Ecuadorans Block Roads On Day 2 Of Fuel Price Protests

Indigenous and rural Ecuadorans blocked roads in several provinces Wednesday on the second day of protests against soaring fuel prices amid a countrywide state of emergency

Quito, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Oct, 2021 ) :Indigenous and rural Ecuadorans blocked roads in several provinces Wednesday on the second day of protests against soaring fuel prices amid a countrywide state of emergency.

On Tuesday, 37 people were arrested and five police officers, a journalist and at least one demonstrator injured in the largest protests since conservative President Guillermo Lasso took office in May.

Protesters disrupted traffic in five of Ecuador's 24 provinces Tuesday, and vowed to continue their show of discontent with the new center-right government's economic policies.

"The government has messed up, pushing fuel prices up all the time," protester Dennis Viteri, a 28-year-old textile worker told AFP Wednesday at Calderon, northeast of the capital Quito.

Viteri and others used soil, tree trunks and burning tires to block a portion of the Pan-American highway which connects Quito with Colombia.

As AFP looked on, more trees were being felled on a nearby hilltop with which to strengthen the barricade.

Ecuador's public safety department said there were also roadblocks Wednesday in the provinces of Imbabura, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua and Chimborazo.