MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuador: Lasso halts dialogue with Conaie after Army Sgt killed

“We will not sit down again to dialogue with Leónidas Iza,” Lasso stressed

Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso Tuesday announced in a broadcast message that he was suspending all dialogue with the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) after the death of a military officer during an attack by rebel groups against a convoy in Amazonia.

The Conservative Lasso argued that “the Government cannot sit down to dialogue with those who intend to kidnap the peace of Ecuadorians.”

“During the early morning of Tuesday, June 28, a convoy guarding tankers transporting fuel in Shushufindi was attacked by 100 violent men. As a result of this repudiatory act, José Chimarro, a sergeant of our Armed Forces, died. To his wife, Carmen, and his children, Derlin and Alison, my sincere condolences,” Lasso said upon announcing his decision.

The attack took place Tuesday morning in Shushufindi, Ecuadorian Amazonia. According to Lasso, 12 members of the National Police and the Armed Forces were injured, several of them seriously, after “they were cowardly attacked with firearms and spears.”

Lasso also pointed out that in Azuay, a convoy transporting oxygen for seriously ill patients had been prevented from passing. “We are hours away from people dying due to lack of oxygen. It is a criminal act to play with the lives of innocent people,” the President insisted.

The Head of State also his Government had undertaken a process of rapprochement and implemented actions “concrete to the demands of our indigenous brothers. But we will not negotiate with those who hold Ecuador hostage; with those who attack our security forces and play with the health and lives of Ecuadorians. As long as the necessary guarantees do not exist, the dialogue process cannot continue.”

“Furthermore, we have given concrete answers to the demands of our indigenous brothers. But we will not sit down again to dialogue with Leónidas Iza, who only defends his political interests and not those of his bases,” Lasso pointed out.

“Only when we have legitimate representatives of all the indigenous peoples and nationalities of Ecuador, who seek real solutions and are open to a real and frank dialogue, will we return to the dialogue table,” Lasso stressed. “We have to defend democracy,” he insisted.