QUITO (Reuters) -Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa’s car was surrounded by a group of around 500 people throwing rocks as he approached an event in Cañar province, a top minister said, adding “signs of bullet damage” were found afterward on the president’s vehicle.
Environment and Energy Minister Ines Manzano spoke on Tuesday after formally filing a report of an assassination attempt against Noboa. The president was not hurt and five people have been detained, the minister added.
“Shooting at the president’s car, throwing stones, damaging state property – that’s just criminal,” Manzano said. “We will not allow this.”
The national Indigenous federation CONAIE, however, said that orchestrated violence had broken out against the people who mobilized for Noboa’s arrival, saying that elderly women were among those attacked in a “brutal police and military action.”
“At least five of us have been arbitrarily detained,” it said in a post on X.
CONAIE launched a strike action 16 days ago, organizing marches and blockading some roads, in a protest against the government ending diesel subsidies.
A video from inside a car published by the presidency showed people throwing rocks on the side of the road and fracture marks on the car window. A separate image published by the presidency showed a car with broken windows and a fractured windscreen.
It was not clear from the images whether a bullet had fired.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Alexander Villegas and Kylie Madry)
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