QUITO: Indigenous Ecuadorans used burning tires, tree trunks and stones to block access to capital Quito on Friday in protest against high fuel prices and living costs.

Protests and roadblocks were registered in 15 of Ecuador’s 24 provinces, authorities said, with hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Quito alone.

Firefighters said a truck carrying demonstrators overturned in Quito, injuring many people.

“We came to claim our rights because we are paid low prices for the products we produce,” Nelson Jami, a farmer from the southern Cotopaxi province, told the AFP at a blockade south of Quito.

Indigenous people, who make up over a million of Ecuador’s 17.7 million inhabitants, embarked on an open-ended anti-government protest on Monday that has since been joined by students and other discontented groups.

Oil producer Ecuador has been hit by rising inflation, unemployment and poverty exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Fuel prices have risen sharply since 2020, almost doubling for diesel from $1 to $1.90 per gallon and rising from $1.75 to $2.55 for petrol.

The powerful Confederation of Indig­enous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), which called the protests, wants the price reduced to $1.50 for diesel and $2.10 for petrol.

Conaie is credited with helping topple three Ecuadoran presidents between 1997 and 2005.

On Wednesday, President Guillermo Lasso said the government’s door was open to dialogue, “but we will not give in to violent groups that seek to impose their rules”.

Conaie leader Leonidas Iza, for his part, said the government was not making any concessions required for negotiations to begin.

Published in Dawn,June 18th, 2022