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Indigenous-led protests block Ecuador roads to demand fuel price cuts

AFP

Indigenous protesters blocked roads across Ecuador Monday to demand a fuel price cut, in the latest such demonstration amid rising inflation, unemployment and poverty in the oil-producing South American country.

The nationwide demonstration kicked off at midnight and saw roads blocked with burning tires and barricades of sand, rocks and tree branches in at least 10 of Ecuador’s 24 provinces, authorities said, with access to the capital Quito partly cut off.

The protest was called by the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), which is credited with helping topple three presidents between 1997 and 2005.

Indigenous peoples make up over a million of Ecuador’s 17.7 million inhabitants.

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“This is our show of strength until the government listens,” 42-year-old Manuel Cocha, one of dozens of protesters blocking part of the Pan-American Highway south of Quito, told AFP.

President Guillermo Lasso warned late Sunday that the government would not allow roads or oil installations to be taken over by protesters.

On Monday, Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo said police and soldiers were deployed to “guarantee public order” and Defense Minister Luis Lara said fuel depots and other strategic installations were “under control.”

– We will go on  –

Police commander Fausto Salinas appealed to protesters to stay within the law, saying, “We cannot bring the country to a standstill.”

But Conaie leader Leonidas Iza insisted the demonstrations would continue for as long as was necessary.

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The organization wants the fuel price lowered to $1.50 per gallon (about 3.78 liters) for diesel and $2.10 for gasoline.

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 gasoline.

Lasso froze prices at this level last October after a round of protests led by Conaie that saw dozens arrested and several people, including police, injured in clashes.

Lasso’s price freeze failed to assuage simmering anger in a country that exports crude oil but imports much of the fuel it consumes.

Poverty affects more than a quarter of Ecuadorans, according to 2021 data, and only about one in three have “adequate employment,” in a country with a large informal job sector.

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The protesters are demanding the government address these issues, as well as price controls on agricultural products that hurt farmers and mining concessions granted in indigenous territories.

Lasso, who took office a year ago, warned on Twitter late Sunday that “we cannot allow political groups that seek to destabilize… to paralyze the country again.”

In 2019, Conaie-led protests resulted in 11 deaths and forced then-president Lenin Moreno to abandon plans to eliminate fuel subsidies — a way for the government to reduce public spending in exchange for loans from the International Monetary Fund.

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International

Trump will receive Netanyahu at the White House next week

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Washington next week, a high-ranking official of Donald Trump’s government told EFE.

The visit, which according to the specialized portal Jewish Insider will take place on Monday, comes amid pressure from Washington to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza strip.

The US president launched a message on Sunday on his social network Truth calling for an immediate agreement to end the conflict and “release the hostages.”

This message follows another one from last Friday in which he assured that a solution to the conflict in Palestine could be reached as early as this week.

“We are working in Gaza and trying to solve it. We are supplying a lot of money and a lot of food to that area because we have to do it,” the president stressed at an event in Washington.

In addition to publicly insisting on his desire to reach a cease of hostilities in the region, Trump has also supported Netanyahu, a key ally, despite the fact that the Israeli is going through a judicial process where he is charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three different criminal cases.

Israel has maintained its offensive in Gaza, in a resurgence of the conflict that has already lasted for more than a year and that leaves dozens of deaths daily.

The Israeli Army has intensified its attacks in the north of the Strip after ordering last Sunday the forced evacuation of residents in several neighborhoods of the capital of Gaza and the northern city of Yabalia.

Since October 7, 2023, at least 56,259 Palestinians have died and more than 132,000 have been injured by Israeli fire, according to figures from the Ministry of Health of the Hamas Government.

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International

The US climate agency will lose access to key data for hurricane forecasting in July

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on Monday that it will lose access to essential satellite data for the hurricane forecast on July 31, when the Department of Defense will stop sharing the images with that US agency.

Initially, NOAA was going to lose access to the data from today Monday, but managed to extend the deadline since NASA, which was also going to be affected by the measure, requested an extension until July 31.

According to a NOAA statement, late on Friday, June 27, the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command received a request from Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division, “to postpone the withdrawal and continue processing and distributing data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program until July 31.”

The original decision to cut off access to satellite data as of today was made with the aim of “mitigating a significant cybersecurity risk,” according to the note.

NOAA’s access to data provided by the Defense Weather Satellite Program was crucial for predicting hurricane formation, since they allowed to mediate variables that were not available to conventional satellites.

In addition, the measure takes place in the middle of hurricane season, which experts expect to be more intense than normal in the Atlantic Ocean.

According to the Colorado State University (CSU), the probability of a major hurricane, category 3 or higher, impacting the United States in the current Atlantic cyclone season amounts to 51%.

This coincides with the approval in the Lower House of Congress of the controversial “great and beautiful bill” of US President Donald Trump, which includes a cut of almost 30% of the annual budget to NOAA and 646 million dollars to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

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International

The Argentine justice declares Milei’s measure that limited the right to strike unconstitutional

The Justice of Argentina declared on Monday the unconstitutionality of two articles of the decree signed on May 20 by President Javier Milei that limited the right to strike of workers from various sectors, giving rise to a precautionary measure requested by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the main workers’ central of the country.

The decision was made by the National Labor Court No. 3, which ordered to stop the application of articles 2 and 3 of decree 340/2025, considering that they violate constitutional guarantees such as freedom of association and the right to strike, established in the Constitution and in international agreements signed by Argentina.

The decree modified article 24 of Law 25,877, which regulates collective labor conflicts, and declared a long list of activities as essential, limiting the possibility of its workers to carry out union action measures.

Judge Moira Fullana, who intervened in the case, argued that the unconstitutionality is based on the fact that, at the time of the signing of the decree, the National Congress was in full function, so there was no justification of necessity and urgency that deserved to skip the legislative treatment of such modifications.

On June 2, Fullana had provisionally failed to suspend the application of this measure, in response to another precautionary measure, requested by the Association of State Workers (ATE).

Until before its recent challenge, Decree 340/2025 required to guarantee between 50% and 75% of the usual benefits in sectors such as the production of medicines and/or hospital supplies, land and underground transport, radio and television, industrial activities, the food industry, the production and distribution of building materials, all airport services, logistics services, mining activity, refrigeration activity, mail and the distribution and marketing of food and beverages, among others, even during trade union conflicts.

The Government also included in that list of essential services all branches of maritime and river transport, customs, immigration services and education at all levels.

The measure, originally included in an extensive decree of general deregulation of the economy signed by Milei shortly after its assumption in December 2023, had already been unconstitutional by the Argentine Justice at that time.

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