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Keyword Title Author Strike paralyzes Ecuador Government to unveil economic plan Thursday March 10, 1999
Web posted at: 10:08 p.m. EDT (2208 GMT) In this story:
One dead, 19 injured in clashes
Rising prices spur unrest RELATED STORIES, SITES QUITO, Ecuador (CNN) A general strike largely shut down Ecuador Wednesday as the government hammered out the details of a plan to salvage the tattered economy. Protesters blocked provincial highways with rocks and trees, and police clashed with demonstrators in Ecuador's major cities, killing one person and injuring 19 on the first day of a nationwide strike over plans to raise taxes and freeze wages. Banks, markets and factories were closed, and the streets of Quito, the capital, were mostly deserted as bus drivers heeded the strike call. As police and the army worked to maintain public order, President Jamil Mahuad met with his Cabinet on a plan, to be unveiled Thursday, to attack the underlying problem: an economy that has been battered by persistently low oil prices, massive banana losses from the El Nino weather pattern and investor flight to the dollar that is helping to undermine Ecuador's currency, the sucre. | |
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