Protests against Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso’s economic and environmental policies have spread from Quito to Cotopaxi, where Indigenous groups blocked a highway near the Chaski community on Monday night.

The leader of the country’s largest indigenous organization, Leonidas Iza, has been detained, Ecuador’s police said on Tuesday, after he led the blockades on several highways in protest against the government’s economic policies.

Iza’s lawyer called the detention illegal and said it was unclear what crime he is accused of.Demonstrators and social organizations are seeking 10 concessions from Lasso’s government, including a freeze on gasoline prices, a halt to additional mining and oil development, and an extension of the deadlines small farmers have to pay off their debts to banks.  

The mounds of earth and burning tires the groups used to block the highways are part of what they say will be indefinite protests against Lasso’s policies until concessions are made.

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