cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6352050
The video is shocking. The footage is low quality, shot from above and behind the scene: A group of people run from state security forces up an empty highway at full speed. Four people are carrying a limp body. But under the fire of gunshots, tear gas and police sirens, three of the people drop the body and flee. The other man, in a blue jacket, kneels beside the body, and holds onto him.
Two armored vehicles arrive, lights flashing. Two men in green fatigues, helmets and body gear jump out. They point their weapons, and begin to kick and beat the two men on the ground — one alive, though he would end up unconscious and hospitalized, one already dead. The latter’s name was Efraín Fuerez. He was a 46-year-old Indigenous Kichwa community member from Cotacachi, Ecuador, and the father of two children.
Reports say Ecuadorian armed forces shot Fuerez three times with live ammunition the morning of September 28 on the Pan-American Highway close to the town of Ilumán. There is no video of the shooting itself, which took place immediately before these images.
Fuerez was the first to be killed by state forces after a week of widespread protests, led by Ecuador’s largest Indigenous movement, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), against President Daniel Noboa’s austerity measures.
“Justice is what I want for my husband’s life,” Fuerez’s wife told a local media outlet. “He wasn’t a terrorist or someone bad. He was a hard worker. All I ask for is justice, for my husband and all of the people who are detained.”
“The police and military, using lethal weapons and ammunition, are shooting to kill against our communities as we exercise our legitimate right to social protest,” CONAIE posted on social media. “Efraín’s death was a direct execution in the midst of the repression … This act constitutes a very serious violation of human rights.”
CONAIE had announced an “immediate and indefinite national strike” on September 18 in response to Noboa’s lifting of diesel subsidies that sent gas prices skyrocketing by nearly 60 percent. Protests have since rippled across the country.