Ecuadorian President assures drug trafficking financed the national strike

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, assured that drug trafficking would have financed with more than US$15 million the demonstrations in the country for 18 days called by indigenous organizations.

Lasso said in an interview with Infobae that, although he considers the demands for rural and peasant development of the mobilizations to be fair, there would have been an alliance of the indigenous organizations and the correísmo, with the financing of drug trafficking, to “fabricate a protest to overthrow” his government.

“This is an alliance with Correism, and in this alliance participates a third actor, which is the one that puts the money for the protests, which will have cost more than US$15 million for 18 days. This actor is drug trafficking in Ecuador,” detailed the Ecuadorian president, accusing former president Rafael Correa of wanting to alter public order from his exile in Belgium.

Likewise, Lasso pointed out that Correa and the organizers of the mobilizations would have coordinated the protests because “they were looking for the destabilization of the country”.

“This is the political action of a former president sentenced for corruption, who lives on the run in Belgium, who seeks to alter public order, allied with certain political leaders who use the indigenous people as a kind of parapet to say ‘this is a social protest’,” he added.

These statements have taken place while implementing the ten thematic dialogue tables agreed upon by the Executive and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) to address the main social needs.

On Thursday, July 7, both parties had their first meeting to define the road map to fulfill the agreements that put an end to this month’s protests, which lasted for more than two weeks, leaving at least six dead.

With information from La Tercera

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