tear gas in ecuador : Pittsburgh Indymedia

tear gas in ecuador
by - Thursday, Oct. 31, 2002 at 1:32 PM

summary of march today

story1.jpg, image/jpeg, 500x375

One Account of March and Teargassing

Quito, Ecuador
Nathan Gove
IMC

I unfortunately do not at the moment have a good record of exact times at which the following events happened, but the approximate time frame is from noon to 2pm. The following is my perspective, and has some editorial comment--my opinion.

Today is the big demonstration. Caravans of campesino and indigenous groups poured in from all directions.

At approximately noon or 12:30 I left the Indymedia office with two other reporters to meet the march, which had finally left Plaza Arbolito. (I had been working on a radio story in the morning and so missed the gathering.) The office had been divided into teams and it was our role to interview foreigners who had come to Quito. We met the march, or at least a part of it, coming towards us (westbound) on Avenida Col�n. It turned right on 9 de Octubre and we followed it down the sidestreet M. Veintimilla to Av. Fco. De Orellana, where a police barricade stood at the eastern edge of the intersection. The march stopped here and turned into a rally. Generally the atmosphere was fairly calm. There were chants, women on a truck wearing rice sacks with slogans like �ALCA es hambre� (The FTAA is hunger). Lots of people were just milling around. I interviewed some students from Washington state who were in Quito for language lessons and just checking things out as well as a couple of women from Argentina who had come to work with a women�s organization to create a women�s center.

Most of the march was pacific, and the indigenous organizations organizing the march were especially emphasizing peaceful actions. But there are some here who carry rocks and seem to be focused on confrontations with police. For example, at one point a police vehicle tried to drive through and into the barricade area--a foolish effort, to be sure. I did not see it enter, but I was told that people were shaking it. It backed up even though there were some people behind. They were able to get out of the way and the vehicle drove rapidly in reverse down Orellana with a few rocks being thrown at it. It bumped into the curb but escaped.

That put a spike in the air, but I still felt fairly safe despite having lost my compa�eros. I continued with my work, interviewing some Ecuadorian students of African decent who had come from Esmeraldas province for the mobilization. Our interview was interrupted by a muted uproar--people were rising to their feet and looking towards the barricade. My view wasn�t that great, but it was my impression that police reinforcements had arrived. I walked around and took a picture or two of the contrast between Ecuadorians in indigenous dress and the police in grey with helmets and shields. After a few moments someone climbed up the steps of a statue, facing the barricade and the most advanced of the crowd. It was one of the indigenous leaders and they were announcing that the march would leave and go somewhere else (to a specific location which I didn�t understand). There was then a surprising (to me) challenge that rose, one man yelling that the police were there, that the crowd needed to confront the police. The man at the statue kept talking and certainly had the support of the crowd near him, but the other angry man challenged him again. The challenger was denounced; I heard one man yell �anarchista!� After a couple of minutes the crowd began going west on Orellana, away from the barricade towards Ave. 10 de Agosto, where the trolley runs. I followed. We marched south in the middle of the street, blocking the trolley line, but only for two or three blocks, turning east again on Col�n.

The crowd I was with met up with another large group coming west on Col�n, coming together with flags waving and puppets and chants at Ave. Rio Amazonas. There was a thin police barricade at the northern end of the intersection with Amazonas. (A stronger police line was one block back.) When the groups first met, someone said to sit down. I and a few other people did, but the notion didn�t catch on. I was recording chants when a few guys climbed up past the barricade on top of this giant black armored police vehicle, with banners. There were cheers. The police seems to think it better to move the vehicle away, but it only moved back and forth at first because it was parked perpendicular to the street. The first two or three people on top of the black beast were brought off peacefully and re-entered the crowd. One more guy climbed up and was trying to attach a banner, but the vehicle was close to turned-around. He was a little flustered and dropped the banner and threw his backpack down before being helped to the ground. He, too, made it back to the crowd.

Shortly thereafter, some guys at the front by the police line said �come here, come here�, getting a bit of the crowd to press against the police. Other people (myself included) retreated down the street a little, not wanting to be involved in such a confrontation. At this time I met up with my compa�ero, who was very apologetic about having left me alone--I hadn�t thought it was that much of a problem. But I followed him back, and we actually made it behind the police line by flashing our Indymedia passes. The crowd was pushing harder and began to stress the police line. This is when I used my last pictures. Suddenly there were percussive explosions--tear gas canisters. We all ran away, down the street towards the second police line. The crowd was cleared completely from the intersection. Someone gave me some vinegar for my hankerchief. I struggled with goggles, gave up, went back and forth, and then came back to the now-clear intersection. I had been with a few other Indymedia folks, but was a little separated when a young woman angled in and yelled at the police ��Ustedes han matado a un ni�o!� (You killed a boy!) before running away. I saw a woman in indigenous dress running towards me on the other side of the street, with a child in very bad condition. She turned around and disappeared from my view, but I soon saw Red Cross medics coming in the area. People started yelling ��Asesino! �Asesino!�

As far as I can tell, the child did not die. But I spent more than an hour thinking he did. I don�t know if we have complete confirmation in either direction.

The woman and child I saw were in the third picture of http://www.ecuador.indymedia.org/es/2002/10/708.shtml.

There were other injuries--people hit by gas cannisters and people affected by the gas. At the website I just quoted there is the following information which translated from Spanish:

"The repression in the wall of the site of meeting of the ministers of commerce resulted in six wounded and various persons bruised and choked by teargas, the most serious being two infants of approximately four months of age who were asphyxiated to the point to which there was concern for the life of one. The infants were transferred to the hospital Baca Ortiz by the Red Cross; these children are children of retailers who work in the area. Another severely wounded is Luis Mu�oz, president of the judicial employees of Ecuador, who was hit by a tear gas missle near the heart which cause one cardiac arythmia (?) and was transferred to the hospital Eugene Mirror. The other three were hit with tear cannisters in their legs and were taken care of locally by the Red Cross, one of these is an indigenous woman of fifty years of age approximately."

(I also saw one fellow who had been struck on his arm by a cannister. --Nathan)