The drama of a young Argentine tourist stuck in Ecuador amidst protests

Marisol Natalia Cabrera He arrived on vacation in Ecuador nearly three weeks ago and this Sunday he was hoping to celebrate his 32 years in the jungle. However, for several days, he was arrested by soldiers and people who threw stones at vehicles that were not unemployed and took refuge in family homes and youth hostels to escape chaos and leave the country.

The situation experienced by the biology doctor is similar to that of the journalist Nelson Castro and a TN team who, in the last 48 hours, had to take refuge in a hotel, were victims of police repression and detained by protesters at a congress. indigenous

His telephone experience was told by telephone in Cabrera: "I stopped with an indigenous community in a remote area of ​​the cities, called Indichuris (in the center of the country) .With unemployment, the community did not have the resources needed to feed me and in the area.There are no shops to buy food. So, they invited me to retire. "he said to Télam.

"Friends in Baños have said that here the situation was calm and that it was a good place to take refuge," he added. This city is located 90 kilometers west of Indichuris, almost halfway between the capital, Quito, and Guayaquil, the economic heartland of the country and where President Lenin Moreno took refuge when demonstrations erupted and that the national strike against the elimination of the fuel subsidy.

It took a day and a half in Cabrera to travel 90 kilometers.

"There was no transport because for unemployment to be total, here neighbors stitch their wheels together and stoned cars trying to pass the barricades"said the young researcher and added that" the road is full of barricades "and that many people have approached him to say" do not walk alone, it was very dangerous. "

When he arrived in Puyo, he met "A city on fire." There were looting, fires and barricades everywhere, people break windows of business and police launch tear gas bombs. "

"I looked for housing and they said that it was not convenient for me to go to the hotel because they were looted. After several tours, an inhabitant invited me to spend the night, "he continued. The next day, he had to continue because his host also left his house to look for a refugee on a farm in the jungle. He still had 60 kilometers to go to Baños.

"The first section I made in a local car, until the military stopped us to check the vehicle, my luggage and ask me what I was doing there, then I had to walk around the barricades. Along the way, I saw resistance trucks distributing plates of food to reduce food shortages, "he said.

"At one point, another person offered to take me to another stretch, but I had to go down because she threw stones at us trying to cross a roadblock." I finally reached Baños while walking, "he added. In this zone, "the situation is calmer", but not all the time: "We had to dig twice in the hostel: one when the natives who had gone to Quito for Wednesday's protest passed, and another when the natives returned from Quito to their cities. We are also afraid of shortages or lack of fuel in the city, "he said.

This morning, he went to the Baños tourist office with 70 other people – including many tourists – to ask the officials to help them leave the area. According to a video showing the news agency, the official explained that he had spoken with several cooperatives in the region to make their trucks or buses available, but they all refused because they "fear being stoned on the road".