliance

Representatives of Ecuador's government and Indigenous groups on Thursday signed an agreement to end 18 days of protests against soaring food and fuel prices.

The talks, mediated by the Catholic Church, reached a deal to decrease the price of fuel, among other concessions. 

Minister of Government and Policy Management Francisco Jimenez and Indigenous CONAIE leader Leonidas Iza were among the signatories to the accord, as was negotiator Monsignor Luis Cabrera, the head of the Episcopal Conference in Ecuador. 

Indigenous protesters gather outside the Episcopal Conference headquarters where Indigenous leaders dialogue with the government in Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, June 30, 2022.
Indigenous protesters gathered outside the site of the talks on ThursdayImage: Dolores Ochoa/AP/picture alliance

The nationwide protests erupted on June 13,  with an estimated 14,000 Ecuadorans taking part in a major show of discontent against deepening hardship, as the country's economy was reeling from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and global inflation.

The protest movement was organized by indigenous organization CONAIE, which opposed high fuel prices and plans for further expansion of the mining and oil industries.

The prolonged protests caused food and medicine shortages across Ecuador, while also severely impacting the oil industry, roughly halving daily production and costing the country some $213 million, according to Energy Ministry figures.

What's in the agreement?

The compromise foresees a reduction in the prices of both gasoline/petrol and diesel, sets limits to the expansion of oil exploration areas and prohibits mining in protected areas, national parks and water sources. 

"We cannot allow violence to take over Ecuador and our differences to deepen. Today is not the end, it is the first day of a great dream for national reconciliation," Jimenez said at the signing in Quito. 

Government representative Francisco Jimenez holds up the agreement made with Indigenous leaders, Eustaquio Toala, third from left, and Leonidas Iza, third from left, as they stand with Catholic Church representatives who served as mediators at the Episcopal Conference headquarters in Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, June 30, 2022.
The deal could soften days of sometimes violent strikes and protests over rising prices of fuel in particular, funding some of the pledges may prove challenging howeverImage: Dolores Ochoa/AP/picture alliance

The accord provides the government with 90 days to deliver solutions to the demands of the indigenous groups. 

"We have achieved the supreme value to which we all aspire: peace in our country," President Guillermo Lasso, an ex-banker who took power 13 months ago, said on Twitter announcing the deal. "The strike is over. Now we begin together the task of transforming this peace into progress, well-being, and opportunities for all." 

Among the other concessions made, Lasso increased monthly aid for Ecuador's poorest inhabitants from the equivalent of roughly $50 to $55. 

Minister of foreign affairs says toppling government was real goal

Speaking to DW in Quito after the deal was struck, Ecuador's Minister of Foreign Affairs Juan Carlos Holguin warned against overstating the importance of fuel prices in the protests. He argued that the real goal of opposition groups, which ultimately failed, was to prompt a change of government. 

"The cause of these protests was not the price of fuel. That was a legitimate need of Ecuador's Indigenous population for a long time. But it was a bad analysis: Ecuador has some of the cheapest fuels in the region and perhaps the world," Holguin told DW. "However, these protests coincided with an attempt by a political group to generate a social crisis in the country, to overthrow the president. And that was reflected in the failed impeachment process organized in the national assembly." 

Lasso on Tuesday survived an impeachment vote in parliament brought by opposition politicians blaming him for the "serious political crisis and internal commotion" caused by the strikes and protests. 

The protest instigator CONAIE is credited with unseating three presidents between 1997 and 2005.

"Only the struggle has allowed us to secure rights!" CONAIE wrote on Twitter on Thursday. "We have ... achieved measures to alleviate the economic situation, health and education of vulnerable rural and urban families."

More than a quarter of Ecuardorans live in poverty according to 2021 data, with price pressures on basic goods therefore a major issue for much of the population.

msh/jcg (AFP, AP, dpa)