Ecuador's oil workers threaten to resume strike
An assembly in the oil-producing region of northeast Ecuador Sunday threatened to resume a general strike, which recently disrupted the country's vital oil industry,due to petroleum firms' refusal to ratify an agreement reached last week.

"It seems we'll have a new strike," said a spokesperson for the assembly in Orellana, one of the two provinces where protests started on Aug. 14 to demand improvements in infrastructure.

The assembly, headed by local officials of the provinces of Orellana and Sucumbios, accused the petroleum firms of "making fun" of the people in the region where crude is extracted.

The spokesperson said the assembly, aimed at "analyzing the situation, and quite likely, adopting other measures," will "ask the central government to force transnational petroleum companies to meet commitments made in the negotiations in Quito (last week)."

In the negotiations, the oil firms agreed that they will pave 260 km of roads within three years in the two provinces, and that about two-thirds of the 25-percent income tax they pay will be used for local health, environmental and development projects.

The central government and the authorities of Orellana and Sucumbios struck a deal to end the strike on Thursday, after reaching a preliminary agreement in these terms with the oil firms.

But the companies did not sign the accord as scheduled on Friday, sparking the threat to restart protests.

The strike in Orellana and Sucumbios was held to demand greater spending on infrastructure and social programs and forced the government to suspend the export and production of crude oil.

On Thursday, hours before the agreement was reached in Quito, the parliament lifted the state of emergency declared by the central government, which placed the two provinces under military control.

Ecuador is Latin America's fifth largest oil producer, with an output of 541,000 barrels of crude per day, of which 201,000 barrels are contributed by the state-run firm PETROECUADOR and the rest by foreign firms.