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Protesters wanted oil firms to invest
more in local infrastructure |
A crippling strike in Ecuador's oil industry has come to an end after
protesters reached an agreement with the government and oil companies.
The oil firms promised to invest more money in local communities in the two provinces
most affected by the action.
The protesters had paralysed the oil industry and cost the government some
$400 million in lost revenue.
The protesters sought an increase the amount of oil revenue invested in the
region surrounding the oil fields.
The settlement came not a minute too soon.
With oil revenues accounting for about a third of total government income,
the state was on its way to bankruptcy.
The demonstrators agreed to call a halt to all industrial action after the
government and oil companies pledged to plough more money into health, education
and infrastructure in the principal oil producing provinces.
Apart from the economic costs of the strike, the government of Alfredo Palacio
feared for its very existence, and with good reason.
President Palacio took power in April, in what analysts have described as a
congressional coup, after ex-President Lucio Gutierrez was driven from power
by widespread protests.
