Protesting Ecuador Police Surround Correa, Force Closure of Quito Airport
Ecuadorean police protesting a government plan to trim their benefits shut down the Quito airport and hurled water at President Rafael Correa as he tried to mediate the dispute.
A group of police surrounded the presidential palace, burning tires and clashing with security forces, images on the Telesur television channel showed. About 150 police took over the airport and the Mariscal Sucre police base, according to television station TeleAmazonas.
“Here I am. If they want to kill me, go ahead,” President Rafael Correa, 47, said in a speech at the police station while being heckled by protesters. “I won’t back down.”
Ecuadorean police are demanding higher salaries after congress last night approved changes to the country’s public service law that would limit expected increases.
Gen. Luis Ernesto Gonzalez, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the armed forces may patrol the streets to “guarantee external and internal security.” Looters were attacking banks, malls in the city of Guayaquil, CRE Radio reported.
“We’re faced with a process of destabilization of the national government and democracy in Ecuador,” Interior Minister Miguel Carvajal said, according to the EFE news service.
The extra yield investors demand to hold Ecuadorean dollar bonds instead of U.S. Treasuries narrowed six basis points, or 0.06 percentage point, to 10.36 percent at 12:33 p.m. New York time, according to JPMorgan’s EMBI+ index. Ecuador’s so-called spread has widened 23 basis points this quarter, while the index has narrowed 58 basis points.
To contact the reporters on this story: Nathan Gill in Quito at ngill4@bloomberg.net; Alexander Emery in Lima at aemery1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page