Ecuador’s president on Tuesday accused the Venezuelan drug gang Tren de Aragua of financing Indigenous fuel price protests that have rocked his country for days.

President Daniel Noboa earlier this month announced a cut in the fuel subsidy he said would save the state $1.1 billion.

The move saw the price of diesel soar from $1.80 to $2.80 per gallon (48 cents to 74 cents per liter) — a bitter pill in a country where nearly a third of the population is poor.

Hundreds of Indigenous Ecuadorans have come out in protest in defiance of a state of emergency declared by the president last week.

On Tuesday, Noboa claimed the protesters were “financed and surrounded by criminals from the Tren de Aragua.”

In a message on X, he posted photographs of several men behind bars, without clarifying who

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