(Translation Original e-mail in Spanish, 5 February 2001, from Marcelo Ruiz, Asociacion Ecuatorianos Unidos, Toronto-Canada)

Ecuador: Army Attacks Village in the East

Four persons dead

In eastern Ecuador, the army has used troops and helicopters to attack Puerto Napo and other villages in Napo province, where, under the leadership of CONAIE and the Patriotic Front, villagers were carrying out protests against the government and its state of emergency.

Two people died in the attack at 6:30 this morning. They are Juán Garcés, age 19, and a teacher from the UNE whose name has not been confirmed. Another five were seriously wounded and are in hospital.
They are Klinger Grefa, David Tapuy, Marco Grefa, and Mateo Grefa.
Several people were detained.

The army has also entered Tena, the provincial capital, and is using teargas and firepower. Compañero Carlos Cabrera Rojas has been killed by soldiers and latest reports are that a boy has also been killed.

This war against an unarmed people continued at mid-day. Tena’s Radio Fuego has been shut down and is under military control. In La Costa, in Los Rios province, local leaders are being treated as criminals. Adolfo Puente Tello, provincial director of the MPD (the Popular Democratic Movement) was arrested, with a great show of force, by special forces. Also arrested were Luis Palma, leader of a small businesspersons’ association and a member of the Patriotic Front.

In the meantime, in Quito, Compañero Samuel Vargas, national vice-president of the National Teachers Union, (the UNE) remains under arrest.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombs planted yesterday in the offices of a bank and a transport company in Quito. On the contrary, there are many rumours that (the bombs) are but another attempt by the military to justify its brutal repression against the people of Ecuador (and an attempt) to impose the IMF’s conditions.

The Patriotic Front and other organizations are calling for a general strike this Wednesday, February 7th, and for all sectors of society to continue the struggle. Activists from CONAIE are continuing the hunger strike begun last Saturday and others joined them today.

CONAIE’s leaders were in dialogue with the government, as was reported in the bourgeois press. The dialogue has been broken off, for "lack of guarantees."

José Izquierdo
Servicio informativo del periódico EN MARCHA
PCMLE

E-mail or faxed protests should be directed to:

Dr. Gustavo Noboa Bejarano
Presidente de la República del Ecuador
Fax: (5931)(580735)
despresi@presidencia.ec-gov.net
vpre@uio.telconet.net

Abogado Juan Manrique
MINISTRO DE GOBIERNO Y POLICIA
Fax: (593-2) 580067
ministrog@presidencia.ec-gov.net

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