Ecuador’s defense minister on Wednesday described an attack on the motorcade of right-wing President Daniel Noboa, from which he emerged unscathed, as an “assassination attempt.”
Noboa was inaugurating a water treatment plant in central Ecuador when his motorcade was set on Tuesday by a group of stone-throwing demonstrators protesting against rising fuel prices.
Environment Minister Ines Manzano said his vehicle also bore bullet marks.
“The level of aggression with which the convoy was attacked indicates that this was a clear assassination attempt and an act of terrorism against the president,” Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo told Teleamazonas TV channel.
Loffredo said the perpetrators wanted to “wreak havoc” and added that nothing would stop Noboa from “delivering projects in rural areas, reaching the most needy areas in person.”
Video released by the government, reportedly filmed from inside the motorcade, shows protesters standing in the road, draped in flags, scrambling to collect large stones and bricks.
As the president’s armored SUV passed, projectiles hit the paneling and left cracks in the windows.
A voice can be heard shouting, “Heads down! Heads down!” as the vehicle sped away.
The alleged attack came days into a series of increasingly violent, mainly Indigenous-led demonstrations sparked by Noboa’s decision to cut fuel subsidies.
The move caused the price of diesel to soar.
A protester was shot and killed during protests on September 28.
The country’s main Indigenous organization, Conaie, blamed the security forces for his death.
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