(MENAFN- The Rio Times) Quito woke to roadblocks, armored vehicles, and dense police lines as Indigenous groups and social movements converged on the capital to protest a sharp fuel-price change.

Marchers set out from the southern district of Villa Flora toward El Arbolito, the city's traditional protest hub, but were met by cordons and tear gas in several areas.

Metro service and key bus corridors were curtailed at the request of security forces, and rolling closures on main arteries slowed commerce across the center.

The story behind the story is simple-and consequential. On September 12 the government ended the diesel subsidy, lifting the pump price from $1.80 to $2.80 per gallon, a jump of roughly 55 percent.

Officials have insisted that passenger fares should not increase and promised targeted compensation for transport sectors.

Indigenous organizations, unions, and truckers argue that diesel is the backbone of mobility and food distribution; when it rises, the costs ripple through markets and hit lower-income families first.


Ecuador Faces Standoff Over Fuel Reforms
The confrontation has hardened. President Daniel Noboa warned that attempts to“take” the capital would meet a legal response.

Security deployments in the thousands ringed the core, and more than one hundred detentions have been reported over three weeks of nationwide actions.

The national transit regulator reminded operators that using public or commercial buses to ferry demonstrators is illegal, underscoring the state's effort to limit the scale and speed of mobilizations.

Why it matters beyond Ecuador: this is a test of how a government unwinds costly fuel subsidies without igniting a broader social crisis.

If the standoff persists, Ecuador faces periodic lockdowns in major cities, strain on small businesses and supply chains, and mounting pressure on household budgets.

What to watch now is whether compensation mechanisms reach drivers quickly, whether local fare decisions follow the government's guidance, and whether the two sides open a channel to defuse a conflict that blends economics, identity, and trust in public institutions.

MENAFN13102025007421016031ID1110187798