QUITO, Ecuador. The curfew goes into effect at 8:00 p.m. and is lifted at 5:00 a.m. It is the morning of October 12, Indigenous Peoples’ Day. At 12:41 a.m., an explosion brings time to a halt between 6 de Deciembre Avenue and Tarqui Street, the location of the State Comptroller’s offices.
The government declared that a domestic-use gas tank had been detonated. Who did it? On social media, city residents report that they continue to hear successive explosions in different locations until around 3:00 a.m. They fear that a "massacre” is underway in Quito.
Neither children, nor women
For eleven days, the streets of the Ecuadorian capital have been militarized and besieged by tear gas bombs. The figures for the October 3rd through 12th National Strike in Ecuador currently stand at 7 dead, 1,340 injured, 1,121 detainees (as reported by the Ombudsman's Office), 1,152 detainees, 108 injured police officers (according to the Government Ministry), and 115 journalists attacked.
