PROTESTERS in Ecuador have released 10 captured police officers after making them bear the coffin of an indigenous rights campaigner killed during the protests.

The country is still in uproar over the neoliberal “package” imposed by President Lenin Moreno, at the behest of the International Monetary Fund, which cuts fuel subsidies and attacks workers’ rights, for example by halving public-sector workers’ holiday entitlements.

The capital Quito remains in protesters’ hands, with the government having fled, and the 10 captured police officers were paraded before crowds before their release. Furious crowds are demanding Mr Moreno’s resignation after years of betraying his mandate — elected on a continuity platform as head of socialist former president Rafael Correa’s PAIS Alliance, he instead slashed public spending, realigned the country with the United States, drove Mr Correa into exile and purged the party, election regulators and judiciary of his opponents.

When demonstrations began after he announced the “package” last week, the president imposed a state of emergency, deploying soldiers to the streets and removing civic rights. At least five protesters have been killed in the ensuing violence, including indigenous leader Inocencio Tucumbi, whose coffin the detained police officers were made to carry in penance.

Mr Tucumbi’s son Gustavo tearfully told the crowds: “The indigenous people are here, a fighting people, a firm people. My father was one of them, fighting until the last. His is a tremendous story that the nation must listen to.”

The public ombudsman confirmed that Mr Tucumbi had died from brain trauma, possibly from the impact of a tear-gas canister fired at his head. However, Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo said he died in a fall.

Areas populated by indigenous peoples were among the first to mobilise against Mr Moreno, blocking roads across whole provinces and marching on the capital in force.

Mr Moreno is now pleading for talks, but indigenous activist Jaime Vargas said: “We are going to radicalise with more force.”

The president is declining to resign and has blamed protests on a plot by Mr Correa and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to overthrow him, without offering any evidence of such a plan.