Police Violence Increases After Dialogue Breakdown in Ecuador

"Lasso's 'triumph' is a country where the elites see the poor as objects created at their service, objects that can be suffocated, tortured, and killed," said Pedro Granja, a constitutional lawyer.

After President Guillermo Lasso broke off dialogue with the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAEI) on Tuesday, riot police intensified their attempt to control the massive protests, which continue to escalate across the country.

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On Tuesday night, the police forcefully repressed residents of San Miguel del Comun, a poor neighborhood located in Quito. Scenes of violence were also recorded at the University of Cuenca, where the police attacked citizens with tear gas.

"This is what San Miguel del Comun looks like right now. Police repress protesters and residents," is heard in a video that community outlet La Calle uploaded to social networks on the 16th day of the national strike.

“There are suffocated children and several wounded,” community outlet Wambra reported from San Miguel del Comun as the National Assembly was meeting to vote on a motion for the dismissal of Lasso.

“There are hundreds of people and the police are launching tear gas canisters. We demand that the repression stops!,” the Alliance of Organizations for Human Rights said regarding what was happening at the University of Cuenca in the south of the country.

"Lasso's 'triumph' is a country where the elites see the poor as objects created at their service, objects that can be suffocated, tortured and killed. What happened yesterday in San Miguel del Comun is the x-ray of a criminal government," denounced Pedro Granja, a constitutional lawyer.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) denounced that the military and riot police fired tear gas and pellets at Indigenous demonstrators, among whom were children and adolescents. The CRC issued a statement in response “to the large number of Indigenous children and adolescents subjected to violent repression”.

“According to several reliable sources, potentially lethal forms of ammunition, such as buckshot, have been authorized to suppress protests. We have also received reports of children being exposed to serious side effects caused by the indiscriminate and disproportionate use of tear gas,” the UN Committee stated.

"As a consequence of the repressive actions of the State, many boys and girls wander alone through the country's capital, without protection and without contact with their adult relatives."