QUITO: Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno said he struck a deal late on Sunday with indigenous leaders who have mobilised thousands of protesters against a decree that slashed fuel subsidies, agreeing to replace it with one that does more to help the most needy.
"A solution for peace and for the country: the government will substitute Decree 883 for a new one that has mechanisms for directing the resources to the people who need it the most," Moreno later said on Twitter.Juan Sebastian Roldan, Moreno's secretary of government, said that both sides planned to continue talking late on Sunday to start drafting the new law."Conceding is not losing," Roldan said in broadcast comments."Here we are all conceding.
The unrest has been the worst in the small South American country in more than a decade and the latest flashpoint of opposition to the International Monetary Fund in Latin America. Moreno has denied the fuel subsidy cuts was imposed by the IMF. He had repeatedly refused to bring back the subsidies, saying they were a key part of his bid to clean up the country's finances.