On Tuesday, security forces arrested the president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, Leonidas Iza, who called and encouraged demonstrations against the government. President Guillermo Lasso alleged that the arrest occurred after acts of vandalism committed against public and private property.
The situation triggered the retention of a prosecutor from the province of Cotopaxi when he was on his way to his daily activities in the Andean center of the country, but hours later the Prosecutor’s Office indicated that, after talks, the official was released. Although the statement does not mention it, the kidnapping would have been a reprisal for Iza’s arrest.
The indigenous leader was transferred to the city of Latacunga, 90 kilometers south of the capital, where his lawyers have managed a release appeal, arguing that his arrest did not comply with legal formalities. Hundreds of indigenous people have gathered in front of the prosecutor’s office in that city demanding the freedom of the leader. There is still no result of that management.
In recent days, Iza, before a group of supporters, called for forceful demonstrations to “overthrow” the Lasso government, which did not go unnoticed by the government.
Iza declared on Monday before a group of peasants that “it becomes a very important agenda, to bring down (overthrow) the president of the republic. It’s not going to be easy with a mobilization like this, but really with a very forceful de facto measure”. The Minister of the Government, Francisco Jiménez, reacted in a local media and said that “if someone takes a single step in that direction, a single attitude that makes it clear that what he said is real (overthrow the president), we have to act with the law in hand.
The Minister of the Interior, Patricio Carrillo, told reporters on Tuesday that “the prosecutor’s office and the judiciary must act with the full rigor of the law and the constitution, we are not going to allow violence and vandalism to take over Ecuador, our I support the police… who acted with total and absolute normality”. He added that two police officers were also held by peasants and later released.
Within the framework of the protests, the roads of the north center of Ecuador remain blocked, leaving the capital virtually isolated from the rest of the country, while hundreds of people, especially from rural areas, are forced to walk and any vehicle that approaches protests is attacked with stones and sticks.
Defense Minister Luis Lara confirmed that two oil wells were closed by protesters.
The day before, that indigenous organization began mobilizations for an indefinite period of time demanding a reduction in the price of gasoline and the setting of a minimum price for agricultural products, among others.
The police commander, Fausto Salinas, called on the protesters at a press conference “to respect the rights of other citizens, not to affect the freedom and, above all, the tranquility of the citizens, who feel affected by the protests.” .
Presumed demonstrators in the last hours destroyed police and private vehicles, violently broke into flower farms in the center of the country and destroyed public and private property.
Marlon Santi, coordinator of Pachakutik, the indigenous party, called on his Twitter account for the intervention of international human rights organizations in the face of what happened and for Iza’s immediate release. “Mr. President, it is not the way to treat those of us who have presented proposals with dignity, it has been several months that you have not given an answer,” he tweeted.
In a statement on his Twitter account, the president stated that “the arrest of the masterminds and perpetrators of these violent acts has begun, now it is up to the Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary to act, because no one is above the law”. We Ecuadorians “cannot be victims of vandals who only want to cause chaos.”
In a statement, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities described the detention as illegal.
