Quito: In Ecuador, the government declared a state of siege after police plunged the nation into chaos shutting down airports and blocking highways in a nationwide strike.
Tear gas was fired all over the streets of Quito as protests continued against the government’s austerity plans. Earlier, President Rafael Correa was injured in violence as he accused rivals of staging a coup.
However, even the President had his own set of supporters who were ready to sacrifice their lives for him.
"We are staying here with President Correa. If we have to die alongside him, we will. Ecuadorean citizens will understand that for democracy, for freedom and to destroy corruption, it is possible to give our lives," said protester Fernando Garces.
Ecuador has a history of political instability. Street protests toppled three presidents during economic turmoil in the decade before Correa took power.
Correa remained holed up in a Quito hospital while demonstrators carried protests outside the building. Clouds of tear gas could be seen around the building.
Witnesses said there were looting in Quito and in Guayaquil city, and many workers and school students were sent home.
Correa is looking at the option of dissolving Congress, where members of his own left-wing party are blocking legislative proposals aimed at cutting state costs.
More than half the 124-member Congress is officially allied with Correa, but the President has blasted lawmakers from his own Country Alliance party for not going along with his proposals for shrinking the country's bureaucracy.
Correa, a US-trained economist, was first elected in 2006 promising a "citizens' revolution" aimed at increasing state control of Ecuador's natural resources and fighting what he calls the country's corrupt elite.
Comments
0 comment