Ecuador union, Indian groups plan more protests

QUITO, Ecuador, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Ecuador labor unions and Indian groups said on Monday they planned to intensify their protests of government-mandated hikes in transportation fares and fuel prices with marches and strikes in the next three weeks.

The National Confederation of Indians, or CONAIE, plans a nationwide march on Jan. 22 to mark the first anniversary of a coup, led by Indians and military officers, that overthrew former President Jamil Mahuad.

The Popular Front labor organization plans a national strike on Feb. 7 that would include the teachers' union, student groups, major workers' unions and several Indian organizations.

Demonstrations were also planned for this Sunday in honor of the one-year anniversary of Mahuad's fall.

The fresh protest plans come in response to a 75 percent hike in municipal bus fares and a 25 percent increase in the most widely used gasoline that were ordered by the government in December.

Last week, thousands of students and teachers took to the streets in cities across Ecuador to protest the price hikes.

Ecuador, an Andean nation of 12.4 million people, is struggling to recover from an economic crisis. It has annual inflation of 91 percent and an $11 billion government foreign-debt burden equivalent to more than 80 percent of GDP.

The government upped fuel prices to try to stabilize the 2001 budget, which relies heavily on selling oil at $20 a barrel internationally, and to comply with the requirements of the International Monetary Fund, with which Ecuador signed a $300 million standby agreement in April.

A local judge suspended the fuel price increase last week in response to demands by several social organizations. The government has said it will not recognize the judge's ruling until the nation's highest legal authority, the Constitutional Tribunal, decides on it.

"We don't agree with the increase in fares, gas, gasoline, and secondly, we demand that the government follow the judge's decision," Ricardo Ulcuando, CONAIE's vice president, told Reuters on Monday.