Representatives of Ecuador's government and Indigenous groups on Thursday signed an agreement to end 18 days of protests against soaring food and fuel prices.

The talks, mediated by the Catholic Church, reached a deal to decrease the price of fuel, among other concessions. 

Minister of Government and Policy Management Francisco Jimenez and Indigenous CONAIE leader Leonidas Iza were among the signatories to the accord, as was negotiator Monsignor Luis Cabrera, the head of the Episcopal Conference in Ecuador. 

The nationwide protests erupted on June 13,  with an estimated 14,000 Ecuadorans taking part in a major show of discontent against deepening hardship, as the country's economy was reeling from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and global inflation.

The protest movement was organized by indigenous organization CONAIE, which opposed high fuel prices and plans for further expansion of the mining and oil industries.

The prolonged protests caused food and medicine shortages across Ecuador, while also severely impacting the oil industry, roughly halving daily production and costing the country some $213 million, according to Energy Ministry figures.

What's in the agreement?

The compromise foresees a reduction in the prices of both gasoline/petrol and diesel, sets limits to the expansion of oil exploration areas and prohibits mining in protected areas, national parks and water sources. 

"We cannot allow violence to take over Ecuador and our differences to deepen. Today is not the end, it is the first day of a great dream for national reconciliation," Jimenez said at the signing in Quito. 

The accord provides the government with 90 days to deliver solutions to the demands of the indigenous groups. 

"We have achieved the supreme value to which we all aspire: peace in our country," President Guillermo Lasso, an ex-banker who took power 13 months ago, said on Twitter announcing the deal. "The strike is over. Now we begin together the task of transforming this peace into progress, well-being, and opportunities for all." 

Among the other concessions made, Lasso increased monthly aid for Ecuador's poorest inhabitants from the equivalent of roughly $50 to $55. 

Minister of foreign affairs says toppling government was real goal

Speaking to DW in Quito after the deal was struck, Ecuador's Minister of Foreign Affairs Juan Carlos Holguin warned against overstating the importance of fuel prices in the protests. He argued that the real goal of opposition groups, which ultimately failed, was to prompt a change of government. 

"The cause of these protests was not the price of fuel. That was a legitimate need of Ecuador's Indigenous population for a long time. But it was a bad analysis: Ecuador has some of the cheapest fuels in the region and perhaps the world," Holguin told DW. "However, these protests coincided with an attempt by a political group to generate a social crisis in the country, to overthrow the president. And that was reflected in the failed impeachment process organized in the national assembly." 

Lasso on Tuesday survived an impeachment vote in parliament brought by opposition politicians blaming him for the "serious political crisis and internal commotion" caused by the strikes and protests. 

The protest instigator CONAIE is credited with unseating three presidents between 1997 and 2005.

"Only the struggle has allowed us to secure rights!" CONAIE wrote on Twitter on Thursday. "We have ... achieved measures to alleviate the economic situation, health and education of vulnerable rural and urban families."

More than a quarter of Ecuardorans live in poverty according to 2021 data, with price pressures on basic goods therefore a major issue for much of the population.

msh/jcg (AFP, AP, dpa)