Protests in Ecuador: two soldiers who were held by protesters since Tuesday are released

The two military ecuadorians who had been held since Tuesday in a commune north of Quito were released with the assistance of the Red Cross and will return to their families in the next few hours.

This was announced this Wednesday by the Minister of Government (Interior), Alexandra Vela, in statements to the media, shortly after a press conference in which he took stock of the second day of protests that the Andean country is experiencing.

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“As a result of a mediation process with the Ecuadorian Red Cross and the International Red Cross council, the two soldiers who were kidnapped in the Pijal commune yesterday were just handed over to the Armed Forces”announced the minister.

And abounded that “They will be delivered in a few hours to their families from where they should never have left”, So it is “A moment of joy for all of us.”

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The two soldiers were captured on Tuesday in the province of Imbabura when, according to the Government, they carried out “Logistics activities” dresses “civil”, and within the application of indigenous law as a consequence of the state of protest decreed by its leaders.

Retaining the military and police, as representatives of the State, is a practice that indigenous communities also applied in 2019, in the worst wave of social protests that the country experienced in decades.

At the press conference, Vela refused to refer to the event as a “retention”, and insisted on calling it a “kidnapping”, for which, he assured, the State “It will resort to legal measures for it to be sanctioned” those responsible.

Ecuador Since Tuesday, a state of social mobilization has been experienced in which the unions and the indigenous movement have urged citizens to block roads and demonstrate against what they consider to be the neoliberal policies of the Executive of Guillermo Lasso and the rise in fuels.

Today, roads were blocked in at least nine provinces, where the Police intervened to open them and clear the protesters from the roads.

For the minister, “The Ecuadorian people have shown one more day that they want to continue working” across the country, and in a balance of the day said that there were “intermittent blockades”, the worst case south of Quito, at a crossing of the Aloag road that connects the capital with the city of Santo Domingo, to the west, and with Latacunga, to the south.

These interruptions occurred on a dozen roads of which seven of them have already been cleared.

Regarding the clashes at some points, he assured in the face of complaints of excessive use of force that the Police and the Armed Forces acted “According to human rights” and that has not been registered “No effect of affectation in the citizens”.

This despite complaints from social groups and even a ONG who denounced a “point blank” shot with a rubber bullet against a journalist.

Vela recalled that the police officers are attacked with “flying (homemade rockets), sticks, stones and even cobblestones”, and as a result there are eight officers injured.

And he assured that the forces of order will continue “Guaranteeing the free transit of Ecuadorians on all roads in the country” and “Arresting those people who commit this crime.”

Regarding the detainees so far, several dozen that the organizers of the protest demand that they be released, he indicated that nine are already on the street and “three are still subject to the judicial process ”.

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Deshawn