Ecuador’s Minister of Environment and Energy, Inés Manzano, filed a complaint with the State Attorney General’s Office for attempted assassination of President Daniel Noboa during a demonstration rejecting his presence in the province of Cañar.
In statements to the press from outside the Prosecutor’s Office, in Quito, the official said that it is “a complaint for attempted assassination of the president of the Republic in the canton of Tambo, when he was preparing to hold an event (…) which is the wastewater treatment and sewerage plant.”
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According to Manzano, when the president approached the place where the event would take place, “500 people appeared and threw stones at him and there are signs of bullets in the president’s car.”
The minister indicated that the president is well and continued his agenda in that territory of the Ecuadorian southern highlands. In addition, he confirmed the arrest of five people, who will be prosecuted for the alleged crime of terrorism.
The events took place on the 16th day of the protests promoted by the indigenous movement against economic measures of the Noboa government, mainly due to the rise in diesel prices after the elimination of the subsidy.
For its part, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) criticized the repression of demonstrators in the province of Cañar, where the president, Daniel Noboa, arrived, who were mobilizing in rejection of Noboa’s presence.
The organization stated that “the militarization of the territory seeks to intimidate social protest.” “We denounce that at least five colleagues have been arbitrarily detained. Among those attacked are elderly women,” said Conaie.
After what happened, the Ecuadorian Presidency said on its account X that the demonstrators obeyed radicalization orders and attacked a presidential motorcade in which civilians were traveling to prevent “by force, the delivery of a work aimed at improving the life of a community.”
Ecuador is on the sixteenth day of the strike called by Conaie, which demands that the government return the diesel subsidy, reduce the Value Added Tax (VAT) to 12 percent, state attention to health, education and security, and release detainees.
