A meeting between the government and the demonstrators, the first ray of hope in Ecuador

by time news

A draft of rapprochement between the government and the demonstrators took place on Saturday June 25 in Ecuador, and this one lights a timid glimmer of hope in the South American country, exhausted by two weeks of a violent national strike.

This first step, practically unthinkable just a few days ago, comes as Parliament debates the possibility of impeachment of President Guillermo Lasso, while the violence continues to worsen against a backdrop of protest from thousands of Amerindians, exasperated by the rise of the cost of living.

During a press conference taken over by the GK mediathe President of the National Assembly, Virgilio Saquicela, organizer of the meeting, nevertheless wanted to specify that:

If there is no compromise acquired for the moment, this first dialogue allows to hope that in the next few hours a commission can be set up to deal with the points raised by protesters.

The Amerindians, gathered in the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), are a formidable force which caused the fall of three presidents between 1997 and 2005.

State of emergency repealed

By the thousands – between 14,000 and 30,000 – they are demanding, among other things, lower fuel prices, food price controls and a renegotiation of peasant debt with the banks.

They are also, through the Pachakutik party, the second force in the unicameral Parliament, where the dismissal of Lasso is debated this Sunday, who has decided to repeal the state of emergency in progress in the six provinces most affected by the dispute. , whose toll already stands at 6 dead and nearly 300 injured.

To justify himself, he said on Saturday, according to another article by GKwhat :

“Today there is peace in Ecuador. The roads are reopened. Together we will heal the wounds that the enemies of Ecuador have forced.”

But if this decision to repeal the state of emergency is a gesture of goodwill, it can also be read as a strategy to avoid the dismissal advocated by the Union for Hope (UNES) movement of the ex-president of the radical left Rafael Correa, who led the country from 2007 to 2017. He invokes the use of decrees which ordered the military to restore public order and a curfew which particularly concerned the capital , Quito.

The next few hours will therefore be crucial in this country of almost 18 million inhabitants to know if the ex-banker Lasso will save his skin and truly open negotiations with Conaie, or if it will in fact be a dialogue. of deaf.

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