(21 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Quito, Ecuador – 21 February 2025
1. Renal patients with their families protesting outside the government palace
2. People protesting
3. Man holding a sign reading (Spanish) "Don’t take away our treatment"
4. Various of renal patients showing bandages from treatment
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Maria Sambueza, renal patient:
"I’ve been on dialysis for 14 years. We don’t want to die yet. We want to live until God gives us life. That’s why we ask the government to help us, to keep their word."
6. Gloria Bedoya shouting (Spanish) "Dialysis is life, we want to live"
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Gloria Bedoya, Renal Patient:
"The government must pay for the dialysis machines. If they don’t pay, we are going to die. Please. If we don’t get dialysis, we are going to die. We ask to live day by day; the machines are our life. All we ask is that the President has some compassion and pays."
8. Protest
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Efrain Velazco, dialysis clinic administrator:
"Since we don’t have the economic resources to buy medication and serums, we can’t treat our dialysis patients. We can’t pay the workers. They haven’t been paid for months and months."
10. Man holding a banner reading (Spanish) “In Ecuador, the indolent government allows the people to die.”
11. Protest
12. Woman holding an inflated medical glove with the phrase (Spanish) "We want to live"
STORYLINE:
Renal patients in Ecuador staged nationwide protests on Friday, demanding that the government pay what they described as overdue debts to dialysis clinics.
In Quito, dozens—many elderly—gathered in Plaza Grande outside Carondelet Palace, urging officials to address their concerns.
Some protesters bore fresh bandages from recent dialysis, warning that delayed treatment could be fatal.
Gloria Bedoya said her medication is being rationed due to funding shortages.
Others carried banners reading, "Dialysis is life, we want to live."
Patients say they have been without full government support for more than 16 months, leaving clinics struggling to provide care.
They fear further delays could lead to life-threatening shortages of medicine and treatment.
In Ecuador, renal patients are protected by law, and the government is compelled to cover the costs of their treatment and pay the bills of private institutions when the public health system is unable to meet the demand.
Similar demonstrations occurred in Guayaquil, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Quevedo, and Carchi.
The Health Ministry says it has paid dialysis centers about $4 million this year, including 37 centers in February.
AP video by Cesar Olmos
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