Protesters threw stones and shot at the president’s vehicles during an event in El Tambo. The government reported an assassination attempt.
The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, was attacked this Tuesday by a group of indigenous protesters while traveling in a caravan to an official event in the south of the country. The incident occurred in the middle of the national strike that has been going on for more than two weeks. against the increase in the price of diesel, and left five detained.
The authorities reported that the presidential motorcade was attacked in the town of The Tambo, 382 kilometers south of Quito, when the president was heading to a delivery of works. According to the Minister of Energy, Ines Manzano, About 500 people approached the procession and They began to throw stones and blunt objects at the vehicles.
“There are signs of bullets in the president’s car”declared Manzano, who accompanied Noboa during the tour, and confirmed that he filed a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office for attempted assassination of the president. The official also warned that ““This is not going to go unpunished.”
According to the government, the attacks occurred within the framework of the national strike called by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), the largest organization of its kind in the country. The protest maintains Intermittent road blocks from at least three provinces.
After the attack, the president expressed: “We are not going to allow vandals to prevent us from working for you.””, and urged the population to “not follow the bad examples” of those who try to hinder the administration of the government.
The climate of protests in Ecuador
Currently, Ecuador is under a state of emergency in 12 provinces, decreed to contain the demonstrations, which They have already left one indigenous person dead, 12 soldiers injured and more than 100 detained, among them 12 accused of terrorism, according to official data.
For its part, the Indigenous Confederation denounced on the social network “brutal police and military action” in El Tambo and accused the government of having “orchestrated violence against the mobilized people.” The leaders of the organization insisted that the protests are peaceful, and that the violent acts are the work of infiltrators.
Source: Ambito
