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Ecuador Arrests Shopkeepers for Price Rises, Protests Rage

Reuters

   QUITO - Ecuadorean authorities have begun arresting shopkeepers for
   raising food prices as indigenous groups clashed with security forces
   on Sunday in a fourth day of protests against President Lenin Moreno's
   austerity measures.

   Ecuadoreans complain consumer prices have risen sharply as a knock-on
   effect of Moreno's abolition of fuel subsidies, which has also
   triggered the nation's worst unrest in more than a decade.

   "Everyone's raising prices with the excuse of the gasoline price rise,"
   said disgruntled pensioner Camilo Salazar, 65, at a food market in the
   coastal city of Guayaquil where prices had risen up to a third in just
   a few days.

   The government said 20 people were detained over the weekend for
   over-charging for products including corn, onions, carrots and
   potatoes, which are all subject to price controls.

   "There is no justification for raising the prices," Interior Minister
   Maria Romo said in a statement. Ecuador's dollarized economy had seen
   inflation of just 0.27 percent in 2018.

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