Ecuador declares state of emergency as fuel protests block roads
Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno declared a state of emergency on Thursday (October 03) as nationwide protests broke out over the end of decades-old fuel subsidies in a government fiscal reform package worth more than $2 billion a year.
As the fuel measure came into effect on Thursday, protesters set barricades alight and threw rocks at riot police on duty. Officers responded by using tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Moreno, who won election in 2017 to replace Rafael Correa, told reporters the "perverse" fuel subsidy, in place for 40 years, had distorted the economy and protests would not be allowed to paralyse Ecuador.
The government wants to reduce the fiscal deficit from an estimated $3.6 billion this year to under $1 billion in 2020.
Ecuador's debt grew under Correa, who endorsed Moreno in the 2017 election but has since become a critic of his successor's turn toward more market-friendly economic policies.
Moreno's government reached a $4.2 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in February. But skepticism of the IMF runs strong in Ecuador and throughout Latin America, where many blame austerity policies for economic hardship.
(Source: Reuters)
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