Protesters hold police hostages in Quito

The indigenous protesters kept at least six policemen in Quito today and warned that they would apply ancestral justice to their victims if the security forces attacked this siege, in full crisis to protest massively. against the economic adjustment ordered by the government.

"Outside, they tell us that the government is starting to send tear bombs now, so our aboriginal leaders will not release the police because we need respect, they attack us, we will apply aboriginal justice." he told the press. EFE news agency Fabián Masabanda, indigenous of the province of Imbabura.

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Masabanda warned that if the security forces attacked the area where they were, the House of Ecuadorian Culture (CEC), "we are not responsible for the life of the police".

The detention of the agents takes place at a time when the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) yesterday declared "mourning" after the death of a protester, as confirmed by the mediator .

According to Masabanda, the police were arrested "because they started to attack".

"We arrive in peace, but the government has brutally abused us," he said, denouncing that yesterday police "attacked with tear gas" a neighborhood of the university where they spent the night since their arrival in Quito as part of protests exploded a week ago with the elimination of the fuel subsidy.

An EFE journalist discovered that the natives had forced the detained police to use their radios to ask their colleagues abroad not to repress the natives.

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They were motorized policemen who were captured in the morning around the Casa de la Cultura, in north-central Quito, near which some of the riots took place this week.

Aboriginal peoples are asking that the forces surrounding El Arbolito Park, as well as this institution, move away to be able to leave.

Grouped in Conaiee, one of the largest indigenous organizations in the country, protesters arrived in Quito earlier this week to participate in demonstrations against the elimination of the fuel subsidy, decreed in the of a credit agreement with the Monetary Fund. International (IMF).

This resulted in an increase of 1.85 to 2.39 in "extra" gasoline (the most popular) and 1.03 to 2.27 in "premium" diesel and led to the rejection of unions, have been on the street since last Thursday.