QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) – Ecuador’s government and Amazon jungle protestors struck an accord Monday that put an end to 10 days of violence that left one dead and dampened oil output, officials said.
The government had put crude-rich Sucumbios and Orellana provinces under army control after protestors seeking development funds set fire to cars and buildings and one demonstrator was shot dead. A night curfew in jungle towns some 100 miles east of Quito, and a state of emergency that suspended basic civil rights, were lifted after the two sides signed their accord on Monday.
“We’re signing an act this very moment that puts an end to the protests and the state of emergency and restores normal activity,” Interior Minister Marcelo Merlo told reporters.
Protestors, led by local government officials, had seized 60 oil wells, cutting state crude output by 19 percent, and halted construction on a $1.1 billion oil pipeline seen as a lifeline of the nation’s economy.
Their goal was to acquire state funds to improve electric services in an area plagued by constant blackouts, to build roads and tap cheap credits for poor Amazon jungle farmers.
The accord, signed at dawn Monday, ensures an extra 10 megawatts of power within 45 days for the two provinces to limit power outages and 125 miles in new roads, said Orellana provincial leader Daniel Lozada.
It also provides a government cash incentive to local coffee farmers to renew their crops, as well as access to up to $5 million in cheap credits from a state development bank for jungle farmers, Lozada told Reuters. A team of lawmakers helped mediate the conflict last week and arranged a meeting this weekend with representatives from both sides and the United Nations to hammer out a quick deal to quell the violence.
Lozada said one issue still under discussion is a demand by local leaders in Sucumbios that pipeline builder OCP Ecuador SA grant more development funds to the area, the heart of Ecuador’s oil industry. Talks on such funds will
begin in the next few days, he said. OCP says it reached an accord last year with local authorities on development funds. The company aims to finish construction of the pipeline by April 2003, but has faced setbacks due to the protests and rainy weather.
Ecuador’s state oil company estimated losses from the Amazon protests through Friday at 224,000 barrels of crude, valued at about $3.3 million. Crude oil is Ecuador’s biggest export.
