Small pamphlet bombs exploded in three cities, and Ecuador's powerful Indian movement blocked a major highway on Monday to demand the resignation of President Lucio Gutierrez as foreign ministers from 34 countries gathered for a regional meeting.
Three bombs exploded in Quito; one in Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city; and three in Cuenca in southern Ecuador. No one was reported hurt.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The pamphlets in the bombs attacked the Organization of American States General (OAS) Assembly meeting that opened on Monday, the government's economic poli-cies, and the "expansion of imperialism," police said.
The pamphlets carried the name of the so-called Group of People's Combatants, or GCP by its initials in Spanish, which is one of the obscure local groups that sporadically paint walls with subversive slogans and set off small pamphlet bombs in the country.
Gutierrez, Ecuador's unpopular president, is hosting OAS foreign ministers, including US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a two-day meeting, in which they will discuss regional problems.
Indian leaders promised to escalate their protests during the meeting to demand the resignation of Gutierrez, who is in a bitter feud with the indigenous movement. The protesters also want the OAS ministers to deal with poverty and corruption in the region.
Dozens of Indians playing cat-and-mouse with police troopers managed to block the Pan American Highway, which crosses the country from north to south, in two places north of Quito.
As soon as police cleared the highway and moved away, Indians returned to pile basketball-sized rocks on it, blocking traffic, according to radio news reports.
Leonidas Iza, the leader of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, or CONAIE, said he wanted the OAS delegates to "see there is hunger, there is deep poverty, there is corruption" in Ecuador. Indians make up about 4 million of Ecuador's 13 million people, and Iza said his movement represents 85 percent of them.
Gutierrez, 47, would not have won election in a November 2002 runoff without the support of the Indian movement. His popularity has plunged in recent months and his former Indian allies are determined to force him from office with massive street protests.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
RSS