The Ecuadorean government reached a deal with indigenous activists on Sunday night to end 11 days of violent protests, saying it would withdraw a presidential decree that scraps fuel subsidies and replace it with a new one.
President Lenín Moreno hailed the agreement as “a solution for peace and for the country”.
“The Government will replace decree 883 with a new one that contains mechanisms to focus resources on those who need them most,” he tweeted, after talks with indigenous leaders brokered by the UN and the Catholic Church.
He did not give details of what the new decree would entail.
Mr Moreno announced decree 883 last week. It scrapped fuel subsidies that had been in place for 40 years. He said it would save the state $1.3bn a year as it strives to meet the targets of a $4.2bn IMF lending programme.
The end of the subsidies led to sharp rises in gasoline prices and diesel prices doubled overnight. Transport workers, leftist activists and indigenous groups took to the streets in protest, fighting violent battles with the police and armed forces, who this weekend have been deployed to enforce a curfew in the capital Quito.
At least five people have been killed during the protests and over 2,000 arrested or injured in the Andean nation’s worst violence in years.
The IMF and economists will be waiting to see what the new presidential decree contains to assess its impact on the IMF lending programme.
