Key Points
- Ecuador's government has lowered fuel prices after protests by indigenous groups led to food and medicine shortages.
- Protests organised by indigenous organisation CONAIE erupted across Ecuador on 13 June.
Ecuador's government and indigenous leaders have reached an agreement to end more than two weeks of protests against the social and economic policies of President Guillermo Lasso which left at least eight dead.
Protests organised by indigenous organisation CONAIE erupted across Ecuador on 13 June, with demonstrators' demands including lower fuel prices and limits to further expansion of the mining and oil industries.
The protests also led to food and medicine shortages and severely impacted the oil industry, Ecuador's main source of income, according to energy ministry figures.
"We have achieved the supreme value to which we all aspire: peace in our country," Mr Lasso said in a message on Twitter that celebrated the end of the protests.
As part of the deal, the government agreed to again lower fuel costs, including on the most used petrol and diesel, by an extra 5 cents, following previous cuts of 10 cents per gallon.
The total price cut of 15 cents on both fuels will cost some $340 million ($A493 million) a year, the finance ministry said.
The agreement could lift a declaration of force majeure over state-run Petroecuador's exports of Oriente crude oil by 7 July, a company executive said. The protests had cut daily oil production by more than half the prior level.
Protests organised by indigenous organisation CONAIE erupted across Ecuador on 13 June, with demonstrators' demands including lower fuel prices and limits to further expansion of the mining and oil industries. Source: AAP / EPA
Mr Lasso also offered to scrap a decree for oil projects and reform a similar one for mining projects. The reform will ensure communities have the right to be consulted on such developments.
"We're going to keep fighting," said CONAIE leader Leonidas Iza, even though protests would be suspended. Some leaders disagreed over certain points of the deal.
Mr Lasso's adversarial relationship with Ecuador's national assembly deteriorated during the protests. Opposition lawmakers pushed a vote to oust him earlier this week, which he narrowly survived.
The government and protest leaders restarted talks with mediation from the Catholic church after they were suspended by Mr Lasso.
Protesters complained of police violence during the demonstrations and the government reported scores of injured security force members, while one soldier was killed during an attack on a convoy carrying fuel to Ecuador's largest oil field.
Ecuador's Energy Minister Xavier Vera said on Thursday the country expected to begin recovering oil wells closed during the protests, aiming to return the majority to production within a month.
Ecuador's pre-crisis oil production of some 500,000 barrels per day had fallen to 234,310 as of Wednesday after more than 1,200 wells were shut.
