Protesters in Ecuador attacked a car carrying President Daniel Noboa, the latest demonstration of increasingly violent discontent against his government.
A minister said around 500 people threw rocks at Noboa’s motorcade, while reports suggested bullets may have been fired, too. Noboa faces a mounting array of challenges since securing reelection in April, with murder rates in once-peaceful Ecuador rising to among the highest globally, fueled in part by cocaine trafficking from neighboring Colombia.
In a bid to tame brewing unrest, Noboa recently walked back the scrapping of a fuel subsidy: The entitlement had been draining government coffers, but ending it sparked widespread anger amid cooling economic growth that has left millions struggling to get by.
