You seem to take as the starting point: “The protesters have blocked all the roads” and then all the injuries and deaths that happen after that are the government's (and military’s) problem.

That is just wrong. The starting point is when the indigenous say “We are going to close all the roads in the Province”. And if it was up to UNORCAC they would do it for the entire country. They should take at least some of the responsibility for what happens after they block the roads. After all - it is not difficult to predict that deaths and injuries will occur eventually. I predicted it - and I’m just a foreigner who doesn’t speak Spanish.

My argument about the true cost of closing the roads is not just about money at all. Look at all those reasons I list for why people are on the road. Here are a couple more that I did not list:

• A friend in Cotacachi (my age) could not go to his sister's funeral in Quito because of the funeral. How much is that worth?
• A friend slipped and fell and broke her collar bone the first day of this Paro. It was Wednesday before she was able to get through the blockades to get medical help. Another one of those “exceptions”?
• Another guy I helped in the last Paro of 2022 needed to get to Ibarra for his regular (life dependant) dialysis treatment. He had a medical conducto and a car but was told the conducto was fake. I helped him get gas for his motorcycle (by draining it from my car) so he could go that way. I never saw him again. Yet another one of those “exceptions”?
• The guy who wants to play pickleball? Life is short! We have a lot of fun playing pickleball and now he cannot play? How much is that worth?

There are 75,000 stories every week about the true cost of closing all these roads. There is no way anybody can really estimate it. Obviously - I think it costs a lot more than whatever benefit anybody gets out of it. In this last Paro I don't think there was any tangible benefit at all (something I also predicted from day 0 of the Paro).